I heard my son say “goodnight” from the doorway without being prompted

Dear Delyara, He is at that age now where every small softness feels like a gift. He came to the door, said it quickly in that embarrassed half-man voice boys get when they still want connection but don’t want to be caught needing it too visibly, and left before I could make too much of the moment. It lasted two seconds. I carried it like treasure. That is motherhood with older children, I think. Not constant closeness. Fragments. Glimpses. Tiny acts of still-being-let-in. And because they are rarer now, they land harder.