ahhh, four year olds

Saw this on a web site:

"Energetic" and "imaginative" best describe the 4-year-old. Often impatient and silly, they discover humor and spend a great deal of time being silly and telling you "jokes." A 4-year-old's language may range from silly words such as "batty-watty" to profanity. Bathroom words are a favorite around here ;) Loud, boisterous laughter may accompany such language.

Imagination suddenly becomes greater than life for the 4-year-old, who often confuses reality and "make-believe." Wild stories and exaggerations are common. More on this below.

Four-year-olds feel good about the things they can do, show self-confidence, and are willing to try new adventures. They race up and down stairs or around corners, dash on tricycles or scooters, and pull wagons at full tilt. You still need to watch them closely as they cannot estimate their own abilities accurately and are capable of trying some outlandish and dangerous tricks. Everyday occurences around here!

So I have the joy of having two of those creatures living with us and boy do they make us laugh with all the stuff they come up with. Their vocabulary, their concepts of ideas concrete and abstract, their rationalization are all things that are increasing exponentially day after day.

Hubby and I often mention how lucky they are to have each other. I still remember those darker days of sleeplessness when they were babies and we were just coping from one day to the next and people would try to cheer us up and tell us not to worry, it'll get easier when they are older and they will play together. "Ya right", was my answer at the time. Then how I worried in their early toddler stages when they NEVER played together. Parallel play was what they did which is really the norm at that stage anyways. But gradually, they've become buddies and actually miss each other when , on the rare occasion, they are apart from each other. Sibling love for sure. But I think with an extra twist as they've been "together" since they were a mere group of growing cells.

Four year olds are a peculiar bunch. I see their interactions daily when I go pick them up at pre-school. There's a certain social order on who plays with whom. Girls and boys seem to naturally separate each other for play. And then, when a squabble occurs between two friends, the infamous line comes up "you're not my friend anymore!" or the more brutal "I'm not inviting you to my birthday party anymore!" Imagine us adults being so frank with each other!

I'd have to say that baby girl and baby boy get along well together about 90% of the time which is pretty good. Like at church when they come back from Sunday School to go sit on the front pews and we see them walk past us naturally holding each other hands which elicits a profound "ahhh" from us. Or the way they chit-chat with each other before falling asleep. Or the imaginary games they come up with which will occupy them for long stretches of time.

Yesterday afternoon was day 4 of the long week-end and they were starting to get on each other's nerves. I was folding some clothes and baby girl comes up to me complaining about something or other her brother did and states with a firm attitude: " he's not my friend anymore!" To which I smile and gently explain to her that he's your brother and will always be no matter what. She ponders this new bit of information and goes back to play with him. I can hear them squabbling over something or other again and baby girl comes running back to me, stands in front of me, legs apart, hands on her hips, red fuming face and bellows "ya, well he's not my twin anymore!"

Ahh, four year olds!!