Ten

The 2nd of October was Thomas’ tenth birthday and the first one that he’s managed to have in Australia since we left in 2007. He was pretty happy about that, as were all of his siblings (and possibly those of us that make up the rest of the family as well).

A year on, Thomas has achieved a lot. He’s competed in ski-racing at Jasper, he scored honour roll at school and he continues to develop into the sort of delightful young man that a proud Dad likes to boast about.

One of the things that has stood out lately is what I like to refer to as Thomas’ smug grin. It appears every now and then and always brings a smile to my face.

It comes out when he knows that he’s said or is doing ‘the right thing’. He’ll announce some little tidbit of wisdom, knowing that he’s saying exactly what a parent would expect their good son to say and then it appears, the little self satisfied, smug grin. I do adore it. It shows the intelligence lurking behind his sparkly eyes. It probably means that we’re in for trouble, because its that sort of intelligence that shows he knows full well what is expected whether that happens to be the path that he’s chosen to take or not.

It also means that he shows enough forethought (at times) to know that if you say the right thing, you might just escape the consequences that go with saying the wrong thing on the back of having done the wrong thing. I hope that makes sense in translation. I know it does to me, it was one of the lessons I managed to learn fairly early on in life!

Thomas retains his sense of humour and his willingness to persevere to succeed. As he embarks on the journey back into the Australian school system (not to mention finally getting a chance to start to play cricket) it will be critical for him to maintain both of these and hopefully with some extra support, he’ll continue on the hard earned path to success that he’s begun on so far.