Our other baby is five

Five years ago at this very moment, on a sunny day very similar to today, I was in a different hospital bed, in a state approximately 12 hours from our families. To this day, I feel guilty about my reaction to the news of Will's imminent arrival. At two days shy of five weeks early, I was pretty much scared out of my mind. Rationally, of course, I knew that babies born at this point have a very, very high likelihood of being just fine but a woman in labor is nothing if not irrational. I felt, somehow, like I was watching someone else have a baby.

But before I really knew what was happening, he was there, screaming from the first second they got him out. All 6 pounds and 7 ounces of him, alert and perfectly fine. He seemed to be perfectly at ease with life outside the womb from his very first breaths. He seemed to know what he was doing. So I started to follow his lead, confident that this crazy boy was going to be fine.

I should have known at that point that all that was really required of me was to sit down and hang on for dear life, because that's exactly what parenting Will is like. I chuckle to myself when people describe their kids as "spunky" or "spirited" or "strong-willed." Will is those things taken to their logical (and oftentimes illogical) extreme. He does not deal in the gray areas of life, preferring to see only black and white. He's persistent (oh my god, is he persistent) and argumentative and so incredibly perceptive and observant that sometimes it's frightening. He doesn't think like other kids. He never has and most likely never will. He knows exactly who he is and what he likes and what he wants. Really, we should all be so lucky.

And while this may sound like complaining, I am so very proud of this incredibly complex little being we're raising. Whereas Baby Sister makes parenting easy, Big Brother makes us work for it. Hard. Every single day. He's completely changed the way we think about parenting, the way we see others as parents, how judgmental (or non-judgmental, rather) we are toward other parents and families.

Will is never going to be the most well-behaved kid, nor will he ever be completely compliant and accepting. He has to find things out for himself, regardless of how many times he hears something from us. He probably won't win any awards for his self-control or his patience, but he can most certainly ask you questions and formulate his own answers well enough that it makes your head spin. Honestly, it can be a little unsettling to try to parent a five-year-old who's very often right.

Whatever Will does and however he arrives at doing it, I'm just glad to be along for the ride. I'm reminded every day of some of the more difficult kids I taught. Because those kids? The ones who drove me crazy and made me  question my decision to become a teacher every single day? They're the ones I'm being proudest of now, because every single achievement and accomplishment was so hard-fought.

I know, in my very bones, that Will is going to do something great with his life. He will change the world somehow, if even in a small way, just like he's changed our world. Because that's just how he rolls.

Happy 5th birthday, crazy boy! We love you!