A growing boy!

We are blessed with four precious children! All so very unique and beautiful! And I just LOVE being a Mom!

They are growing, and developing constantly! It so easy to miss stages of that growth and development - because we are with each other almost all the time. Just the other day I had to take a second, long look at Jed as I realised the he’s grown taller in the past few weeks! When Aimee starts prancing around the lounge when a music CD goes on I often look at her and wonder where she ‘learns’ the dances she does! Ryan has been flaunting his acting skills around the house a lot more lately and really shows a lot of promise! But its Ethan I want to focus on today!

My little baby boy is growing up! He’s getting taller by the day and comfortably fits his little 6-year old frame into 9-10year old clothing. He loves dressing smartly just as much as he loves dressing up! His favourite gear is still his fireman outfits and he really looks the part again in the bright red overalls Oupa and Ouma gave him for his birthday and the jacket and hat Gramps gave him when we visited Dubai earlier this year.

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He manages to enlist his little sister Aimee in most of his fire-fighting activities, and she too dreams of being a ‘fireman’ one day!

Ready for surgery ......

Ethan has the most amazing imagination and can often be found in the workshop or around the yard making contraptions of his own design. He loves to play with Playmobil and spends ages designing and making ‘things’ out of Lego. One of his favourite times in our day is spent lying on the lounge floor with his older brothers, quietly making something from Lego (with the Lego sprawled all over the lounge floor) while I read aloud to them. (He LOVES listening to the books I read to Ryan and Jed, he always has!)

A photo Ethan took last week of his recent Lego creations

He was a really cute baby, and has grown up into a very good-looking little guy. His thick, wavy hair never really needs to be brushed (unlike his older brothers’ hair!), his little teeth are perfect and those blue-green eyes of his are beautiful!

Just lately, he has undergone some serious changes! Not only has he outgrown his football boots and underpants, but he is outgrowing his teeth! In the past month or so he has lost two bottom teeth and, within a week, lost his two front teeth!

Look Mom - no teeth!

A dentist once referred to this phase as ‘the ugly duckling phase’ and I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t part of God’s way of helping us to let go a little and allow little ones to grow up as that ‘cuteness’ seems to disappear from the outside and true character continues to develop on the inside. Just like a haircut makes little ones look older, so does losing teeth, and Ethan definitely looks older without those front teeth. Especially because he has a really big, beautiful smile – and he uses it often! Ethan really has a ‘sailor-smile’ now with those 4 teeth gone at the same time.

Cheeeeeese!

Our little Dude is growing up so quickly and we’re enjoying the adventure and journey!