Tonight was the first night of having Cub Scouts at our house. As the newly appointed Den Leader I put the night together. It has been a long while since I had to keep a classroom full of six year old boys occupied for an entire hour. Not only that but I was supposed to teach them something. So we began with making a banner, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. We covered the Cub Scout Pledge, Cub Scout Sign, and the Cub Scout Promise. If you don’t know what these things are, that’s ok I didn’t know either before a couple of days ago.

The past two weeks have been a mad dash to get uniforms, find out where all the patches go, learn how Boy Scouts is structured, find a “Go See It” for our group (yeah, I had to learn what that is too), and plan the meeting (which included cleaning our basement). I learned that I need to plan twice as much as I had planned, and move things along twice as fast. I have a renewed respect for our Sunday School teachers – especially the ones that teach my boys!

Having four children “firsts” come at a blinding speed. First words, first steps, first time with out floaties, etc… And having twins sometimes what should be joyous times can be filled with some anxiety. For example Joshua seems to be having a lot of firsts lately. He has lost four teeth now, and Caleb has lost none so far (not even a loose one). Joshua is beginning to read quite well and Caleb is struggling a little bit. Homework time with Joshua is pleasant and takes about five minutes. Homework time with Caleb is like pulling teeth (not the loose kind).

Well today I was straightening the garage and Joshua said, “Dad, can you take the training wheels off my bike?” So I went about taking them off and we pushed the bike to the sidewalk. Well when Caleb saw what we were doing, he wanted to try it too. We took turns back and forth, Caleb and Joshua, going back and forth up and down the sidewalk. Well, you guessed it, Joshua got it pretty fast, Caleb hasn’t yet. After it became apparent that Joshua was getting it, Caleb went inside. After some time I went in and found him on the couch watching tv. I could tell he was a little bummed out. I tickled him and spent some time just playing and he brightened up. What should have been a jubilant event was weighted with some complexity.

The joy I find in the whole thing is that I was there when the training wheels came off and they tried their best to defy gravity. There will always be someone better than you, and sometimes you come in second. I guess it’s cool if it’s to your brother and together they can take risks side by side. I want to be there for as many of the firsts as I can, and I will try my best to make them all special.

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