Yike Ben: A Repost on my Oldest Son's Birthday

Today is our oldest son's 25th birthday. There's much I want to write on this special day, and I probably will, but first I want to repost something I found  while scrolling back a few years. 

The youngest, Joel, was 3 at the time. Ben was 17.

Our youngest son is now 11. I have pictures somewhere of their workout sessions and the lacrosse helmet mentioned. But I'm not sure where....

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Yike Ben

Joel at age three looks up (and up and up) at his six-foot-six, 17-year-old brother Ben (who never wears a belt except in public). Joel notices all the details and wants to copy them. Mostly in the hair and wardrobe departments. Here are some live examples from our household:

1) Every time I put Joel's shorts on him up to his waistline, he shoves them down a few inches so that the top of his Pull-up or underwear shows. "Yike Ben, " he insists.

2) Before he went to his visit Pappaw and Ima last week, he climbed up on the toilet, ran tap water on his fingers, and slicked his hair down. "Yike Ben," he told me.

3) He wants to have "pikey hair yike Ben's." (The front spikes forward.)

4) He likes to go shirtless but never shortless.

5) Muscle shirts (tank tops) yike Ben's are "weally cool."

6) He "works out" yike Ben. He takes a cup of ice water down to the basement and sets it on a high shelf. Then he turns up the music , picks up the two heaviest objects he can lift, raises them over his head, puffing and blowing out rhythmically for a few reps. After this little imitation of Ben, he walks around with hands on his hips, sometimes wiping sweat off his brow.
When he's finished, he reaches for a 32 oz Gatorade in the fridge and tries to guzzle it before anyone notices he hasn't asked and isn't using a glass.

7) He loves to wear Ben's lacrosse gear. Never mind that the helmet rests like an inverted Colisseum on his little shoulders or that the gloves skim his armpits or that the size 14 cleats smell like...well, size 14 cleats.

As a mother who has watched her first son grow up so incredibly fast, I can only say, "Slow down, Joel. Please slow down. You'll be as big as Ben before I know it."