Best Buddies

Yesterday while we were driving down the road, Alder told me out of the blue that he loved Daddy. While this made me smile very big, I was not all that surprised. First, Jason has been popular with the boys lately. They seem to want to be with him whenever they can and ask about him when he is not around. Second, Alder has been pretty sweet these days. He (and therefore Heath who mimics everything Alder) has been spontaneously thanking us for meals while chewing that first bite. Anyway, I am getting off topic here. The point is that I asked him why he loved Daddy and he said "becase Daddy is silly and tickles and plays hide and seek with me." Ok this is fun...I just had to ask him why he loved me. He got a little shy and said..."because you snuggle with me." Melting heart. Then he volunteered, "and I love Heath b/c I like to play with him!" What more could I ask for... He proceded (likely feeding off my smiles) to say that he loved Tsuga b/c he licks him, and I know for a fact that this is not true. I am going to assume that all other comments were sincere and now talk about how Alder and Heath are indeed good buddies. Yes, they bicker and fight and purposefully make each other mad often, but in general they truly enjoy each other. Here are some images portraying this....

They have been consistently sharing shoes by each wearing one in a pair (see photo below) for about a month now. It is pretty unbelievable that they wear the same size shoe - people comment on this every day. Alder has small feet and likely always will; not sure if this is clubfoot related or not.

Here is Jason playing his "old" guitar for one of the last times. He recently (finally...;)) bought a nicer guitar and has been loving playing it all the time.

Occasionally the boys ask if they can read books together before bed rather than us reading to them and surprisingly this goes rather well. We peak around the corner to find alder "reading" to Heath and he is sometimes paying close attention and other times Alder is rambling to noone as Heath flips through a different book. Alder tries to get Heath to look at this or that and Heath casually looks over and acknowledges it. Pretty funny really. We will try to get a short video clip sometime soon.

Finally, we bought Heath a strider bike so that he can begin to cruise with Alder. Alder got his on his 3rd birthday and just took off, very naturally and has only gotten faster and better. He and I went for a walk recently and he had to keep waiting for me (and I was walking fast). Heath is a bit younger and has not taken to it as quickly, but he is determined and they want to ride around the front yard every day now.

This is a really great bike that works for a kid as soon as they are able to walk (the seat can go much lower than Alder's). Check out some examples of very young kids riding here.

Alder talks about how when he is five, he is going to get a pedal bike like a big boy, but I bet he could figure it out now. It is fun to see them like this though, so I am not thinking we will go that route for awhile.