Emilio's Birthday

Emilio turned 5 today. Wow! Where did that time go?

My little man who has brought so much joy into this world it’s hard to imagine what life was like without him, who sometimes calls me ‘dada’ and melts my heart, who copies the silly things I say and always laughs afterwards, who laughs uncontrollably at the most ridiculous things, who has a heart bigger than his little body can possibly contain, who holds my (right) hand so tightly whenever he’s by my side, who looks up to me physically and emotionally, who makes me try to be a better daddy every single day, who lights a room with his presence, who sings like no one is listening, who dance like no one is watching, who concentrates so hard sometimes his little tongue pops out of the side of his mouth, who forces so much spaghetti into his mouth that his eyes water, who went through a stage of only wanting yellow food, who still would probably prefer to only eat yellow food, who can’t be bribed to try anything he does’t like the look of, who has watched hours of Fireman Sam and never got bored when the same ones came on, who gets so excited when he sees a fire engine, who surprises everyone with his flashes of genius, who has people in stitches with his wonderful humour, who lets out wind when you hold his leg up and tickle him, who loves life and all it brings him, who enthuses about everything, who gets complete pleasure out of seeing the moon, who stares in awe at a beautiful sunset, who got a hole-in-one at crazy golf and promptly shouted ‘yay, I’ve got mad skills’, who I could write a thousand more ‘and who’s’ about, and who still finishes almost every phone call with the words ‘I love you, I’m your shadow, bye’.

Where did that time go? Into creating the most wonderful memories: Into photos and pictures and videos and moments that will never leave anyone whose life he has so far touched.

Happy birthday little man. I love you more than you will ever know.