Animal House

After breakfast this morning I asked Spencer to make his bed. Now, although I do not require the boys to make their beds every morning, I recognize that this is a fairly ordinary request. Of course, now that I say this (or write it), I think I am being altogether too lax and that I need to institute a far stricter bed-making regimen for the boys. Hmmm. At any rate, back to this morning. I expected that Spencer would (1) make his bed, or (2) argue with me about making his bed, or (3) bargain with me in some manner, which, long story short, ends with his bed still unmade. Spencer did not argue with me. Nor did he bargain with me. He did in fact make his bed. And, he went a little farther. A new and higher level of bed-making. I went to check on him. He was working busily, arranging (some of) his stuffed animals atop his blue satin blanket (a Christmas present from Santa Claus). I noted that the animals were grouped by type, i.e., bears together, dogs together, etc. If I had not noted that on my own, Spencer (helpfully) pointed it out to me. He also pointed out which animals were putting on the "show." Which animals were the audience. And which animal was the host of the "show." I did not ask Spencer what exactly he meant by "show," but my sense is that the "show" was like a circus performance.

Michael, now done with piano practice, must have been intrigued (or at the very least, interested). He came upstairs to see what was happening. Spencer began explaining to Michael the intricacies of the animal placements, and also told Michael that he, Spencer, had not used any of the stuffed cats in his show (Spencer knows that Michael loves cats and would want to include cats in his audience if Michael made his own show). And so he did. Michael later retrieved me from the kitchen to "see what they had done." Michael had followed Spencer's lead and had his animals arranged in groups that included a grouping of extinct animals and a grouping of underwater animals, among others. But the boys had not stopped there. They had added new levels to the animal groupings. They detailed the familial relationships between various animals, and who had adopted whom, including four generations of monkeys in which each generation had adopted the next generation.

One thing I notice and admire when the boys play together like this is that they bounce ideas off of one another. They look to the other for approval. They are encouraging and supportive of one another. And very creative in a cooperative way. It is so sweet. It is possibly my very favorite thing about how they play together. It makes me glad they have each other.