Another Ethan first: He listened through chapter three of Redwall.

A friend at church recommended the Redwall Adventures series by Brian Jacques as excellent for children. Knowing almost nothing about it, I decided to take a look a few days ago when biking past the library with Ethan. My first thoughts when I picked up the book: (1) novel, (2) no pictures. This would be new to Ethan, but I figured there was no harm in checking out the book to see what would happen.

When Ethan saw the book, he told me he didn’t want to hear the story. I offered to just read a bit while he put his pajamas on. Reluctantly, he agreed. By the time he had changed, he was hooked. He climbed into the rocking chair with me, and we finished chapter one. That was a couple days ago. He still likes his picture books, which keep variety at story times, but as of this evening, we’re through chapter three and he can’t wait to see if Cluny the Scourge is going to ruin all the feasting delights at the Redwall abbey. Daddy wants to know, too.

Another Ethan first: He admonished Mommy to be home on time.

Ethan likes to watch and wave goodbye when Beth or I leave to go somewhere. As Beth got into the car to go to orchestra rehearsal, he offered this advice: “Make sure you get home before it gets sleepy time for you.”

An Eliana first: She rolled onto her belly.

Another Ethan first: He went cross-country skiing.

Perspective on calamity

Wisdom speaks in Proverb 1:26: “I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you”. In helping Ethan understand this, I told him that calamity was when something really bad happens, or as he saw it, “like when I can’t put my Lego truck back together”.

Another Ethan first: He sounded out N-A-P.

Beth has been teaching Ethan phonics, and he had already sounded out written words. But now as Beth and I were planning out the day, long before Ethan should have expected anything, we found that our simple encoding of one of Ethan’s less favorite parts of the day is no longer so secret.

Another Ethan first: He made an eco-friendly night light.

Ethan’s Christmas stocking contained a glow worm, one of those squishy, stretchy, nearly unbreakable critters. This one had a ball inside that lit up in various colors when it sensed an impact. It had a hole on the top, I think for hanging on the rack in the store.

Ethan had a different idea. He removed the knob from the dining room dimmer switch (how he knew it was removable, I don’t know), hung up the glow worm, and replaced the knob. Now when you want just a bit of light, just knock the critter.