Summer is here and my son is now six.
Yesterday was his birthday, as well as the final day of school and kindergarten graduation, which meant steady bursts of buzzed emotion for the four of us, all throughout the day.
Max is extraordinary. Though describing his incredible qualities would be difficult without the benefit of seeing his gorgeous green eyes dance, my sister’s description is lovely:
“He’s like the magical boy in the movies who comes to town and changes everyone’s life for the better.”
He is delightful, generous, and entertaining, but rascally enough to let the world know he is a boy and definitely not broken. Different enough from his sister to assure me nature and nurture are hard at work, though perhaps on different floors of the factory.
When told she could have anything she wanted for her birthday dinner, Mia went with lobster. For Max, it was, “plain pasta, if it’s not too much trouble, Mom.”
Yesterday was close to a perfect day. Max shared both birth date and celebration with a good friend from a great family, and it seemed all of kindergarten gathered at the park to sing Happy Birthday and bid farewell for the summer.
Max also left his Kinder campus with a perfect report card.
Perfect grades, perfect conduct and an end of First Grade benchmark in reading and writing. Considering his learning day is in another language, I admit to feeling twice as proud.
Max started his Kindergarten year keen to learn, but tentative, shy and not quite as ready for a Spanish school day as his sister was. And though it may have taken him longer to heat up, his fire ended up burning every bit as hot.
His teacher wrote this on his report card:
Max has done an outstanding job in Kindergarten. He is always working hard and putting all his efforts into his work. He is reading end of First Grade and I am very proud of him. He is also a fabulous writer and mathematician. He always has great stories to share with me and the class. He is a great translator and leader in class. I am very proud of all his accomplishments this year. I will really truly miss him.
Max has changed a lot this last year. The slow and lingering side of me that likes to sip my coffee and chew my food slowly, is loathe to see him grow up, up and away. But the other side, the one quickly swallowing coffee to caffeinate my day, is eager to see the man Max will soon become.
Happy birthday, buddy. You are the finest son a father could have. I am forever fortunate to have felt your tiny hand grow larger in mine, a day at a time.
I love you,
Daddy (and Mommy too)
About Sean Platt
Happy Birthday Max! I can't wait to hear about all the adventures you'll have in life.
A very happy birthday to Max.
Happy birthday and kudos to Max (and to his proud parents)!
Ayoh, a great story about your boyo! Happy Cake Day Max, with many more to come, and congrats on your excellant year.
Kudos to Mom and Dad too!
Hi Sean .. what a fantastic tribute to the kids .. isn't amazing how they are so different – lovely that you're there to see it happen and appreciate the process. Have a great summer .. but why a Spanish school?! Fantastic opportunity for them & I think it's great that they are both learning a 2nd language .. or a first language .. who knows .. Happy days .. Hilary
He is a joy and a bundle of rascally energy, with that mischievous twinkle in the eye that is definitely hereditary. I can't believe that he is already six! I still carry the family photo in my wallet where he is this little fat baby face, not yet a little boy. He is everything you would want your son to be….smart, playful, good hearted and polite but rascally enough to keep life interesting. Those little girls will be lining up…..watch out, dad!!! Grammy is very proud of him and send him a big “GWOW” (a very special monster noise that he requests me to make for him) xoxo
Thanks Tracy!
Max is too drunk on a kindergarten class worth of presents, but if he wasn't in a stupor, I'm sure he'd say that he can't wait to tell you all about them.
Thanks, PJ.
And a happy Father's Day to you!
Thanks, Lori!
He totally earned it. He is a hard working kid.
Happy Saturday!
Thanks, Trina!
His teacher's comment made me all weepy. So I had to share. :)
Yeah, they aren't really night and day so much as dusk and dawn. There is a LOT of overlap. But that's what makes it so wonderful.
We live in California, so half of the population is fluent in Spanish. We think it's smart to give a child a second language, while making sure the school day is challenging, Spanish seemed the best way to accomplish both.
Happy weekend!
He is indeed. While I can see myself in him, of course, I was just never that cute. He really is so awesome. He's hard to write about, though. No conflict. :)
I just saw “Max is too drunk” in my email preview and was about to call CPS
on you!
BTW – future Writer Dad post – how young is too young for Eminem? It's
really hard to get rocking in my minivan when I have to worry about small
children with big ears!
That's a GREAT post idea!!!
I want to hug it!
I ask myself this question all the time, plus it can make a GREAT headline.
On the list, thanks. And Max says cheers. At least I think he said cheers. He hiccuped right in the middle.
We should do point/counterpoint!
I'm always screwing up and putting songs on my mixlist that kids don't need
to be singing in school. It's very hard to explain to a two year old that he
didn't come straight out of Compton.
Two year olds are so literal.
A point – counterpoint would be a good feature!
Hi Sean .. thanks .. that makes sense – and your logic for getting them to have a 2nd language .. makes absolute sense .. do either of you speak Spanish? And it'll make the learning of a 3rd language easier too.. thank you .. have a great week and summer ahead .. Hilary
I speak terrible sounding broken Spanish, which is slightly better than Cindy's. We are both working hard to catch up to our children, though. And we plan to absorb a lot this summer. I would love to call myself fluent a year from now.
Wow, all of the sudden I'm pining for my son to reach school age! Bring on the successes, the failures and the sack lunches.
All three are great, but the sack lunches end on Thursday. Pizza is served in the cafeteria every Friday and Daddy just can't compete with that!
I've got a 10 year old son, a 7 year old daughter, and a 5 year old daughter. It doesn't get any easier the older they get…..and it's harder to explain to them why you're crying! Thanks for sharing that story.
My pleasure, man! You have a triple threat!
How do you like having you son as the oldest? Is he nice to the girls?
Fantastic post – inspirational in fact. All the more poignant as I have a wee Max of my own.