My Tenderhearted Guy

A DEEP END MOMENT
Stuey is such a little tenderhearted guy.

I just returned from the pool, and we hadn't been for several weeks because of schedule and pool repairs. The last time we were there, Stuey jumped off the diving board. Since it has been some time, Stuey was nervous. He would walk out the length of the diving board VERY slowly, get to the very end, then back off the board. Even with me swimming in the water encouraging him, he got a little too scared.

Today Stuey was on his 3rd or 4th attempt--walking out to the end and turning around. One of my favorite lifegaurds, Ashley, slowly walked out towards Stuey.
I asked her, "Should I go out and get him?".
She said, "I"ll get him". After she stepped out to get closer to him, little Stuey looked so sad and his he was saying something over and over.

"What is he saying?" I asked Ashley.

"Hes saying 'I'm a big boy'" over and over again" she replied. It was such a sweet moment. Stuey wanted so badly to be a "Big kid" by jumping off the board, but he was just a little scard. So Ashley lowered him down to me as I swam in the water underneath. When Stuey surfaced, he said, " I did it mamma! I want to jump off the side". From then on, he was perfectly content jumping off the side of the pool and kicking back to the side. He just had to show himself that he could do it--even if just once.

Another funny pool moment was there was a little group of young guys going off the diving board repeatedly. They were watching as Stuey did his "gangplank" walk.
One of the times I said, "Come on, Stuey--you can do it!". One of the boys said, "Stuey!!?? IS that his name?" I said "yeah, its Stuey". He laughed and said, "thats funny! Thats from the Family Guy". I have yet to see an episode of the family guy...and I remember my friend Mary Jane encouraging me not to call Stuart "Stuey" because of the TV show. But I must admit...Stuey fits his name perfectly.


TENDERHEARTED STUEY
Last night we had friends over to the house, as Patrick and Mike were canning a bunch of silver, king and pink salmon. Nora and one of her friends ran around the house and Nora was teasing Stuey a bit. Stuey retreated to behind my legs and started crying. It really surprised me how sensitive he was to Nora's teasing. I think I was expecting that he would lash back somehow more at Nora and her friend, but he just kept retreating to behind me and wanting me to hold him. It was so sweet and tenderhearted of him.

Today with one of my physical therapy clients, I brought this up, as we always have great conversations and she has 3 boys so I figured she might have some insight on Stuey's sensitive side.

"I'm worried that him going to pre-school 3 days a week will ruin or take away that tenderhearted side of him" I said. She was very re-assuring that boys are who they are...and her 3 boys were very different from eachother, some more sensitive or aggressive than others. And that the sensitive one remained sensitive with time and it wasn't something that was "shaken" out of him with his 2 more aggressive brothers. this was re-assuring for me to hear. As I really love the caring, more soft spoken side of Stuey and I don't want the group boy preschool behavior to impact him negatively.

ZOYA

PHoto: As we returned home tonight from swimming, we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow over mill bay!