Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Big Fun for Little Brother

Sometimes I forget that Little Brother is so little. With Big Kids involved in school, sports, Scouting and Brazilian martial arts, I have a lot of places to go. He also comes along with me twice a week to volunteer in the school lunchroom--and he actually HELPS! His favorite job is stacking the trash cans at the end of the lunch seatings. He gets very annoyed if someone else starts to do that job.
But Little Brother is only 3 1/2. And despite the fact that he still needs help dressing himself, zipping his jacket, and buckling into his car seat, it's easy to forget that this quite articulate little guy really is a LITTLE guy.
Today, though, he got to do some things that were just for him. First of all, we attended the Open House for our town's "Play School" run by the high school child care class. It's a little over an hour, up to 4 days a week, free of charge. Little Brother will hear stories, make crafts, play with play-dough, paint pictures and play with toys. If only there were a school bus he could ride, it would be perfect in his mind!
Naturally he left Play School with play-dough on the brain. But our play-dough was hard as a rock, from not being covered properly the last time he and the neighbor kids played in it. Then I remembered that "way back when" I used to make play-dough for Big Brother and Middle Sister. I dug out the recipe and found all the ingredients. 10 minutes later Little Brother was in his glory at the kitchen table, mashing away with some old cookie cutters. Meanwhile I started getting some things ready for dinner.
Sometimes it's Good To Be 3. And Little Brother needs to be 3. He spends a lot of time trying to keep up with the Big Kids and their friends. I don't want him to miss the fun of being 3 because he's busy hanging with teenagers.

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