Ethan, 6 years old

My little boy is not so little anymore. This year Ethan has shot up in height! Over the summer I pulled out all of his pants to see what his clothing situation looked like going into the fall. We had to get rid of every single pair of pants that he had. They all made him look like he was waiting for the big flood to come. Strangers will look at his feet and comment about how big his shoes are, and on our height chart, he is measuring the same height that Maddy was just last year.

Emotionally, Ethan has also grown over the past year. We've seen his level of self confidence steadily rise. He's recently started to take Karate classes and he went in like a champ. Big smile on his face, just trying to keep up with the other kids. He had no clue what he was doing but the 'new Ethan' just followed the mantra of 'fake it til you make it'. The 'old Ethan' would have been too apprehensive to join in until he had a chance to observe thoroughly.

For his whole life, Ethan has compared himself to his sister and often felt down because he couldn't do something that she could. Things such as run as fast, monkey bars, ride a bike or swim on his own. I think the tides are beginning to change. The scales may not completely tip over, but Ethan is definitely catching up. He can pretty much keep up with her on the playground now and a couple weeks ago, he was the first of the two to blow up a balloon all on his own.

Some things that haven't changed yet (and I'm secretly hoping that they won't for a little while longer) are his love for his stuffed doggies and his love for family time. This year Ethan added a new dog to the mix with the introduction of 'Ryo'. He bought Ryo with some money that was given to him by Oma and Opa. Bless his little heart. He still calls out to them after we return home from being out. He'll talk to them and reprimand them as though they are real. He can often been seen out and about with either Ryo or 'Little Dog' (aka: Woa Woa) zipped up in his hoodie with the head sticking out. Ethan still counts the weekdays down until the next family day. He is his happiest at the beginning of any extended family holiday or long weekend. I love this about him and hope we'll still have a while longer before it fades.

Although he still loves Lego, Ethan added a new favourite to his play arsenal. He's really gotten into Perler Beads. They are these little plastic beads that you arrange on a base. Once you iron them, they melt and form a picture. At first I thought it would be a phase that would quickly pass, but he loves to look up patterns on the internet, count out the rows and colour combos and recreate the picture on his own. Recently he's also been into coming up with his own designs and together, he and Maddy are exploring how to make the creations stand up.

Another favourite of Ethan's are still the board games. Most recently he's been into Monopoly, the regular version. Man, we play way more advanced than I've ever played in my life. Both kids understand what it means to mortgage properties if you don't have enough money. As a kid we used to just circle the board, waiting to land on the good ones before buying. We never got as far as buying houses, never mind hotels or the need to mortgage property. Up until my early 30s, I had no idea that if you didn't buy everything in sight, you'd be dead. Ethan is such the property management king, that he's buying houses and hotels like they're going out of style. He wins every time. Perhaps he'll be a landlord when he's older! I have to say that when it comes to board games, that kid was born with horseshoes in his bum.