The Play's the Thing

The day has at long last arrived. Despite Big E.'s confidence that the day was coming, I will honestly tell you that I didn't believe to be possible.

I remember the first day it happened with Mermaid Princess and Flash. She had just turned three; he was a 21 months old. It was a Saturday morning. I had grabbed an old washcloth and some cleaning solution to see how many cabinets I could wipe down before the calls for me to settle a hair-pulling offense echoed from upstairs. As I wiped down the last cabinet, my eyes welled with tears as I suddenly realized, "They are playing together... happily, joyfully playing together. They might actually grow up to LIKE one another."

In the fort we built today, companionably reading.

Yesterday is the day JackJack joined the Chambers Playtime Club. All three kids played together for ONE HOUR yesterday morning without needing mommy to settle the issue of who gets the blue block.

Honestly, I thought it was fluke. Perhaps caused by sunspots or the timing of the moon. But no, such joy was repeated today, replete with reams of giggles.

And of course, I was so stunned, I failed to get a picture of the three of them. Forgive me for my surprise - it has taken us a long time to get over JackJack's celiac-inspired temper, and no one more so than Flash. I am so proud of him for choosing to forgive his little brother and decide to take the guy under his wing instead.


I will give an immense amount of credit for their general pleasure in each other's company to the book Siblings Without Rivalry, the parenting book that has most contributed to our children getting along. The info in it is not intuitive whatsoever. I just about fell over the first time I tried one of their techniques and it worked.