What the future may hold...

I suppose it is natural to speculate on who and what your children will grow to be.  As far as I am concerned, Charlie can be whatever he wants to be.

His father has plans though.  Plans that take Charlie along a path that would be his path if he had things to do over.  Military.  College.  Homeland Security.  Secret Service.

I don't see it.  I don't think that Charlie will be able to divorce himself from his responsibility to his brother.  At three he is already Jimmie's caretaker.  He helps me get diapers, and he picks up after Jimmie.  And he explains Jimmie to strangers.  I've heard him say many times when people speak to Jimmie, "He doesn't talk."  To my sister, when she opened the car door and greeted Jimmie, he said, "That's my brother.  He's a happy boy."   I can't see him protecting the president at the expense of  his own life, knowing his brother needs him. 

I also watch this very sensitive, loving young boy every day.  I see him tuck in his teddy bear and read it a story.  I see him pick up a notebook and pretend to be a doctor and clean his brother's feet.  I see him dress and undress the stuffed animals.  And yes I see him play with baseballs and hit them off the tee like a big league player, and throw footballs, and play with trucks in the dirt, and even play with toy guns.  But he's a boy.  That's how boys play.  And while that boy part is so very like his father, he is growing up knowing that his brother is not like other kids, and that he is somehow the "big" brother even though he is younger.  He gets it.

I don't think he will ever be in the secret service.

But if he should choose that path, then I will support it.