Fin Visits

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I watched a neighbor's son while she worked. He is Parker's age and they get along fairly well, so it seemed like not too big a deal to add one more kid at Chez Long. Fin is an only child and it shows more than I thought. Examples include wanting me to engage with him almost the whole day, thinking that when he wanted a toy that he could immediately get it, and when he wanted to leave a location, we could just leave. Don't get me wrong, Fin is a nice kid, but the difference between my three and him was quite clear quite quickly. My kids understand, even if they don't like it, that if someone else is playing with something, they have to wait until their turn. (They even say to me now when seeing a toy unattended, "Mom, when Parker isn't playing with it, it's my turn right?") They also understand, but again, don't like, that when we are at the park with other kids, we stay there until it's time to go or when everyone is ready to go, not when it suits your personal fancy.

Another thing Fin does it ask a lot of questions. And when I say a lot, I mean a ton. "Why are you wearing that shirt? What are you doing? Why? When? Why can't we watch tv? Is that a rule? etc etc"

My favorites were: While we were driving away from the bank, "Parker's Mom, are you coming with us in the car?" "Yes, Fin. How do you think the car would drive without me?" "Oh, yeah."

Or..at Parker's swim class:

"Is that the pool? Is Parker there? I can't seem him. Where is he? What do they do in the pool? What is the pool for?" My response: "Seriously?"

Parker really liked having him around, even though Fin didn't understand that Parker likes to play by himself a lot. They would play together for a long while and then one would do something else. The other one would come to me to say "Fin isn't playing with me anymore." Then just minutes later, Fin would say, "Parker isn't playing with me anymore." It was nice to see Parker interacting so well with someone his own age. He can be bit bossy (when someone isn't doing something 'right' and he is getting a little annoying with all the "I can do that better than you" crap, but I suppose that is an age thing.) But all in all they had fun together and looked forward to each other's company. Which is good since I'm watching him next week too.

At one point, they were walking next to each other at the bank and someone said, "Are they twins?" I just laughed and said, "Nope."