Happy birthday Luke

Today is my godson Luke's 5th birthday. I called him earlier to wish him a happy birthday and it served as a reminder why I love kids, especially him, so much.

His mum answered the phone and put him on. He didn't leave me time to say happy birthday before launching into an explanation of what his sister got him--She got me this transformer and it's half dinosaur and half transformer and um half transformer and half dinosaur and it does this and it goes and it needs batteries so Daddy got some for me and there's another one that doesn't need batteries and ...--. Notice the lack of punctuation in that sentence? That's because he said the whole thing on one breath. I suspect he had the transformer in question in his hands while he was talking because he kept referring saying things like see it does this etc.

I asked him--Did you go to school today?--Yes--Do you like school?--short silence--What do you like best about school?--Lunch time when you can do whatever you want to do and you don't have to be in the classroom and not do naughty things--. I resisted the urge to ask if he is in the habit of doing naughty things.

What are you doing today?--Right now?--Yes--I've been painting today--. There was a clunk as I heard him run off and yell out Mummy guess what Daniel's painting right now Mummy guess what Daddy guess what Daniel's painting. He came back--What colour are you using?--Blue and grey; I'm painting a dolphin--Oh cool--. Another clunk. After a brief silence I heard his father say Luke, you can't play on the computer chair when you're on the phone! You end up dropping the phone when you do! Luke came back on the line--I'm going now so I'll give the phone to Daddy--silence--.

That was my first real phone conversation with him. He's so painfully shy that all previous attempts were little more than me talking and him nodding mutely on the other end.

Although he will never read this, I'll say it anyway: Happy Birthday Luke, I love you.