Parental pride

If the future of your DNA is not tied to Seb and Sophie thriving, then feel free not to read this post. But if it is, or you don't mind friends bragging about their kids, read on.

I had two lovely compliments about Sebastian today. The first was when I dropped by his gym class at the community centre. Alice takes him on a Thursday morning, and today she also juggled Sophie too (who is signed up to "participate" in January). Seb really wanted me to see him in action. Unfortunately, I missed the time on the equipment but got to see them all lifting and spinning and singing with the "parachute" (a big circular piece of fabric with handles). Afterwards, the course instructor came over and asked if Seb had done gym before. No, I said, but he loves it. Well, she replied, he is really good at it and follows instructions perfectly. Oh gee whiz, shucks, thanks, I said - or something like that.

Later, I picked him up after school. Despite being 6 minutes late, Mme Salmon did not give me an exasperated look and sigh. Instead, she engaged me in conversation about the bonhomme, remarking that he talks non-stop (roll eyes), mostly in French, and where would they be without chatty Seb in the class? But what really warmed my heart (and hence the bragging blogpost) was that she noted that everything interests Sebastian; he is excited by it all and wants to know more. And it's true. He hasn't met a superhero, ballet, force of nature, food group, sport, political party that he doesn't want to know more about/try/etc. That in my mind is one of the best compliments you can give a parent of an almost 5 year old. It's like the time the French doctor who saw Seb at 9 months said that he was "un bebe eveille" - an alert baby. You just get an internal glow and beam at your progeny and the complimenter (and then you slip them a fiver).