Whatever might be said about Jahan's stranger awareness, his disinterest in feats of engineering or his inability to concentrate on one task for more than a couple of minutes, one thing is for certain - he is and always has been a veritable geyser of energy.
Today he seemed to take his hyperactivity to the extreme. We attended a work Christmas party at Abbotsford House (a sprawling heritage mansion in Sydney's inner west), the home of Duncan's boss, Paul. And Jahan thought he had died and gone to Heaven. He bolted around the palatial house trying to discover every room - he opened doors, climbed furniture, ran up stairs, rolled down stairs, stuck his finger in the grates, sprinted across the vast gardens, threw stones in the canal, emptied buckets of water all over his clothes, jumped around in the gravel and rolled around on the grass. Unfortunately, the house was not particularly kid-friendly, so either Duncan or I had to run behind Jahan the whole afternoon.
And it was exhausting. I can't imagine how we are going to cope with this level of energy in the long term - it seriously concerns me. Being a houseful of doctors there today, I occasionally threw around the dreaded term "ADHD" to gather the general consensus... but I only got told by all and sundry that this was perfectly normal behaviour for an energetic child, and that he would soon learn to focus his energy into particular activities or sports.
It is difficult, though. Honestly - I'm beginning to wish I'd prayed for a bookworm. **Sigh**