Kid for sale

Ezra and Asa love playing together, yet sometimes I wonder why. It seems they are constantly fighting over who has what toy or whose turn it is... Yesterday, as I was walking past their room, Asa came out to see if I could intervene in their latest dispute. He wanted a turn playing with an action figure that Ezra was playing with. (Ezra was willing to share, but not until he was sick of playing with the figure. We're still working on that whole concept of surrendering your own desires...)

They are used to me telling them to share or else they won't get to play at all, so I decided to try a new tactic. I said, "If you guys can't play together without fighting, we'll just have to sell one of you." They both grinned and looked at me waiting for a smile to indicate I was just kidding... but I didn't flinch. My face remained stern.

So Ezra asked, "Why do sometimes people sell their kids?"

"Because they realize they fight too much and the only way to stop the fighting is to sell one of them."

They smiled, again searching my face for a hint that I was merely joking, but finding none, their smiles faded and I could hear the gears whirling in Ezra's head as he tried to make sense of this new revelation. A few moments passed, and he pointed to his brother and said "Sell Asa," which made me laugh... which made them laugh... and breathe a sigh of relief.

They went back to their playing, totally forgetting about the argument they had been in the middle of.

As I told Amy about this conversation, I realized how encouraging it was... Ezra was actually weighing his options: to stay with the parents he has or get to start over with some new parents... And he chose us!

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And a few pictures from our outing downtown last night...

Marlow is walking! She's up to about 8 or 10 steps at a time now.

A natural smile from Asa is hard to capture on camera. Ezra took this one and about a dozen more like it.

Ezra takes a rest from running around chasing his brother and his Uncle Jonathan.