Trendsetter

For the past week, Jackson and I have been listening to Elvis's Christmas album in the car.  I have tried to give the radio a chance here and there, but nothing else compares to Elvis.

On Thursday morning, I heard a little voice from the back of the car singing.  Jackson was trying to sing along with Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me.  I was surprised that after only a few times of listening to this song, he was catching on to it pretty well.  I wouldn't mind if all of this Elvis training paid off one day and we could have the next coming of The King (of rock-and-roll) on our hands.  But until then, we do seem to at least have a little trendsetter at nursery.

Yesterday, we went for our third Santa visit at the nursery's Christmas Market.  And, for the third time in a row, Jackson has been too scared to approach Santa.  This year, he reached a new level of fright though, by refusing to even make eye contact with the 'jolly old elf.'  We arrived in good time to meet Santa with a new strategy, but Jackson went mute and got stage fright about six feet from Santa so eight other children went in front of us until he mustered up the courage to hide behind me, latch on to my leg, and gather his present.  Lee and I got a high-five out of the deal with Santa, but that was not (unsurprisingly) encouraging to Jackson.  (Once he has made up his mind, there is usually no going back.)  Disappointingly, Jackson screamed when he saw his present--thankfully out of sight of Santa and the elves--because he didn't want a teddy bear; he wanted a train.  I let him know his reaction was not appropriate, but he continued to screamed his head off.

After this little scene, Lee wanted to give up and go home; however, I had just driven about an hour in the car and I was not about to hop right back in and drive off.  So, we went to look at the big Christmas tree and hear the live music.  After a little while of walking around and eating a sausage in a pretzel bun, Jackson noticed there was an unused stage.  With a little bit of thought about what to do next, he took centre stage and started busting out his best moves.  Song after song, he put on a show and each song ended with a finale pose.  The room applauded the singers, but Jackson thought they were clapping for them.  (Maybe some of them were?  I was).

Eventually, a few of his nursery friends joined in the dance party happening on the stage.  This was the second trendsetting moment of the night.  A parent of another boy in Jackson's class approached us and said, "Jackson is quite the trendsetter."  I thought he was talking about Jackson's natural coolness in general, but then this man's wife went on:  "We had to go and buy a pack of vests today because Joshua told us, 'Jackson wears vests.'"  (Vests in the US are tank tops.)  To this, I said, "Are you serious?  I wonder how he even knew that Jackson wears undershirts?"  And the father said, "Apparently, the boys have been discussing it."  The 'boys' being two- and three-year-olds.  Man, I would have liked to hear that conversation!

Here is one last story about Jackson being a trendsetter, but in the best way in my opinion:  The mother of one of Jackson's friends approached me earlier this week when we were both dropping off our boys.  This was the first time I had the chance to meet her, but I had seen her son many times playing with Jackson.  She said, "On Ellis's first day at nursery, Jackson was the first person to bring him a car and ask him to play.  I thought that was so sweet and I will never forget that."  This was really nice to hear and I was so proud of Jackson's goodness and awareness of others.  This did match with the fact that we never have any reports of him being unkind to anyone else and his teachers often tell us about statements he makes where he tries to make sure everyone is included such as "we can all be friends."

So, for all of the inevitable tantrums and tête-à-têtes that are bound to happen here on out (because parents are usually the only form of discipline that children will ever have or should have if we do our job right), I will take solace in knowing that Jackson has this innate ability to be a friend to everyone.  I wouldn't have my Santa-fearing, Elvis singing, show-stop dancing, love-thy-neighbour, trendsetting little boy any other way.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr., give her my love.
Rest in peace, Bella -- all dogs go to Heaven.