Four

Once upon a time there was a mama and a papa who, one year when spring was early and the trees were thick with leaves and the sky thick with crows, and the garden thick with bees, gave birth. On May 15th in a sunny yellow living room their daughter, a squinting against the sun seven pound girl named Echo, was born.

Many long days and a few short years filled with warm skin, mother's milk, Montana winters, and summer rivers later, that sweet little two braids swinging, big eyes shining girl turned four. She stretched her brown legs long, rubbed her little feet against the blue of the sheets and before her eyes were fully opened, her mama said: Happy Birthday. Echo smiled dreamily: Oh! Well, when the time comes, Happy Birthday to you too! And so the day began. It was charmed from the start, and made better by a surprise hamster, homemade signs from older sisters, shared sister presents, a new backyard swing, birthday cake with flowers and a homemade unicorn, flower crafts with glitter, a tiara with matching earrings, ten adoring friends and swooning parents, goody bags, a late afternoon stroll, and phone calls with family.

A word to describe Echo on the momentous day: chipper.

Noteworthy changes Echo declared: she was heavier and faster with the changing of the number, she might use less baby talk, and might want to be carried less.

Nighttime found mama and Echo snuggled tight, the larger drowzy and content, the smaller chatty and effervescent. Tired mama sang Happy Birthday all the ways she knew how. In Spanish, in imitation of the singing birthday cupcake, finally resting with:

Happy Birthday to you

you live in a zoo.

You look like a monkey,

and you smell like one too.

sung in her most lullaby-like tone. Slowed down like a walkman running out of batteries, and alternating, in tribute to Grandpa, with:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my have a Happy Birthday
Plenty of sunshine heading your way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Happy Birthday

until eyelids closed, and a cheek rested on those same blue sheets.

Mama slipped out of bed, and with toys covering the floor space of every bedroom, a hamster running happily around in a wheel, a mostly eaten chocolate cake sitting on the counter, dishes of every sort filling the sink, and glitter sparkling from every oblique angle, she sat at the table to fold and twist. It wasn't that she hadn't made enough of the tissue paper flowers as part of the birthday craft, with every child needing help twisting and teasing she had made her fair share, it was that she didn't want it to be over. The birthday day, the day to celebrate her favorite human being.

She just loves her so much. So fiercely, purely, happily, and thankfully. So the mama sat and she selected ruby reds, pinks, and purples, and stacked and folded and twisted until she had enough. Until she had milked every drop of sun from the sky, and had turned over every moment of the day. Until she felt that she could let it go, let it be the day that already happened.

That beautiful day when her girl turned four.

4 Comments

How moving - happy birthday to echo and happy happy to you!

Posted by: alyssa | 05/16/2011 at 08:09 PM

Aw - so sweet. I remember when you guys came in the store with a tiny tiny Echo. I didn't even know you then, not that I know you that well now, but I am happy to celebrate an amazing 4 year old in the same year as you and love that there is another awesome human in the world that I get to see grow up, even if it is mostly on a blog. ;)

Posted by: Erika | 05/16/2011 at 09:11 PM