I owe this boy. This summer, he filled the big brother shoes that had been given to him. I had ordered them just a little too big.
But this summer, he wore those shoes much more often. When I would yell across the yard to grab Hugo before he ran into the street, Oscar was on it. He pulled double duty pushing kids on the swings and he learned to wrangle and move little bodies from house to car seats AND buckle them in. None of it was ever the most graceful but when is it ever graceful?
And there was this day, the day I needed to get the house ready before my clients arrived. Children make ridiculous messes. The babies were refusing to nap and had just learned to open doors (with remarkable confidence, I might add). And this kid, he sat at that door for nearly 40 minutes. If the babies tried to leave the room, Oscar held the door knob. When they were away from the door, he relaxed. It felt stressful to me. He made it all better.
And then today, he went and left me for fifth grade and I miss him.