Brotherly love

Elizabeth absolutely adores her big brother Jonathan. And he's always been really good with her, but is especially great now that she can play and interact with him. Elizabeth will do anything to try to be like him - including eating her vegetables. (Yes, we shamelessly use that to our advantage at mealtimes.) And, nothing makes her happier than when Jonathan plays with her.

This week, Elizabeth has been so excited because her big brother has been playing with her a lot - even more than normal. He seems to have been extra willing to color with her, play on a pillow bridge, or join in a game of hide-and-go-seek. Now, David and I also know that Jonathan is currently under an involuntary relinquishment of his rights to play video games and computers (aka, grounded) in an effort to refocus his advanced intellectual abilities on the assignments he is given to perform away from school (aka, do his homework) ....but, we don't have to burst her little 2-year-old bubble by telling her that, now do we? And, in the process, Jonathan seems to be getting really good at staying in the lines:



He does draw the line at pretending to be an elephant from The Jungle Book, which she's been trying to get him to do for a while now. The Jungle Book is currently her favorite movie, and she's memorized every single scene. So, one of her favorite things to do right now is act out each scene....in excruciating detail. It's pretty funny to watch, because she definitely has a dramatic flair, and she's quite the director also. First, she'll hand us a pretend "costume" and have us put it on. Then, she'll tell us which scene we're in. For instance, "Here's your Bagheera costume, Mommy." Then, she'll put on her Mowgli "costume" and climb on my back and act out the scene where Mowgli rides on Bagheera through the jungle. Then, it's on to another costume change...so I'll put on my Kaa "costume" and wake her up while she's sleeping in the tree....then I'll have to change into my elephant "costume" and wake her up by marching through the room and singing. It gets pretty elaborate. I guess you could say, "It's a Jungle" over here!



So, if any of our Houston family wants to send us back her Cinderella DVD, so we can try to distract her from her "Jungle" phase, it would be greatly appreciated! :)