I am kind...I am awesome!

Somewhere in the course of the past few days, my son has learned the meaning of the word kind. (At this point, I assume there is no need to specify which 'son'.)

Yesterday at the dinner table:

Winkie : Amma, can you be kind to me and press my leg while I am eating my dinner?
(The growing pains are upon us again and he writhes and struggles with them, poor kid!)

I look up with a start and look across the table and meet R's eyes. There is a twinkle of amusement in them and we are both very taken with this sweet, cultured and highly polished manner of speaking what may otherwise have been delivered with a whine, and some crying over the pain and a demand that he be fed.

Sure, I say and sit down next to him and take his right leg in my hand and proceed to knead at just the precise place which is causing him all the agony of growth. I really liked the way you asked me Winkie....I say, determined to reinforce this beautiful word and his beautiful manner of using it.

But I am getting ahead of myself. There is one thing more to be said about the word 'kind' before we resume the dinner table massage and conversation. Just as he sat down, he paid me the ultimate compliment and said...Amma, you are very kind to me, for giving me this paper to write on. (I admit, I had been rather kind, when he wouldn't come to sit down for dinner right away when called and instead asked me for a note to make for his best friend in school. I had obliged him first, given him the time he needed to finish the note and generally waited patiently for him to get to the table. So the compliment was well deserved, in my opinion.)

Back to the dinner table...

Where did you learn this word Winkie?

He gestures with his hands....I don't know.

Do you know what it means?

No..he replies.

Aarrgghhh!

I try again. But you just used it in a sentence and you used it perfectly, so that means you must know what kind means, right?

Yeah....he agrees. It means....you are awesome!

Oooooo! Double whammy! R chortled with laughter, and I had the biggest beam of a smile, and I massaged his legs even more nicelythan before. For a 'kind' and an 'awesome', I would have been at it all night, if he asked me to.