The Best Birthday Present Ever

I know I sound like a broken record, but this week was another tough one at the magic factory. Instead of eating a pre-birthday dinner with Diana last night I sat hunched over my computer at my very non-celebratory office until I was the last one there.

I tossed and turned and didn’t sleep very well and woke up in a funk this morning. Diana surprised me with a plate of muffins and a kiss, but I was distracted and kind of blue. Di offered to take Grover out for his morning constitutional, so I carried Elijah upstairs and let him crawl around our bedroom floor while I got dressed.

Occasionally the weight of working in such a high stress environment just gets too heavy. Which is almost too stupid to type. It’s not brain surgery or the peace process. It’s making pretty pieces of paper for meetings. But sometimes the pretty pieces of paper start to consume my every thought and I get funked. And this morning I was in a grand funk. So much so that I simply sat at the edge of our bed and put my head in my hands. Oh boo hoo, the overpaid wordsmith was sad. What can I say? I’d had enough.

Out of the corner of my ear I heard the scrunch scrunch of Eli crawling on the carpet. He arrived at my knees and did his arm-raising “up” pantomime. I hoisted him onto my knee and he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. I didn’t have to pin him down and get a hug. Nor did I have to trick him into it.

It was a pure, selfless gesture on Eli’s part. Man, I love that kid.

I arrived at work today and cancelled my afternoon meetings. I’m going to go to the Cub game instead.

It’s going to be a good birthday.

p.s. Grover ate all the muffins while our backs were turned.