Day 1,457 - Brownies, Board Games, and A Little Man Who's Growing Up

As Ethan gets older, I'm finding myself enjoying him more and more. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy him at first. I've always been pretty fond of him, just as I am of Ellie. However, it feels like it's easier for us to find really fun things to do together that maybe he wasn't as capable of doing when he was a little younger.

One thing about Ethan that has changed lately is our board games of choice. It used to be that I found myself playing one round of Candy Land after another. In fact, it was quite common for us to become embroiled in a marathon session of Candy Land that lasted four or five rounds. That's not to say that I don't like Candy Land. It's just that it became slightly monotonous after a while. After all, it's a pretty straightforward game with little to no strategy. Actually, on second thought, there's no 'little' about it. Candy Land is zero strategy and all chance.

Over the past few weeks though, Ethan has become more and more interested in playing games like Trouble, Memory, or cards. I'm actually pretty excited about it as I'm definitely more invested in all of those games than I am in Candy Land. The bad thing is that like his sister before him, Ethan can sometimes be ruthless. He definitely has no qualms about sending me back to the start in Trouble over and over again. At the same time, I have to pick and choose my chances to send the little man home because I don't want him to get too upset about losing.

Board games aren't the only thing that Ethan has become better at though. He's rapidly becoming more and more of a helper around the house, specifically in the kitchen. Over the past two weeks, I've let Ethan have ownership when it comes to setting the table for dinner each night. Outside of me getting the plates out of the cupboard, he's completely in charge of putting them on the table and making sure everyone has silverware. It's definitely appreciated as it's one less thing I have to think about when I'm working on getting dinner prepared.

Don't think for a second that Ethan's only contribution is setting the table. As I learned today, he's also becoming quite the baker. Seeing as how this morning was pretty rainy and gross, Ethan and I found ourselves stuck in the house with nothing to do. Leave it to Bethany to suggest that we do a little baking to help pass the time. After taking stock of our ingredients, I decided the treat of choice should be brownies with cookie dough on top.

Our baking adventure began with me helping Ethan tie his apron so that he would be careful to keep his clothes clean. Then, he pushed a chair over to the counter and it was time to get to mixing. My job was to basically scoop the ingredients while Ethan poured them into our mixing bowl which he was more than happy to do. The most exciting part for him though was when it became time for him to use the hand mixer. I helped brace the mixer slightly, but Ethan did the rest, moving it around the bowl and making certain to get all of our dry ingredients mixed in. The most impressive thing about baking with the little man is that he didn't even ask for a taste of anything until everything was done. Crazy, right?

The best part of doing different things with Ethan during the day is when he makes it evident how much he enjoyed himself. In no way is this more evident than when he's praying before bed each night. Tonight, for example, he thanked God that he could make brownies with me and play lots of board games. I love that he's making good memories and here's hoping that he holds onto some of them as he grows.

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Day 1,445 - Falling

My grace is unparalleled. I am as a gazelle, leaping, running, frolicking, as I go from place to place. Someday, my children will write poetry and long, epic tales of my athletic prowess. They could do that...OR  they could just tell the humiliating truth and not really focus on what I would rather they say and/or remember.

If you didn't realize it, then I'm sorry to have to be the one to break it to you this late in the day, but today was warm. Really warm. The day was so warm that it actually set a record for the high for this day in history. So, of course, it would have been silly to have just spent the entire day inside. Instead, Ethan and I just had to make certain we got out of the house and enjoyed the weather. In my opinion, there was no better way to do so than by going on a long walk.

Now, for a three-year-old (soon to be four-year-old), walks can be fun but there needs to be a purpose behind said walk. Sometimes it's something as simple as a trip to the park. Other times, it's wandering to the grocery store or a gas station for a snack. Today, we were on a quest to see Humpty Dumpty and procure a football-shaped whistle.

Now, I know the whistle part of the story is the thing that is probably TRIPPING people up. In honor of the upcoming Chiefs Super Bowl victory, one of Bethany's co-workers chose to dress their Humpty Dumpty statue up as Patrick Mahomes. Not only that but she also placed a large jar of football-shaped whistles next to it for kids to take and enjoy. Today, Bethany heard through the grape vine that the whistles were going fast. As a result, we definitely needed to head up there today if the kids wanted one. After Ethan finished his nap, that's exactly what we did.

Our walk started simply enough with us wandering out of our neighborhood and onto North Oak Trafficway. Once we hit North Oak, Ethan was emboldened by the width of the sidewalks and decided to do a little running. Seeing as how I didn't want him to get too far away, I decided to run alongside him. For the next half mile, we enjoyed little stints of running on and off again as we got closer and closer to our destination. Soon enough, we neared Humpty's house and decided to walk the rest of the way.

If only our walk had been uneventful and only marked by the sight of a large egg-shaped man sitting on a fence. Instead, the sidewalk decided that it was tired of being walked all over and chose to strike out. Rising up from its level position along the ground, the sidewalk waited for someone inattentive enough to trip up. Unfortunately, I happened to be the someone on this day.

As we walked along, I found myself striking the uneven sidewalk with my toes. Unfortunately, I was moving fast enough that I could not regain my balance after doing so. Instead, I careened onto the pavement in what seemed like slow motion. I finally hit the ground and landed hard. At that point, there was nothing left to do but pick myself up off the ground and admire the blood streaming forth from my skinned palms and my newly acquired skinned knee. Ethan, for his part, definitely had feelings about my misfortune declaring "Daddy, I'm sorry you fell down and cut your hands and bled all over." I'm sorry too, Ethan. I'm sorry too.

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