Missing Gabriel

Two of my best friends, Shara and her soon-to-be three year old son, Gabriel, are moving to L.A. later this week. This is bittersweet, for Shara is moving on to a wonderful job opportunity, but I will miss them.

Yesterday I spent the day with Gabriel while Shara borrowed my van to move boxes out of her storage. I sent out resumes while Gabriel watched Shark Tales, then we set off to Little Farm in Tilden Park, his favorite place in the world. There he can see pigs, feed goats and sheep and pet cows. We wandered around the farm and a bit into the park; I photographed him and he posed. After that I took him for a chocolate ice cream cone, then home to where he wanted to watch Shark Tales again. In other words, it was a last chance to spoil him rotten before he and Shara moved to L.A., and I took full advantage of it. A couple days before this I gave him an early birthday gift, a Thomas the train video that also came with a train car. "Bertie!" Gabriel cried delighted when he saw it - all these anthropomrophized trains have names, and all the kids know them. (Marketing genius - this toy manufacturer has come up with a way for boys to play with dolls without the stigma.)


Anyway, Shara called me this morning and said Gabriel woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to watch the Thomas the Train video I had bought for him. (It had all his favorite episodes that he had come to love while watching On Demand cable at my place.) She told him it was dark and time to sleep, but he could watch it once it was light. Apparently, he clutched it all night long, even into sleep, and at the crack of dawn he woke Shara up, saying, "Mommy, it's light! Can I watch Thomas now?" Given his restraint until the dawn, of course she let him. Who else can I give a gift to and have it so appreciated?


A couple hours later, Shara was dropping Gabriel off at school. She told him it would be his last week at school. He understood he would not see these friends anymore. He said, "Will you always play with me, Mommy?" Shara assured him she would always, always be with him. She told him that his daddy would visit him, and his grandmas and Deborah (me), and that he could visit us. Gabriel immediately proclaimed, "I like Deborah!" How can you not love that? So, of course, I am already missing Gabriel.