Day 257: 17th of December

25 years ago my son Louis was born.  He was born in Strasbourg like me, because at the time Samantha and I had moved to Russia and we were back in Alsace for the Xmas holidays (and because we weren't sure about experiencing the newly private soviet hospital system).  By the time Louis was 2 weeks old he had travelled 3,500KM through France, Germany, the Baltic Sea, Finland and Russia in the dead of winter in a Ford SUV (Maybe that's why he later went on to study in Canada).   The first great lesson that Louis taught me is that children are different.  For example I quickly understood that, contrary to Sasha, spanking Louis had no impact whatsoever on his behaviour and therefore was pointless.  Sending Louis to the corner on the other hand was much more effective. Thankfully we moved on from this confrontational situation to a more normal competitive approach:

• Who could bounce the most tennis balls against the wall of our terrace in Belgium
• Who could swim fastest
• Who discovered which BD
• Who could swim the furthest at sea (see Gataca)
• Who was the best at foosball
• Who could climb the highest tree
• And who could take the longest cold shower (actually Louis hasn't taken up that challenge ...yet?)

It's been a pleasure and an education to watch my children grow up to be quite different (with some similarities) despite the fact that I believe I was pretty consistent in my approach and in my mistakes.

So thank you Louis for having taught me how to be more philosophical about outcomes and consequences.  I'm sure I was a better father to both you and Sasha thanks to the different perspective that you brought to our family.

Happy Birthday