"I want to be a lion when I grow up!"

If you spend much time in my home you couldn't help but notice that my youngest son, Ethan, tends to spend more time on all fours than walking around on two feet; and more time speaking with a roar than speaking with words. This is something that we have tried to get him to stop doing because it totally sounds like he is going to hurt his throat and we have already had one black eye because of his feet getting out from underneath him which caused a chain of events that lead to a 1 on 1 battle with the carpet. The fact that he had a black eye lets you know who won the fight. We found this all to be a little frustrating to say the least until recently. . . Ethan was having a rather serious conversation with his dad when he made the following announcement, "Dad, when I grow up I want to be a lion!” Wow! I am a firm believer that you should let your kids dream as big as they want, and encourage them that they can be anything that they want if they put their mind to it and work hard. However, I don't feel like this particular scenario applies to my philosophy. Chris spent the next few minutes with Ethan explaining that God created him to be the very special little boy he is and he probably will not be able to become and lion, but if he uses his imagination he can be the biggest and bravest lion we have ever seen!