Extraodinary!

I just wanted to take a minute to reflect on how extraordinary my boys are.  Today at school Luke spent 2.5 hours working with a classmate to create a robot out of recyclables.  They skipped snack, had no adult supervision, never fought and even compromised at the end about who should get to take the robot home (they agreed to take turns).  He is now sitting next to me creating (in his words) a blueprint, for another robot he hopes to design next week.  Who is this kid?  He collaborates better than most adults I know.  I look at him sometimes and marvel and I also wonder “Did I do this?”  and “How?”  I wonder if there was something specific we did with Luke in his first few years to manifest this kind of pro-social behavior or if it is just innate in him.  And, if so, will we do the same with Ben and will it have the effect? 

Speaking of Ben: I find him to be somewhat serious but amazingly sweet.  His moments of joy are completely joyful and delighted although he is much quieter and less effusive than his brother was.  I love to watch him listen and watch his brother and learn.  He is making incredible connections, practically jumping out of his skin when we are reading books and he sees a connection to another book that he knows.  He runs to the bookshelf and weeds through the books until he finds the other book with a picture of say, an apple and runs it over to show you.  He has at least 25 words that he says (mostly clearly) and another 10 or so signs.  The other day at my parent’s house he took my mom’s hand, led her to his bedroom and said “Map Ama” (meaning nap). 

These boys are rad and I am learning so much from them.  I hope to remember each day what gifts they are and make sure to be intentional in all of my communication with them.