Dance anyway (Birthday no. 6)
We just celebrated my son's 6th birthday. We somehow made it work despite our family situation right now.
We visited a dinosaur-themed park and booked a hotel for one night. The birthday boy seemed happy with his day and the whole extended family also had fun.
It was funny that my son wanted to go to a dinosaur park but was not really fond of dinosaurs. He was scared of the large robot dinosaurs at first, but got used to them as the tour went on.
One of the memorable moments from the trip happened during a dinosaur show. So we were watching three human-dinosaurs dancing and he was afraid.
I tried my best to comfort him and said that it was okay to be scared. Then I told him he could dance with the performers and asked:
Which story do you want us to remember for your 6th birthday: the one when you got scared or the one when you danced with the dinosaurs?
I didn't really know what I was expecting when I asked that or if I should be asking questions like that. But to my surprise, he stood up from his seat and started showing some of his dance moves. He became hyper and excited for the rest of the tour. He danced again with the other performers, even on stage.
I felt so happy and proud. I hope this becomes a memorable day for him, as it is for me.
And maybe someday, he'll remember that when he was scared, he chose to dance anyway.