CHATEAU MABILE

Sharing is such a big deal in our house. There are more fights and arguments and screaming because of sharing (or the lack of) than anything else, and at the same time, more sweet and peaceful moments come as a result of it happening. At Ginny-Beth's one year check-up the doctor said that we needed to be extra patient with Liam because a 3 year old cannot be expected to fully understand or tolerate someone coming in and taking what they see is theirs. We try to be understanding, but at the end of the day, sharing just has to happen and he has to be extra understanding. Ginny's doctor said that when she gets around 18 months we will see a miracle start to happen. She will gain the ability to sort of follow the rules of play and actual start to play with him! I get glimpses of it and that will be a great day!!! Here are some pictures of them playing.

Liam is so obsessed with his trains and track right now. He is getting really impressive with his layouts!

The claw?

When worlds collide. Trains on the race car track.

Ginny thought that was pretty great as well.

One of his first adventures in putting it together in his own way all by himself. I thought he did great! His track and trains have doubled since this picture...

Ah, the day he decided the table was just too small. The first thing he does when he gets up in the morning is start assembling the day's first track set up (yes I DO make him clean it all up each evening...I'm that mean). He loves weaving it around and under things. Some days it stretches from where you see it in this picture all the way around the couch and into the living room or down the hall. Greg wants to get Liam enough track so that he can make a circle all the way from the play area , through the living room and kitchen, and back to the play area. Oh gosh.

Ginny plays very nicely with his trains. She never throws them...although it does look like she's about to toss em like Tebow in this picture.

Hmmmm...now which section of this track should I destroy? That is our #1 problem with the trains. Whether they are up on the table or all over the floor, she likes to pick up the track. She sees Liam doing it and just wants to copy I think. It is a big headache, BUT Liam plays for hours and hours everyday (that is not an exaggeration) with them so I guess relative to the amount of time he spends with them it's really not that bad.

Now here's Liam trying to play with one of her toys WITH her. He wanted to have a picnic and she just didn't understand.

Very upset that she kept messing up his set up.

That's his annoyed face. I absolutely LOVE that face.

Sharing again. Ginny got the purple dog for Christmas and , just as we thought, they both loved it. It sings songs about their favorite things , says their name, and plays bed time music even. Such a cool toy. Anyway, he has always been a bit impressed/jeaolous of it but then we found a video featuring those two on our Netflix and he talked nonstop about how he would have a Scout and she would have her Violet and they would play together and his would say, "I love you Liam" and hers would say "I love you Ginny." The thing is, we paid $21 for hers and it was for Christmas AND he's way too old for it. He lucked up though. I was in the kid's resale shop looking for a pair of black mary jane's for Ginny when I looked over and saw Scout. He was $4.50. I had to buy him! So that night, after he was asleep, we programmed Scout and left him in his bed. You should have heard the gasp when he woke up. He talked about Scout non stop for a week. "HE JUST POPPED UP!!!" Best $4.50 ever.