Metamorphosis

Muffin turns 4 today. Two days ago, Jordan asked me when we stopped being cute. When prodded further, she elaborated; Muffin was a very cute baby, but now, he isn't so cute anymore and he is grown up.

Part of me laughed but the other part of me was sad.

It's official, my youngest has indeed grown up and is no longer a baby, like his sister said.

I should have seen this coming. The signs were for the picking. It was most obvious in how he played or who he played.

At 2, he was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He ate leaves, he got a stomachache, he built a cocoon/ chrysalis around himself and out popped a butterfly.

At 3, he became a lion. A large, courageous and fierce one that roared when he felt threatened but never showed his fear. He was the King of the Lions.

On the brink of turning 4, his world is no longer black and white, good or bad. He understands fear. He understands shades. He knows to look beyond the obvious. He is now Darth Vader whom he knows was bad but he also claims was good because at the very end, Darth Vader redeemed himself. He understands the idea of sacrifice and redemption even if he doesn't have the words for it. 

Perhaps it is because he has Evan and Jordan but he really has grown up very quickly. In the moments that he clings to my leg or buries his face in Packrat's shoulder because he's shy, I am reminded that he's just a baby. But when he regales tales of galaxies far away or explains volcanic eruptions spewing 'huge chunks of lava', I look around me and wonder where my little one has gone to and when did this small adult take his place?

Happy Birthday to our littlest. You will always be our Muffin.