Fatherhood: joys of Ethan

I believe it was Jane Austen who said something like "It is the social obligation of one person in every group to have a small child in order to invoke good conversation."

My three-year-old is Ethan John Westerholm. He is a joy. I've written before about what he teaches me. Here's some recent stories.

Story #1:

We had given Ethan orange juice for breakfast, morning snack, and lunch. He, of course, asked for orange juice for dinner.

"No, Ethan. You've had orange juice all day. That would be too tedious."

"What does 'tee-dee-us' mean?"

"That means you have the same thing all the time."

"OK. I'll drink some tee-dee-us."

Story #2:

Lisa and I have have been trying to get him to dress himself for almost a month. He'll do it when you remind him and stand over him. He is easily distracted (wonder where that comes from?). So, I was very happily surprised to find him early one morning, getting dressed without prompting all by himself.

So proud to catch him doing something good, I said "Ethan! Good boy! What are you doing?!?"

"I'm getting dressed, Daddy . . . for battle."

Story #3:


Ethan asks me "Daddy, who do we pray to? God or Jesus?"

Yes, I've read Bruce Ware's book on the Trinity, and know his stance on praying to the Father . . . but I said "Well, Ethan, either one. Remember, Jesus is God."

My three-year-old knows himself some WSC, and answered "No, Daddy. Jesus is not God. God is a spirit."

I began to launch into a brief discussion of how there were different persons within the godhead, but was interrupted by a quick . . .

"That's too tricky for me, Daddy. Too tricky. Maybe I eat some fruitsnacks now."