My Son's First Valentine

Luckily he can't yet read or else he'd die of embarrassment. This morning my five-and- a-half-year-old kindergartener capered into my room singing his version of Gnarls Barkley's, "You Make Me Craaaazy." That wasn't the unusual part. The unusual part was that for the first time in his young life he told me this:
"Daddy, guess what? I know who I'm gonna marry."
Up until recently the answer would have been his eight-year-old sister.
"Who."
"I can't tell you."
"Then why did you come in here?"
"O.K. I'll tell you....A girl named A____. I love her."
I smiled. I remembered A______. Her twin brother is in my son's kindergarten class. Not only is A______ much cuter than even your average cute five-year-old, her mom ain't half bad either. A______ was always shouting very animated "Hi"s and "Bye"s at my son and it had actually crossed my mind that she and he would make a very cute little couple.
He skittered back out of the room before I could lay on him the first of my many involved treatises on the nature of love.
My heart swelled too big for my body. He's the second born and I've been raising them myself since he was eight months old. Unlike his big sister, there are so many of his firsts that I was too busy to have dwelled on: When he first walked. When he first spoke. Often, raising them both has seemed more like a race than a journey. But this moment -- the first time that his heart felt that certain way -- I will remember forever.

--Trey Ellis