That’s my boy!

So many things made me feel proud while walking in Sunday’s JDRF walk, but this year, nobody or nothing made me more proud than my son.

At first he really didn’t want to do it (last year, when I did the walk at a local college campus, he rode in a stroller).  But then he changed his mind, and he had a great time.  At age 5 1/2 (or, as he proudly told some of our teammates, “five and seven-twelfths”) he joined me for the three mile walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back.

Before the walk, he diligently read his free copy of Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day, the diabetes-themed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse story given away at the Lilly Diabetes booth.

From the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, he proudly pointed out the Statue of Liberty.

When I grabbed a Powerade from the refreshment-table on the Brooklyn side, I looked at the label and muttered something about its carb-count.  So my son, recalling The Milano Lesson from just a couple of days ago, advised me that “Now you have to tell your blood sugar that it has, uh, twenty-one sugars.”  Well, he was almost right, but I was so impressed at his recollection of how I use my insulin pump that I didn’t have the heart to correct him.

He proudly held up the number “2”, the last digit of the year 2012, in our team photo.

After the walk was over, he proudly wore a giant blue foam finger on his hand and got the JDRF logo airbrush-tattooed on his arm.

Never once did he complain of being tired or bored.  He’s a great kid.  (In fairness, my other kid is great too, but he still sits in a stroller and doesn’t say or do a whole lot.  He accomplished wetting his diaper as we walked, but that’s about it).

Oh, and several hours later, he recalled something he saw on one of the signs where breakfast was being served.  “Daddy, did you know that a banana has 27 percent carbohydrates?”

He’s almost got it.  But I’m sure that by the time he turns six, he’ll be the perfect Type Awesome.