Download wordart hereI know that at some point in your life you've read the Robert Fulghum essay Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and I am here to tell you that it's true. It's really true! I just didn't realize that I would learn things after 800 years of teaching or that the lessons would be taught to me by a tiny little 5 year old boy.
Sebastian isn't shy and we have some very interesting conversations. The most interesting ones seem to take place in the bathroom. I'm not sure why, but the kid gets very talkative in the bathroom.
There are days when our bathroom conversations are the only reason I smile. There are also days, like today, when the conversation is just so awesome it makes me want to cry.
I could put together an entire very inspiring and hilarious book of our talks. You know, kind of like Tuesdays with Morrie but I would call mine Bathroom Conversations With a Five Year Old Super Hero. It would be a best seller too! Of course, his poor mom would be really embarrassed by some of the funnier conversations and she would probably need to change her name, dye her hair and move to another country. lol!
Sometimes, Sebastian sums up the conversation with a final statement. For some reason, he especially likes to do this after the more awkward talks. It's kind of like the final thoughts segment on the Jerry Springer show. lol!
On Tuesday, he ended the conversation by saying, "Now, if you ever have a little boy, you know why you need to buy him floaties."
On Wednesday I was wheeling Sebastian into the bathroom and he decided to start playing the copycat game. You know, the annoying game where you repeat everything someone says. Once I caught on to what he was doing I decided to try and get him to say things like "I want to give Ms. Brown all my money." Instead, he said, "I don't have any money." lol!
After he copied me a couple more times I threw out a quick, "Ms. Brown is the prettiest." Sebastian responded by asking, "Do you always want to be the prettiest?"
Now, I know that as a semi responsible adult I should have told him that beauty isn't important and that it's what is on the inside that counts. But, there is an unspoken honesty rule to our bathroom conversations and so while the grown up me knows that there are more important things than being pretty, the little girl inside of me that wants to be a pretty, pretty princess had to answer, "YES!"
Without skipping a beat Sebastian said, "Did you know that even if you weren't pretty people would still think that you are because you're nice to them."
I commented on what a sweet thing that was for him to say and Sebastian continued by saying, "It's true. All you have to do is be nice to people and they'll think you're the prettiest ever. They'll talk to you and they'll help you if you need something just because you were nice to them."
I started rolling his wheelchair out of the bathroom and he told me his final thought, "Remember, just be nice."
For me, it was one of those moments where you're smiling and fighting back tears at the same time. All I could think was how amazing it was that this little boy who will never "look" like every one else knows that it doesn't really matter when there are adults still struggling to learn that lesson.
A tiny little boy who knows that there are magical powers in kindness.
Forget about Spiderman! This kid is a true Super Hero!
So, what do you guys think? Should we all try our best to be nice today and channel our inner beauty queens?
