Siblings

Friends, I need a moment of silence, to honor a magical experience happening in our home these days: 

Miriam and Nikolai are playing together, and haven't learned to fight with each other yet!

*...............*

Really guys, it's incredible. They play with toys, they build with Legos, they chase each other around shrieking (a bit hard on my ears, sure, but they do love it!), and more! They have little disagreements, yes, but they haven't learned to get into full-blown fights yet. (Anyone with older kids want to let me know how long we've got until that happens?) Until they do, we're in a blissful, magical land of sibling play, and I love it! 

The other day, I was reading on the couch (which I'm doing basically constantly in order to read all of the books required for one of my classes) and the kids were watching tv quietly. I heard Niko say something to Miri, and then I looked over and saw this:

😍😍😍😍

Seriously. I think I melted into a puddle of happy mom-ness. 

Also super cute: Miri wanted to help mix the pancakes the other day, and she actually did a good job! I was definitely expecting her to try for a minute and then get stir-crazy (*ba-dum-chhhhh*), but she stirred slowly and carefully the whole time. 

(ok, except for at the end when I came in with a fork to finish it off and began mixing vigorously--then she got a HUGE grin on her face and started mixing crazy too)

And finally, here's the latest picture stump picture: