A year ago, Ethan was still in adjustment mode. Ellyson’s birth rocked his world, as I knew it would. He doesn’t know life without Emry, so an older sibling is just life. But a baby sister? One who requires a lot of Mama’s attention? Or gets a lot of attention just because she’s a cut baby? Some moments of acting out were perfectly expected.
Now? He’s found his groove. His niche. His safe spot. The other night as I put all three of them in the bathtub (not something that normally happens, but he’s been sick and I was trying to get them all to soak in warm water with essential oils, etc.), I was putting Ellyson in last and he pipes up, “No, Mama! On this side! I’m in the middle. I’m the middle-est!”
Now, it seems, he doesn’t remember life without Ellyson.
We have three strollers: the jogging stroller we purchased before Emry was born, an umbrella stroller for ease, and a double jogging stroller bought when I was pregnant with Ethan. It hasn’t seen as many miles as the jogging stroller since I was out nearly every day running with Emry as an infant, but it was a much bigger hassle and not easy maneuvering with both Ethan and Emry. And since they are now more-or-less too big for a stroller, I just use the jogging one for Ellyson. But he was having 4-year-old moment when he didn’t want to walk so I pulled out the double-stroller so he could ride with Ellyson for our little walk.
“Which seat do you want, Ethan?” I asked.
He stood there for a moment and then said, “Mmh…which was is the middle-est?”
I did not have an answer which seat of two is the “middle-est” and I’m not sure how he decided, but he climbed in and off we went.
One day, I’m sure, he’ll once again complain about being the middle child. For now, though, he’s quite happy in his little spot between two sisters.
The little man keeps getting bigger. Like Emry, math has come easy for him. He loves flash cards, especially the 2’s. Since his letter sounds were elusive when we started Kindergarten, I didn’t have high expectations of his putting words together until at last Christmas. However, he’s sounding out words and even telling me things like, “That ‘e’ is silent!” Penmanship is sometimes creative in the forming of some letters, but we’re working on that!
He’s also delighted that he is now in Cubbies on Wednesday evenings. Covid postponed his introduction into that class, so he’s really happy he can now go. We get in the car Wednesday nights, and he’s talking a mile a minute with everything he got to do. He always has the same question: “Mama, is Cubbie real?”
His newest love? The Wii. A few months ago I pulled my old Wii out of a box in the garage and set it up. With the nice weather, they hadn’t played on it too much. Now it’s rainy quite a bit…and I need to purchase a timer. If I let him, he’d spend all day sword fighting, playing tennis, and flying airplanes!
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