just in time for the release of the new rocky movie, let’s harken back to the original. a fine movie.

remember when sly starts training in earnest? banging the frozen clumps of meat and climbing the city hall stairs? he’s a little out of shape, but he music continues…and then builds to a frenzy when he finally makes it to the top.

every inspirational movie has that moment when the music crescendoes. when the protagonist faces their fear, conquers their demon.

since two friends of sebastian’s have gotten stuck in the lift, he has been quite scared of lifts. he shushes us all when we get into the lift, somehow believing that loud talking will cause the lift to malfunction. the other day, when all six of team caldwell were in the lift and it did not move, the poor little button started trembling, and clinging to his dad. and shrieking. he was really scared. the shrieking annoyed me, but i was concerned for this developing phobia.

sometimes sebastian will play act….sometimes when i come to pick him up at school he sees me and calls, "mumma! mumma!" like he is a very little boy and then he rushes to me and clings to me. but i see in his eyes that he is playing around. but when we are in the lift, there is fear in his eyes, all the time.

so the other day we were at the peak, having a family lunch together. charles had returned home on the saturday and was leaving on monday, so we were spending some team caldwell time alone. we did our team caldwell cheer and had a lot of fun and maybe 17 trips to the bathroom. (but everyone weed, thank you very much and carys did a poopers in the toilet yesterday, what a girl!)

on the way to the car park, we pressed the lift button and when the doors opened, sela and carys went in first. charles and i had stopped to help jasper, who had tripped.

suddenly, the lift doors began to close.

and sebastian sprung into action. he shoved his way into the lift, pushed back the closing doors (which immediately opened) and searched for the door open (DO or <>) button, and pressed it.

charles and i were stunned. seb, scared of lifts? where was my trembling little boy? i had thought he would have gone into terrors. but instead he had jumped in, hurting himself while at it, because he didn’t want his sisters to get locked into the lift.

of course charles and i told him that he was a real life superhero and that we were very proud of him. we told him that he had saved his sisters from being very scared, and for that we were so grateful. later that day i made him a star that says, "I AM PROUD OF SEBASTIAN BECAUSE HE PROTECTED HIS SISTERS".

i have reminded him of the lift incident every single day since it happened. i want that to be a defining moment in his life. the other day, while on the playground, a kid started kicking sebastian’s head. i don’t want that to be a defining moment. going alone into a closing lift, sebastian’s worst fear, to protect his sisters, that’s defining.

i am so incredibly, overwhelmingly proud of him.