Fraternal Relationships

It is very interesting to watch the dynamics between each of my sons when they play together. For instance, I couldn't be more pleased with the sweet way they all interact with Christian.
James and Etienne get along in a "let's wrestle and rough house" kind of way but James and Sebastien seem to have a special sort of bond. When we lost Seb in the Walmart for five minutes last week, it was pretty traumatic for me, but after we found him, James ran up to him, gave him a huge hug and said, "Oh Seb, I was so worried! You're my best friend!" This claim didn't seem to bother Etienne in the least. Anyways....

James started school again last week..... (sniff, sniff)



....so that leaves Etienne and Seb with me- the two boys whose special bond seems to be fighting over everything. And without James to lead in the games and stories, they seem at a loss to know what to do with themselves. The first few days we had to have a lot of talks about being kind to each other, and learning to get along. (James often acts as a referee between them as well) But this morning, they seemed to have accepted the situation and are getting along beautifully. (so far)

Another thing I love about being a mother to boys, as I have mentioned before, is to try and figure out what they are playing at before they tell me. Today I failed utterly.

"Guess what we are mom!"


"Cockadoodledoo! We're roosters! See our wings and coxcombs?"


And my beak?

After praising their creativity, I went to put the baby to bed and came back to this guessing game.

I just watched them for awhile- sitting quietly, looking at the gently swinging but empty baby swing.
But finally I had to ask.

"What are you guys doing?"
"Shhh mom, our babies are sleeping!"
"You have babies? Can I see them?"
"Sure!"


"Are they baby boys or girls?"
"Oh no mom," (very seriously) "mine's are baby tigers and Seb's are baby ghost-es."
"But don't worry mom" (reassuringly) "they won't eat you until they get bigger."