Three Candles

Today my baby turned three.

Three Candles

We had dinosaur cake because of course we did, and he made his wish with the kind of fierce concentration that only toddlers possess. When I asked him what he wished for, he looked at me like I was dense and said “A real T-Rex, Mama. Obviously.”

Three years old and he still believes in magic. He doesn’t know about mortgage payments or sleepless nights or the way your heart can break and mend seventeen times before breakfast. He just knows that birthdays mean cake and that somewhere out there, maybe his dinosaur is waiting.

I blew out my own invisible candles tonight after he went to bed. My wish was simpler than his but just as impossible - for time to slow down, for him to stay this pure and joyful and convinced that the world will give him everything he asks for. At least for a little while longer.