My son is a force of nature. At the tender age of five, he is still firmly in the grasp of his emotions, and floats between sheer joy and earth-shaking frustration like a leaf tossed in a breeze. He gallops. He sings. He dances. He giggles. He also pouts, cries, screams and stomps. His feelings are easily hurt, and his reaction is invariably a world-class, sulking tantrum.

There is a boy in his kindergarten class who always seems to get his goat. My son has yet to learn how to shrug off teasing, and this kid has clearly got his number. We've tried to speak to both kids, to no avail. My son continued to dissolve into tears, and would run away to a corner of the play-yard, unwilling to respond to anyone. He does this at home, too. Any discipline results in self-censorship, where he announces that "we should just fire him."

Yesterday, he came bouncing out of class with an ear-to-ear grin. I grabbed him up and kissed his cheek and asked about his day.

"[The kid who bothers him] was teasing me today, and I just walked away. I'm not a sissy-baby who has to cry about it. I just sucked it up!"

I about swallowed my tongue trying not to laugh. I'm not raisin' no sissy-baby! My kid is learning to suck it up! Go me!

I pulled myself together and congratulated him on handling the situation like a big boy. Then I gave him another hug. He was so proud of himself. It warmed my heart to see him revel in a successful dealing with a difficult, emotionally charged situation.

The lingo was curious, though. Never in my life have I referred to my son as a "sissy-baby." I was baffled by that. I may have told him to suck it up, though. That sounds like something I would blurt out when exasperated.

In any case, I asked him to tell my husband about his slaying of the dragon at dinner, and my son puffed out his chest and said, "I didn't cry when he teased me because I'm a big boy, and big boys don't throw tantrums when they get their feelings hurt." I was a little sad that he didn't include the whole "sucking it up" part.

Sitting there, watching him chatter away, face glowing, I felt a lump in my throat and a sting in my eyes. Big boys don't cry over hurt feelings, but I guess mamas are still allowed to get weepy when their little guys take a step in the right direction.