Asher's a lone ranger. He mainly likes to play by himself, especially the specific imaginative playing he does in his room. Brennan often gets Asher to join him in some brotherly play and they're pretty good friends. I'm so glad of that - watching these brothers grow up as buddies.

But what I've REALLY enjoyed witnessing many times lately, is the sweet relationship Asher and Hollyn often share. Over the last 4 or 6 months I've caught Asher on many occasions sitting with his arm over Hollyn's shoulders, in an act of love and protectiveness. This is generally (or always) when they're watching a performance or something of that nature, not just hanging around the house or anything. Being out and about brings out this side of Asher I guess. On one such occasion I'd brought just the two of them to the school's Fine Arts night. The Marimba Band was performing while guests wandered around the gallery and viewed the children's art and auction items. Among that crowd of band watchers, Asher and Hollyn sat on the floor with Asher's arms around his little sister. I kept overhearing nearby adults and others who were pointing and commenting on the sweet brother and sister sitting like that.

Yesterday after swimming lessons the kids talked me into some recreational swimming time in the outside pools. Brennan was the one pleading, mainly, and when I told him that I didn't have a suit with me to watch Kieran he promised that he would watch him himself. I was already giving in as he was exclaiming, "I can be in charge of Kieran and Asher can be in charge of Hollyn!" I don't know if Brennan actually told Asher of that idea/plan, or if it was just a coincidence, but Asher did end up staying with Hollyn the entire time. Not one word of complaint or faltering either way. I stood on the side of the pool a) feeling so glad I didn't have to be in it (it's a wonderful milestone, lol) and b) watching my older children each play with and engage a younger sibling. It brought much joy to my heart witnessing the bonding and enjoyment they can have with each other.

Then we came home and they all played with the train set together. The set usually lives up high in a closet, forgotten about. So it's the current novelty. They created a large track and then began to play on it ALL together. You know how when older kids get involved, there's a delicate balance where they try to include increasingly complex ideas and story-lines and play? And when you have such a variety of ages it can get tricky for those older kids trying to maintain their ideals, right? There was a little bickering after a while, but they actually spent a loooong time playing all together with these trains. Only one was remote controllable and they didn't even argue over it!

I can't take a bit of credit of course. My kids came awesome. :-)

Rated PG for partial nudity. The problem with trying to deal with Kieran's pottying-regression (as in, he keeps having lots of accidents) is that it results in an increase in nakedness. Sigh