Eight

The world could have been falling down around us, and we probably would never have noticed. For there was a newly-minted 8-year-old to celebrate, and did we ever!

I tried to remember just how it had felt to make the step from 7 to 8 while losing my front teeth. Mother made the best and most delicious whipped cream cake ever, maybe the most exquisite taste ever known to man. It felt like a Day of days!

The SconeLady as a tyke

The birthday yesterday was (as he declared) the BEST EVER. He had been waiting simply ages for it to arrive. We two had personally discussed it ever since last February (his sister's birthday and therefore a harbinger of things to come). We had surveyed all sorts of fun Lego picture books that might be deemed appropriate to an 8. There were many, but the final choice wouldn't really matter in the end. Apparently Lego itself has achieved almost magical status, and any will do.

There were two, as it turned out. TWO! (oh the joy). One was a double-propped helicopter (seen below), and the other a police station. I had seen both during our discussions and yesterday both received an unequivocal shout of pure joy. He had already watched youtube videos of how to put them together (you should just see those videos), so there was a clear plan ready to be launched - immediately, if possible. His mother gently said, perhaps at home... so he waited, biding his time.

And there seemed to be such wonderful young people everywhere. The place was crawling with them - cheering, whooping, laughing - and swimming too, of course. All of the young people were swimming. Back flips were perfected, newly-learned dives on display, with the particularly strange flailing leap unique to the rather stunning son. 

What with the food, and the cake, the ice cream and the happy shouts, it was a real hum-dinger of a day. As one-by-one the crowds depleted, as the rather stunning son took his lady back toward the City, Grandpa and Grandma felt it was all a resounding success. They could see by the face of the boy on whose behalf we had gathered, that he thought so too.

It is lovely to have people gather on your behalf, isn't it? It always has been. Thinking back to that 8-year-old SconeLady reminded me of how it feels to wake up on the birthday morning knowing that all day long people will be thinking about you. They won't be mad at you but instead will pat your head and say how wonderful it is that you were Born. 

Late in the day, Mother indicated that the Lego helicopter could be assembled. But no one thought it would be assembled quite so quickly! Needing no help at all, step by step it was completed. Amazing. And you should have just seen his smile! 

It goes to show you how far a kid might get with just a few legos and a youtube video. Who knew? Not the SconeLady.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady