Happy Birthday, Madden!
One thing (of many things) that I love about my friend Amy’s son Madden is that whenever I ask him how he’s doing, he says, “Great!” The exclamation point is part of the quote - the excitement is there, in his voice, like life is good and he knows it. When I remember, I try to respond the way he does.
Madden turned six years old yesterday. Six - I can’t believe it! I mean, I remember being six years old myself, and now my friend has kid that age. I’ve seen Madden just about once a week, every week since the day he was born, so it’s not like he grew up while I wasn’t looking. I’ve been looking the whole time! Still, the other day we measured our feet against each other’s and I was shocked to see his feet are almost as big as mine. I remember the day he was born, and I take partial credit for his name, though Amy says I don't really deserve it. My version of the story goes like this: The baby was born and Amy's husband Eric called to tell me, and said they were choosing between two names. I said I liked the name Madden best, and look what name he ended up with. On the bookshelf beside my bed there’s a framed picture of Madden and me from our first meeting, a few days later. He’s wide-eyed, and he’s looking at me and holding his fist to his face, like he’s thinking hard about what to make of me.
These days I think Madden thinks I’m pretty cool. The fact that occasionally I bring along my supercool nephew Zach seems to increase my cachet. Here is Madden (far left) along with his brother Brody and Zach:
A few weeks ago, Madden and I had a debate about how he should answer the question, “What grade are you in?” He’d graduated from kindergarten, but won’t officially start first grade until September. Madden is an honest guy, and he didn’t want to mislead anyone. (Looking back, I may have tortured him just the tiniest little bit by pressing the question.) We never did settle on the correct answer because then it was time for cupcakes, and we got caught up in the vanilla versus chocolate debate: I like the cake part to be vanilla, Madden likes the cake part to be chocolate, and we agree icing should always be chocolate.
Recently I started working on series of books for young readers, and a bunch of Madden’s lines are in the book. (My favorite is - “I can wash my hands and dance at the same time!”). Madden is also excited because I told him he can be one of my test-readers. The thing about Madden is that he can read anything. I remember exactly when I realized this: I was typing an e-mail on my BlackBerry, something about dinner and a sushi restaurant, and Madden looked over my shoulder and read the words out loud. It was such an overwhelmingly proud moment for me. Sometimes I forget he’s Amy’s kid and not mine.
He may be a big reader, but he doesn’t read this blog. Still, happy, happy birthday, dear Madden. I wish you the best of everything. I love you so very much!
Madden turned six years old yesterday. Six - I can’t believe it! I mean, I remember being six years old myself, and now my friend has kid that age. I’ve seen Madden just about once a week, every week since the day he was born, so it’s not like he grew up while I wasn’t looking. I’ve been looking the whole time! Still, the other day we measured our feet against each other’s and I was shocked to see his feet are almost as big as mine. I remember the day he was born, and I take partial credit for his name, though Amy says I don't really deserve it. My version of the story goes like this: The baby was born and Amy's husband Eric called to tell me, and said they were choosing between two names. I said I liked the name Madden best, and look what name he ended up with. On the bookshelf beside my bed there’s a framed picture of Madden and me from our first meeting, a few days later. He’s wide-eyed, and he’s looking at me and holding his fist to his face, like he’s thinking hard about what to make of me.
These days I think Madden thinks I’m pretty cool. The fact that occasionally I bring along my supercool nephew Zach seems to increase my cachet. Here is Madden (far left) along with his brother Brody and Zach:
A few weeks ago, Madden and I had a debate about how he should answer the question, “What grade are you in?” He’d graduated from kindergarten, but won’t officially start first grade until September. Madden is an honest guy, and he didn’t want to mislead anyone. (Looking back, I may have tortured him just the tiniest little bit by pressing the question.) We never did settle on the correct answer because then it was time for cupcakes, and we got caught up in the vanilla versus chocolate debate: I like the cake part to be vanilla, Madden likes the cake part to be chocolate, and we agree icing should always be chocolate.
Recently I started working on series of books for young readers, and a bunch of Madden’s lines are in the book. (My favorite is - “I can wash my hands and dance at the same time!”). Madden is also excited because I told him he can be one of my test-readers. The thing about Madden is that he can read anything. I remember exactly when I realized this: I was typing an e-mail on my BlackBerry, something about dinner and a sushi restaurant, and Madden looked over my shoulder and read the words out loud. It was such an overwhelmingly proud moment for me. Sometimes I forget he’s Amy’s kid and not mine.
He may be a big reader, but he doesn’t read this blog. Still, happy, happy birthday, dear Madden. I wish you the best of everything. I love you so very much!