Brotherly love

Up until the last six months, my boys have had a pretty squeaky clean relationship with one another. They have always been buddies and gotten along well. I think their close friendship has partly been due to how vastly different they are. My older son loves to read more than any other past time. My younger son loves to build (and destroy). My older son is happy to play outside. My older son is just finding a love for the outdoors, and in the past has loved his indoor toys more. There are too many difference to record in their personalities and how they approach life.

Recently my #2 has developed strong opinions. He has always been, and still is, mostly laid back in general. But he now speaks up and #1 is not used to interruptions. #2 actually has ideas of what games to play, where to play, and now he actually refuses to go last every time! (How dare he!) He gets very mad and frustrated when #1 wants to read instead of sword fight or wrestle. He refuses to believe he is "too little" to do what he wants to do anymore. After all, he IS 4 1/2 years old!

With all of the recent disagreements and new emotions, you can imagine my elation when I overheard this conversation in the car this morning:

#2: "I think I want to be you."

#1: "That's nice. But God made you to be YOU. You can only be YOURSELF!"

#2: "Okay. But I'd like to be you."