My kids are amazing.

First off, sorry I've been gone for so long. Rosh Hashanah started Wednesday night then we had Shabbat right after that. I've been thinking about blogging. I just haven't done it until now.

As for my offspring, some days, I want to drop kick them out the window. Some days are filled with whining and bickering and hair-pulling (that last part would be me in response to the first two). Other days, however, are like yesterday.

The Boy woke up from his nap while I was folding laundry. So Girl1 went in to him while Girl2 stayed out to help me. I heard Girl1 singing the ABC's. After a few rounds of that, she switched to "Twinkle Twinkle." Suddenly she stopped singing, the door opened and her head popped out. "He said 'ABC' when I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." I encouraged her to try to teach him his ABC's. The interactions that followed cracked me up.

She proudly announced when she got him to sing, "ABC," "EF," then "G" (repeatedly) and "L."

I overheard her actually reviewing the letters and their sounds with him. That made me smile.

Then I heard her tell him, "Listen, you spell dog D-O-G. Will you spell dog? Come on, you can do it." That made me giggle.

I'm so glad that they get along so well. I've been so blessed by the fact that my girls are fabulous with their brother. Yes, my twins bicker amongst themselves, but overall, they get along well together. But they've never known life without the other. I wondered how they would act/react when a new one came along. I have been absolutely floored by how sweet and loving they are with him. And his tenderness towards them shocks me too. He can be all boy. He tends to be much more aggressive and even more sinister than his sisters were. Yet, today, at the mall playground, I watched as he spotted one of his sisters, climbed down off the slide, ran over to her and hugged her out of nowhere.

His first steps were to his sisters. And they were quite content to stand there cheering him on for as long as he needed.

I want to know what I can do to foster this. Please don't think I'm playing super mom. Much of their interaction seems to be quite by luck. I don't know that I had much if anything to do with it. But I do want to find a way to help them continue to be friends. The love and understanding I see between them is absolutely amazing.