"Okay, Buddy, okay. One last thing before bedtime."
Sam set Little Dean on his wobbly legs with his back against the door frame between kitchen and dining room. He crouched next to him and with one hand he kept the newly one-year-old supported upright and with the other he traced a line across the wood over the top of his head with a permanent marker. Next to the line he wrote, '1 year old.'
"Okay, all done, Birthday Boy. Your first height on your first birthday." He scooped Dean up in his arms. "See here?" Sam pointed to a high spot on the door frame, near the top of his own head. Dean looked to where he pointed. "You'll be here, soon. Too soon. You'll be as tall as your old man, one of these days."
Eileen walked up beside them. "Did you give him his bath?" she asked, signing as she talked. "You want to help me put him to bed?"
"Yeah, yeah, I will," Sam said. He paused though, reaching up again to rub his thumb over a spot on the door frame.
"You know what," Eileen said. "Could you put him to bed? There's one more thing I need to do."
"Okay."
Sam carried Dean to his nursery, but held him still a little while before putting him into his crib.
"When I turned one, your Uncle Dean was already five and a half. It was already just him and me and Dad by then. I don't remember it, my first birthday, and the story changed over the years depending on how much Uncle Dean wanted to embarrass me. If he was here, though, he'd love you so much I might never get a chance to even hold you."
He set Dean into the crib, tucked him in with his stuffed toy squirrel, and kissed his forehead.
"I wish he was here, though."
He headed to the front room and Eileen, then remembered he still had the marker in his pocket, and he made a detour to the kitchen. More markings on the door frame caught his attention.
There, way at the top, was a line drawn across, marked 'Daddy.' Much lower down, near his shoulder was another line, marked 'Mommy.'
Then, higher up, in just the right spot near his own mark, there was one more height line drawn. 'Uncle Dean.'
Sam turned and Eileen was there and Sam grabbed her in a hug and held on a very long time.