Baby Steps

Robert and James have started to physically tussle a bit. It starts out as a little passive-aggressive invasion of the other person's space, then grows into a kind of smooshy wrestling match with laughing and a little more aggression (which both of them seem to be enjoying thoroughly), then somehow it escalates into someone getting a little bit hurt and telling on the other one.

I see it as progress, oddly enough, because both boys are enjoying the tussle (common interest) and both boys stop immediately when the other gets hurt (sympathetic/empathetic impulse control).

Also, we were outside this afternoon and the boys were exploring a big pile of sticks. They wanted to play fight with them. You should have seen the wicked grin on James' face. I said they could play fight with the sticks as long as they were on the same team fighting bad guys in other places. Gleefully, they ran off together and whacked stuff for a good five minutes before James started pointing his stick at Robert in a sneaky sort of menacing way. Long story short, I ended up yanking Robert's stick from him and breaking it over my knee into several pieces. Gah!

But they had a good five minutes of cooperative, creative play before then. I'll take that.

Found a gigantic pig statue today.