You've Got a Friend in Me

Man, I can't get enough out of how much my boys adore one another. It is such a blessing to see the love they have for each other. Don't get me wrong, it is not always sunshine and roses at our house. I am learning that boys very often show their love through pouncing on one another or throwing each other off the couch into a pile of pillows. My boys are ROUGH with each other, but their love is seriously palpable and my heart swells with pride and overwhelming joy when I see them truly enjoying one another's company.

The boys are starting to play really well together. When I was in Washington D.C. last weekend (I know, we are quite the travelers this month, right?) daddy introduced the boys to the wonderful world of fort village building. I am really proud of both of them and their attempts at interacting well together. Benny tries so hard to be patient with Joey, even though he doesn't play exactly the way type A Ben thinks he should at all times. And Joey tries to perform at a level developmentally much more advanced than his young 22 months in order to play "pretend" with his bubby!

At any given moment of the day you can find the boys playing like this:

The village is a traveling one, too. Joey single handedly moved the entire fort from the family room to the kitchen tonight.

Yesterday was a fun day. In addition to fort building, the boys and I went to the Children's Museum for the morning. Our first stop was the Haunted House.

This was the first year Ben was brave enough to walk through the entire Haunted House without holding my hand (or being held by me). He even led the way and pronounced that the house wasn't scary at all once we exited. I think he was a bit disapointed by his lack of fear, in fact!

We decided to conquer the basement of the Museum following the Haunted House. The boys loved building "blown glass" sculptures and checking out the fish.

Joey is WAY into "choo-choo trains" right now. Here he is pointing out the train that travels up above our heads.

And checking out the play area where you can check out what is underneath the train tracks.

And finally, here is Joey on the real train that you can actually "ride" on.

There were a few minutes during our visit to the train exhibit when I really didn't know how I was going to get Joe off the train. He spent about 20 minutes just sitting on the bench and being thrilled with life and repeadtedly looking at me and saying "Joe Joe no go bye bye!"

Ben had the comment of the day however. He asked me to get off the train at one point because he was going to college and I needed to leave him. I pretended to cry and said "oh no, you can't leave me. Take me with you to college." To which Ben responded, "No Mom. You have to leave me alone. I have to go to college. I'm 18 now and can do whatever I want!" Where does he get this stuff?!

The dinosaurs were our last stop. Ben LOVES the dinos (especially the T Rex). Of all the dinosaurs we saw, I would have to say Dino Ben was my most favorite.

We picked up daddy from his office after we left the Museum and allowed him to buy us lunch at McDonalds. The boys were wired on the way home and Ben showed off his dracula teeth that he got at the Haunted House and Joe showed off his sleepy smile.

But the fun didn't end there...yesterday also marked our best buddy, Kirin's, SIXTH birthday. Seriously, where does the time go?! Her birthday dinner was at Ginza so Dean took the boys there to help her celebrate while I was getting my hair cut. Here is a picture of Ben and his oldest friend.

And a picture of Dean with his Goddaughter, the birthday girl!