king me

In a week's time, the elder lad will be an official kindergartner.  He is fully registered at the parish school and seems to be looking forward to the new adventure.  Now if only his uniform shirts were not gargantuan, but that's his mother's doing -- buying clothes at least a size or two too big in the interest of longevity.  Thankfully, his slightly-older cousin has some outgrown uniform clothes that will likely fit our elder lad.  Now he'll be on the receiving end of the hand me downs, an idea which seems to appeal to him.

Our soon-to-be-kindergartner is relishing his "oldest child" position.  He keeps making reference to it.  As much as he might like to think himself king of the castle, today we taught him how to play checkers.  The strategy involved is right up his analytical alley, and the glee on his face when he says "king me" is a sight to behold. 

Sure, he got tired of the game before it was quite finished and wanted instead to use the playing pieces as coins in a game of store, but then later he taught his younger brother how to play checkers.  Tomorrow the elder lad wants to rewrite the rules to start with kings that dissolve into singletons after a successful run across the checkerboard.  Instead of "king me," what will we say then?  "Abdicate?"