I’m going to tell you a secret

Cone bras aside, Madonna and I have a lot in common.  We both got married for the wrong reasons, have two biological children and apart from both of us being able to lip-sync Vogue, we had the same size cheekbones (at least for a week anyway).

See, my sons both have block cement heads.  We were playing roughly the other day with plastic light sabres, raising welts on my legs with sneaky jabs.  Playing came grinding to a halt when mini-cement head cracked into my cheekbone, raising it immediately.

I kind of liked the look, minus the lilac hue, however, it was painful.  At least my lump lasted only a week -” Madonna has to surgically remove her overdone boulders under her eyes to make her look less like Joceyln Wildenstein.

Perhaps that was the premise in I’m Going to Tell You a Secret’ from a few years back -”  two parts Kabbalah, one part cheekbone implant preparation.

My eldest mini-man often wants to tell me a secret. The cheeky look in his eyes, he beckons me down to his head level so he can whisper to me.  With a loud breath and his little lips touching the inside of my ear, a slightly too loud voice utters I love you dad.

My smile and wince waiting for a perforated eardrum turns immediately into a moist-eyed gasp as I reciprocate his little secret.

My youngest then bounds over and emulates his brother, the same returned.

That was a few months ago.  Now they are asking for treats and telling me gossip through this now preferred method of communication.  Almost gone are the love notes said in a whisper.

With every day a child grows, a parent has to relinquish something.  When they crawled, you loved the way they zoomed across the floor. When they walked, you loved the determinated look on their faces and their efforts to get to a destination.  When they talked you loved the new meanings words took -” -˜sprinkles’ equals -˜facial hair’ -” giving way to complete conversations.

All at once, sometimes you feel you have lost your little one, only to rapidly give way to a bigger version with improved everything.

The secret to all of this -” you have to really savour each moment of every single day.  Life is just way too short.