Brothers

It has been great to have Zach home for the summer, and Drew has really enjoyed having his big brother around to play with. I read recently that siblings fight an average of 3.5 times an hour, which adds up to 10 minutes of every hour. Zach and Drew are probably pretty close to that average, but it depends on the day. They do play really well and get along well for the most part. One day recently, Drew and I were talking about friends, and Drew said, "I have one friend, and that friend is Zach." My dad also overheard the boys having a conversation when he was here where Zach said something along the lines of, "...that's because I love you, Drew," and Drew's response was, "I love you, too, Martin." (Martin is the latest of names that Drew calls Zach, I am Aviva or Abiva (not sure which), and Drew wants to be called Bro. These are characters in a cool show they've watched on PBS called Wild Kratts.)

Now that it's summer, one of the things the boys have been into has been sleepovers.

During the school year, sleepovers are pretty much only allowed on weekends or when we have company using Zach's room, but during the summer, the rules are different. If there's nothing big going on the next day, we don't mind a sleepover. The boys do well with it, though Drew normally has a harder time settling down than Zach. I think part of that stems from Drew taking naps in the afternoon and Zach not, so Zach is much more tired when 8:00 rolls around. Last night they were sleeping in Drew's room, and I was listening to them on the monitor. After a while, I heard Zach say, "If you don't turn off the light, I'm going to go tell Mom and Dad." Then Drew said, "No, I'm going to go tell Mom and Dad." Good one, Drew. At one point Mike went upstairs and Drew had his cowboy boots on. Last week when we went to go to bed, I peeked in on the sleepover boys, and found Drew asleep with his slippers on.

One of the coolest things is that Zach is getting better and better about reading, and he can read books to Drew now. Reading to Drew builds Zach's confidence and helps Drew get even more interested in reading himself. Drew already loves books like crazy, but this makes him more interested in learning how to read, I guess.

Tonight before bed, Mike, Zach, Drew, and I were all reading together, and the first book Drew picked was an easy one, so Zach read it to us all. The second book was Frosty, The Snowman, and Drew insisted that it was his turn to read, so he and Mike tag-teamed it, and Mike read some words, and Drew "read" some others. It's so great to have kids who love books. It makes me sad to think of kids who don't get read to every day (or ever), and how much they're missing out on.

Mike and I had our tenth anniversary last week. To celebrate, we took the boys out to dinner at PF Chang's (which went better than I expected), ate outside (something I love to do), and then walked around the little lake at the mall. It was a nice night, and a perfect way to celebrate with our boys. We even got some cute pictures of them by the water.

I included this next one because I think it's funny how Jake is reaching for Drew. I was a teeny bit nervous about Zach holding Jake on the rocks next to the water, but he handled it fine and nobody fell in.

There were lots of geese in the water, and at one point we saw some people who we sort of know from our neighborhood, and they gave Zach and Drew each a half piece of bread to feed to the geese. Right after I took this picture below, that goose reached up and snatched a piece of bread right out of Zach's hand when he wasn't looking. It was hilarious.

It was one of those great days/nights where Mike and I reminisced about our wedding 10 years ago and how much our lives have changed in that time. In 10 years, we've lived in 2 apartments and owned 2 houses, had a few jobs including Mike's current job as a P.T. and small business owner, had 3 kids, owned 2 dogs, owned 7 different cars (whoa!), gained more family members than we've lost (primarily a bunch of nephews), and taken a few trips. It's been a good 10 years, and spending our anniversary with our 3 sweet boys doing nothing too special was very special in and of itself.