The Fantastic Three

Recently,  Jeff noticed a sign hanging in the basement that read, "Property of the Awesome 2".  Later, after inquiry about Samuel's inclusion, the sign was replaced with one reading, "Property of the Fantastic 3".

I just love watching these kids together.  They don't get along all the time, of course.  I wish I could fast forward through the first and last 30 minutes of each day, for example, and maybe the time immediately after school.  But, other than those times when the kids are overly tired, hungry, and cranky, they get along amazingly well.

Most days, Sam is the first one up.  Every morning he asks, "Where's Mah-wee and My-yah?"  On occasion, he even wakes up crying, "I WANT MAH-WEE AND MY-YAH!" I let him climb into bed with me, and we wait until it's time to wake them up for school.  Or, if it's the weekend, we wait to hear the sound of them emerging from their room.  Then Sam bolts out of bed to greet them with hugs, kisses, and "Let's Play!"

One of the most endearing things is hearing Sam ask, "Who I being?"  He knows Marley and Amelia always have some game of pretend going on.  He generally doesn't care what the game is, as long as he can be included.  And his big siblings almost always oblige.  Marley and Amelia are playing Harry and Hermione?  Sam can be Ron.  Mario and Princess Peach?  Sam is Toad.  Luke and Leia? He gets to be Yoda.  His roles aren't always glamorous.  Sometimes he's their child, sometimes their pet.  He never seems to mind, though.

I really love that they each have a special kind of relationship with each other.  Marley and Amelia are constantly creating elaborate fantasy stories that they act out together.  They choose to continue sharing a room, even though they no longer have to.  In fact, much of the time, they prefer to sleep in the same bed.  We've had to limit the bed-sharing to weekends only, though, because they stay up so late talking and playing.

Amelia and Sam are just as close.  All morning, while Marley is at school, they dress up, play with dollies, do puzzles, and read books together.  Amelia is a natural care-giver, so there are very few conflicts when it's just the two of them.

And, though there are nearly five years between Marley and Samuel, even they share a unique bond.  It's a very stereotypically "brotherly" bond, but a strong bond all the same.  They fight with swords and light sabers, they race cars, and build battle ships.  While Amelia has shown pretty much zero interest in the video games Marley plays (Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Star Wars Lego), Sam wants to sit right next to Marley, holding his own controller, and "play", too!

They're even cute when they're misbehaving - especially when they are doing it together.  Once Marley and Amelia decided that they wanted to see what would happen if they squirted toothpaste on their hair.  All three kids locked themselves in the bathroom, but when it came down to it, the older kids decided that they didn't really want to have toothpaste in their hair.  In the end, Sam stood obediently on the bathroom stool while his siblings squeezed the contents of a tube of toothpaste onto his head.

When nothing particularly exciting happened, they began trying to wipe it off with a damp washcloth.  Realizing that it wasn't working, they tried to get Samuel to stick his head into the sink so that they could rinse it out.  It was at this point that he finally protested.  Not knowing what to do next, they came to me for help.  I stuck Sam in the shower and charged the big kids for the wasted toothpaste:)

Another time, Samuel showed up with a big black "X" on the back of his shirt.  When I asked how that happened, Marley informed me that Sam had done it to himself.  He must have realized how improbable this was, because a while later Amelia presented me with a note.  It read, "Dear Mom, I actually drew the "X" on Sam's back.  From Amelia".  I asked Amelia if she knew what the note said, and she replied, "No", and that Marley had written it and told her to deliver it to me (which was obvious since she doesn't really know how to write yet).

I turned the paper over and wrote him a note of my own.  It read, "Dear Marley, I know that you wrote on Sam's shirt, and I still love you.  Don't worry, the marker is washable and you can help me clean it later." Amelia delivered it, and Marley came up to admit that, yes, it was him all along:)

As I sit here 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant, waiting for our newest addition to arrive, I can't help wondering how she will change our family dynamic.  My sister-in-law, Alicia, made a comment on Instagram* about me being creative with the big kids in these final weeks before baby.  She's absolutely right!  Nesting for me this time around has been a crafting, baking frenzy!  I hope the big kids will remember all the fun projects we've done over the last few weeks next month, while I'm busy nursing, changing, and rocking the new baby. In the meantime, at least I know they have each other.

*If you aren't following me on Instagram, you should be!