Play Time

The other morning, as the boys were eating breakfast, Matthew called to me.  "Mama!  I made a tuuu-tle!"

"What?" I answered, walking into the dining room. 

There was Matthew, grinning and pointing to his overturned bowl  and spoon.  "Turtle!  I made a tuuuu-tle!"

When Cameron was 2 years old, he was obsessed -- and I do mean OBSESSED -- with Thomas the train.  He'd play for hours and hours with his trains.  Matthew, on the other hand, will play with the trains for a few minutes and then he's on to something new.  I've been trying to capture his attention and recently reorganized our toy area to include more Montessori-style works.  So far, Matthew's favorite is a matching game.  I bought two sets of animals from the $1 bin at Target and -- ta daaaa! -- Matthew will sit and match up the animals over and over!

I theorize that Matthew's interests are different than Cameron's were at this age in part BECAUSE of Cameron.  Matthew sees Cameron playing with his Legos and building with his Superstructs and playing soccer and, somehow, Thomas the train doesn't quite compare.  Sadly, most of the time the boys are playing together goes something like this:

Matthew:  MINE!

Cameron:  NOOOOOO!  Mommy!  Matthew's breaking my Lego Anakin Skyship Galaxy Raider that I invented!  Matthew!  NO!

Matthew:  NOOOOOO!  Didi!  Give dat to me!

Together:  NOOOOOOOO!!!!  MOMMY!!!!!

It's a challenge to find activities that hold both of their interest without dissovling into wrestling over the Lego Squidman pieces.

So I was thrilled the other day when Cameron built a Superstruct space vehicle and Matthew used the overturned Bilibos and his astronaut set to create a space scene.  By the way, check out the astronaut set.  As soon as I saw it, I had to have it -- there is one white astronaut and one black astronaut!