4:23 am

I heard his white door decorations swoosh, his door close, his feet pad up the wooden stairs and then our door creaked open. I knew, without conscious knowing, what was going on. I was so touched; I was so tired.

"Happy Mother's Day! I have something for you," he whispered.

"I'll look at it when it's morning, honey. Please come sleep a little more," I begged.

His excitement was palpable. "Guess what it is." he commanded.

"A card?"

I had already been instructed a few hundred times since Friday not to look under his pillow. I had given instructions a few hundred times that, no, I did not want to see it now, I wanted to be surprised on Mother's Day.

4:23 am - Surprise!

"Yep, a Happy Mother's Day card," he declared.

He snuggled his head up under my chin, threw a leg across me and stated "I love you so much, Mom."

Oh my boy.

He tossed, he turned, he sniffled, he coughed and he kept talk/whispering all the way to 4:58 when I couldn't stand it anymore and we got up for blueberry cereal together in the dark of night.

Happy Mother's Day - a basket of flowers on front with his purple handprint inside.

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.

But everyday I'm growing -
I'll be grown up someday
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

Love, LucsLee