The easy answer

The time has come. The time that I mistakenly thought all of Rhys' childhood would resemble, from birth to college. He is reaching a sort of discovery stride. It's impossible to keep up with. Each day he has some new revelation, some fresh charm at his command. He hardly even seems to recognize it for what it is. He's just rolling along, making all the magic happen.

Rachel and I are daily stunned and amazed.

To wit, the night before last Rhys asked me a question: "Are you happy, Sean?"

"Yes Rhys, I am."

The next morning, he was coming down the stairs with Mommy, barely awake, and again, "Are you happy, Sean?"

"Yes, I am."

We regularly ask him if he is "having feelings." Like, when he's hitting the dog, or throwing things at mirrors, or inconsolable because a pillow on the couch moved. So, his emotional lexicon is ever growing. 

He was just casually checking in on me, to make sure, you know, that I was happy.

Last night as I was putting him to bed I explained that we all have names, and that while my name is Sean, like his is Rhys, I am also his Daddy.

Silly, but I didn't want to be too soon deprived of the one person in the world who can call me that without some awkwardness. Bourgeois standards can be resisted to a degree, I guess. 

Then, last night, as I was putting him to sleep, he was calling me Sean again. I told him that it was fine, he could call me whatever he wanted to, either Daddy or Sean would be fine.

I explained that Mommy's name is Rachel. He said her name over and over and over. You could see him latching onto this new word as being an important component of Mommy.

"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel" in his rough beginner's way.  Mommy has a name! 

She came in and reminded him gently that he could call her Mommy.

They might be bourgeois, but they are still standards.

These things are, of course, nearly meaningless outside of our little inner world. Just daily occurrences that others might show no surprise at all towards. 

But it had been some time since anybody other than myself had asked. 

It's a good question.

The easy answer is yes, yes I am.

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