Sean has marched to the beat of his own drum since the moment he was born. During delivery, I pushed once at the doctor’s instructions. She turned around to do something, but Sean just kept on coming out. He was my “one push” baby. I remember the look that he had on his face when the doctor first looked at me. It was a “Why are all of these people bothering me?” type of expression and I have seen it many times since!
Sean is what we call “an old soul”. If I believed in reincarnation, I would definitely think that he had been around this world before a time or two. When he was a baby, he would reserve his smiles and laughter primarily for when just the four of us were home alone. He really observed and studied people before letting them enter his inner circle. It was quite amazing to observe how good a judge of character his little self was!
I have always believed that personality is a combination of nature and nurture. Sean confirms that for me. He is by nature an introvert. He is perfectly fine being alone…to entertain his creative self. In fact, he actually prefers to be alone at times. However, over the years he has changed so much…in part because he is a member of this particular family. We are very active in our church, community and such. We have a variety of people over at our home and we take our kids with us when we go out a lot. Now, Sean is a “social” introvert. He has fun with crowds and shares his affections with many. However, he still prefers to be just with our immediate family and he needs breaks from constant outside interaction.
There is so much that I could write about my Seany. He’s the one whom I have to be careful not to “spoil”. It really is hard because he’s the smallest thing in the house and he’s a natural charmer. As he went to half-day pre-k this year, I was initially concerned with how he would adapt. (You can never predict how a kid will do in their first consistent group care setting.) I didn’t need to be concerned though. Sean’s teachers love him. “He’s the best boy,” his teacher gushed at the parent teacher conference, “I have been teaching for 5 years and he is the best little boy that I have ever taught!” Now, hopefully she is telling all of the other parents that about their sons too, but I happen to agree…Sean really is the best boy! (Of course, Michael is too…and so are all of the other little boys that I know. “Best” is not a comparison term in my mind…it just means that someone else recognizes how awesome my little one is!)
In any event, we will have to change our nightly routine tonight. I usually tell Michael and Sean that they are my favorite 4 and 7 year olds in the universe. Now, it will be my favorite 5 and 7 year olds. Sniff. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN! I am so happy that you are my baby boy!