Older Kids...

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything about Ethan. He’s getting older, as you might guess. It’s actually been quite shocking of late. In a year’s time he passed his mother up in height and weight and his voice has reached a near approximation of a man’s voice - a small man maybe, but a man’s voice nonetheless. His shoulders and arms bear resemblance to the Tibbett side I can only assume since they have grown muscular despite him not really doing much in the line of working them out, and he can grow a fair mustache. Sure it’s a little thin, but it’s facial hair. Not sure how I feel about our baby getting so big so quickly - he promises to pass me up in the next couple of years. I keep joking that I need to find ways to scare him in case he one day realizes that he could take me in a dual.

It’s also been nice to have a “built-in babysitter.” It sure would have been helpful 3 years ago as our prospects for getting out of the house were much more frequent in their calling in those days, but it is really nice to know that he is a fairly mature, reasonable, and responsible person with whom we can leave Quinton and the dog.

That’s not to say he doesn’t sometime lack good judgment. A couple of weeks ago, just prior to our summer party, I introduced Ethan to Zombieland, a rated-R movie (yes, judge me all you want, but Ethan watches rated-R movies). I suppose it is one thing for me to let him watch it, but he thought it a good idea to watch it with his little brother. I didn’t know this was going on until Quin came downstairs and informed me that he now knew a new naughty word. Knowing his version of what naughty words are, I figured he meant something like “hate” or “stupid,” so I asked him what his new word was and he responded, “f*cking @ss.” There’s something hilarious about hearing those words coming out of Quinton’s mouth, but knowing it wouldn’t be wise to encourage him, I managed to stay straight faced and told him that it indeed was a naughty word and that he should never use it in front of his grandmother…