Saturday, January 29, 2011

life of the party crasher







"Where's Ethan?"

This is a question that has been asked many times.  One time we lost him for 1/2 hour (!) at the Lights of Christmas deal at warm beach.  *shudder*

Anyhow, this was nothing like that.  Ebo was at a birthday party for one of his best buddies, along with Aidan and Luke, at Jump Around Fun Zone.  The plan was to play there for a while then go out for Pizza somewhere in Blaine.  Of course, since this is Washington State, Jump Around Fun Zone, being an indoor facility loaded with bouncy houses, was a dry, comfortable refuge to no less than three separate birthday parties on this day.

Shelly, the mother of the birthday boy was doing a quick head count when the question came up: "where's Ethan?"  Incidentally, Shelly was with us when we lost him at the Lights of Christmas *shudder*.  After searching the facility herself to no avail, she enlisted the aid of some of the older boys at the party to search the facility for Ethan. 


Still nothing.


Then she started thinking outside the box.

Not too long after that, Ebo was found.






She found him sitting in one of the other private party rooms eating pizza, chips and pop. 

There were at least 20 other kids in that room.  Ethan didn't know any of them.  Didn't matter.  Apparently it didn't occur to him that his brothers should be around somewhere.  I honestly don't know what is more strange: Ethan following a bunch of kids he doesn't know into a room to eat OR the parents in charge just giving him food.  Actually the weirdest thing about it is that it's just not really that surprising at all.  If it'd been one of the other boys...  unimaginable.  Ethan?  yeah....  I can see that happening.

The lady in charge of the party Ethan crashed told Shelly that he came in and acted like he was in the right place so she gave him some food.  She even let Ethan take his food with him.  Of course all the other kids were confused as to why Ethan got to have food and no one else did.

Ethan didn't see anything strange about it all. 

I asked him about it in the car on the way home.  He started to explain himself, stammered a bit, then just went silent.  I didn't press. 


Some things have no explanation.





Like this, for instance.


I don't recall ever mentioning to Ethan that he needs to hang up his socks and underwear in this way.  As a matter of fact I can't think of anyone else I've ever seen take care of their underclothes in such a way.  Luke had no explanation.


Of course, not many 6-year-olds can bang out hand stand push-ups until they get bored.





He's a special kind of treasure.




7 comments:

Kamille said...

I still recall Amy telling me that Ethan didn't start crawling till 12 months or so and went straight to running. This boy of yours captivates my heart with such laughter. And impresses me with his mad crossfit skills.

amy said...

Awesome post by Mike. Crazy though that you didn't mention that this last picture is of Ethan doing a pull up... on a tree branch. Seriously.

This is the boy that causes me to thank God that he is alive at the end of each day.

Cutzi said...

Cracking up at all of this! Great post. So funny.

Stacy said...

Hilarious.

But yes, so *perfectly* Ethan.

(Yikes!)

I can't wait to see what God has in store for that boy!

:)

Anonymous said...

He is the Wild Card Entry for our lives. This story is laugh-out-loud funny but also, not a shocker. At this point, you have to sort of expect these events to take place when it comes to that boy.

Aunt Helen

Unknown said...

Love the laugh out loud posts! We have all considered getting Where's Erik Shirts and getting Erik one that says Erik. Maybe I should get you matching ones with Ethan! Gotta love the socks!
Around here Erik does planks just so he can get a 6 pack (where do they learn those things?)

amy said...

Carolynn, those shirts are a terrific idea! Sign me up!