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.

Another Ethan first: He jettisoned bunny.

Wednesday evening, the church gathered to sing and listen to Christmas songs. At one point, the children went up from where the congregation was sitting to sing some songs they’d worked on. Ethan was among the youngest. During the second song, he realized something else different: he was the only one carrying something—his bunny. It wasn’t goodbye forever, but for that moment, bunny was tossed aside.

Another Ethan first: He designed a snowplow.

When Ethan asked me to tie his shovel to the front of his tricycle, I was hesitant, thinking it would be too loose to be useful. He was confident in the idea, however, so I assembled his snowplow. He ended up using it to help me clear the driveway all winter long.

An Eliana first: She took her brother’s bunny.

Eliana has a big blankly bun just like Ethan’s, except that hers is pink. For now, it spends all its time in the crib. That didn’t matter at story time, when she and Ethan were sharing Mommy’s lap. Ethan had his bunny, and as Eliana took hold of it and pulled it toward her, they were soon sharing that, too.