Ethan is really negative and oppositional, all most of the time. But when he’s not – it’s heavenly.

I was busy burning unneeded and unwanted papers over a fire in the backyard, when Ethan came bouncing out of the back door with a gigantic flashlight with the request to ‘go walking – you, me and babysean’ (yes, it’s one word).

My first thoughts were that Sean was in his jammies, it was kind of chilly, I had a fire going in the backyard and it was really inconvenient to go RIGHT NOW, as Ethan is apt to want to do. But his smiley face, awesome eye-contact and chatty manner won out. I could not resist.

Ok, E. I’ll get the hose.

Sean likes anything that involves him being wrapped in his favorite, blue fleece blanket. I heard Ethan opening the trunk and setting up the stroller. When Sean was adequately wrapped and tucked, we were on our way.

Ethan walked briskly and happily – not the actions he would take if the walk were MY request. He loves flashlights and using them outside and in the dark makes the experience particularly satisfying. He walked quickly ahead and pulled a gigantic leaf from a tree on the corner and handed it to Sean, before Sean could make that request of me.

He asked me to stop and listen to the crickets and asked if I could hear the bats clicking. I could. He insisted that a neighbors solar lights lining their front walk were Halloween decorations and demanding some for our house. He was thrilled at the actual Halloween display of a ‘Pacman Pumpkin’ along with three little ghosts on another lawn – apparently that set up is hysterical. He lead the way, warned us about cars and pointed out when he could see in someone’s lit windows and used his flashlight skills to locate bumper stickers on the back of parked cars. He answered questions I asked, which is usually completely out of the question.

Ethan was happy. Sean was happy. I was happy.

It was a brief few moments before we turned the corner and he yelled ‘my house!’ and jogged back to our front steps. I hope he would linger just a few more minutes before the spell was broken, but he went in slammed the door and proceeded to tell me to ‘hush’ when I said it was time for him to get ready for bed.

I would do almost anything for 17 minutes of a happy Ethan.

You might recall another post about Ethan being in a particularly good mood.

This walk was followed up by another one the next night for the whole family! Bliss.