Tuesday 29 July 2008

Precious Moments

The times when the two boys play well together happens sporadically through out the day. It usually is a short session, maybe the most would be 20-30 minutes. Reason being, eventually they will each have their own different ideas and not being able to come to a compromise, they will end with a quarrel, sometimes yelling, crying, toys/ structure smashing....

Other times when they are happily playing together, their conspiracy gets disbanded by an adult in the house because they would have been up to some mischief, which had set them into peals of uncontrollable giggles, almost into fits of mad delight. Here the adult will expect to find something like water splashing, soap and bubbles all over the floor, including two boys rolling all over the floor, wet and slippery from all the foam. (See what I mean by a fit?)

Just earlier, both the boys were running in circles with a couple of new plastic box files mommy had bought. They were yelling our gibberish to each other, and suggesting things such as " This is how you crash the file," and "crash" goes the file on the floor or the table. Then Max had to do it: "crash it on the mirror." That obviously was the end of their fun. Mommy kept the files away, leaving a crying Max and moaning Micah to figure what to do with themselves next.

But here's the moment of very civil play the boys did two days ago. They took turns, forgave each other when an accident happened and reconstructed their castle again and again with no fuss. That was maybe a good 20 minutes of play until it was dinner time.

Splendid.


6 comments:

JLow said...

I guess it's good, in a way, that they learn the concepts of compromise and negotiation, even if it fails!

The downside of single child, I guess, is that they don't get to exercise these. When I play with Caitlin, I guess she does get her way most of the time, being that Daddee will play along with her imagination in how the toys ought to be played...

It is therefore up to Daddee to be more creative to find new ways of playing with the same toys... So that I can call them our own precious moments too! Until Caleb is old enough to participate / negotiate!

Ann said...

Oh...building sets/blocks! Good that that managed to keep them quiet!

Hope in future my son will also be able to sit quietly and play with his building blocks.

Moomykin said...

jlow,

I also think it's a good thing for them to learn to negotiate and when not at it, we repeatedly tell them things like to be kind and generous to one another.

The grandparents however seems to prefer the tactics of distract and pacify...

it'll be fun to see what Caleb and Caitlin will be negotiating over. Probably the TV's remote! Hahaha...

Moomykin said...

ann,

Every child is different, but some things can be influenced by good friends.

Max loves building things from the start. Micah actually caught on from his brother.

Before Max came along, all Micah was interested were running, jumping, climbing, and the things he sits down for were just reading and computers.

JLow said...

I actually think my kids will be fighting (not nego!) over toys, when that age(s) arrive!

Moomykin said...

jlow,

you'll be surprised what words they'll use on each other, the kind they pick up from adults around them.

Micah scold his brother a lot, like how we scold him, with all the : "NOW!!" and "No More!" and "Now You're in Trouble!!"

Oops...