All Things Haley: Growth #23

It's a big thing to be able to say your kids can "play" with other kids...that they've reached that age where they can actually play with people instead of just staring off into the fuzzy distance or inconsistently shaking a toy in the approximate direction of another human being.

Our kids actually played with their cousins today.

I'm not gonna say they were playing make-believe or dress-up or anything, but they were genuinely interested in what their cousins were up to and taking part in any way possible. Probably the best moment was watching both Grace and Caleb simply adore Kate and Everett's enthusiastic attempts at peek-a-boo over the back of the couch. Their faces lit up, they watched intently, they jumped and smiled and waited with anticipation for that next overwhelming "PEEK-A-BOO!" from both of their cousins in unison.

Now, they both pretty regularly stopped "playing" to focus on their intense need to shove whatever toy or object that was being "played" with directly into their mouths. And there were a few times when the "play" got a bit too much for them and they needed a little snuggle, but for the most part they were happy to sit close to their cousins, try to get onto their laps or into their hands, and figure out just how to grow up faster so they can do all the cool stuff that they saw before them.

Case-in-point: Grace started mimicking Kate today as they were both on their hands and knees on the floor. Grace was working ever so dilligently at figuring out this whole crawl-forward thing and Kate was working even harder to show her just how simple it really is. Kate made giant crawling motions, counting off every huge slap of the floor with her hands then her knees. Grace watched very closely, rocking back and forth between crawl position and sitting (a new skill, by the way). Then, after about 30 seconds of Kate's demonstration, I looked at Grace as she very emphatically threw one hand then the other down onto the floor with more force than I've ever seen her use. She was trying to do what Kate was doing! If she could, she would have thrown both knees out the same way and followed right along with her cousin in perfect parade fashion. Instead, she threw those hands down twice and then went back to watching, I'm sure wondering just how long it would take for her to truly figure this whole thing out.

She had that fire in her eye... It won't be long, baby girl. Believe me.