Fireman Sam (and other TV shows)

So the boys are both really into TV, and I must admit they watch more than I would like. It's usually the first thing they do in the morning. On daycare days they'll wake up and play/watch tv for about a half an hour before we finally get out the door. Then they'll watch another 30-ish minutes in the evening while we make and/or pick up dinner. For a while, they seemed pretty content to watch whatever the other (mostly Mudgie) wanted to. Recently, however, Aaron has strong opinions about what he wants to watch. Mostly, he wants "Jungle," "George," or "King." All these revolve around animal characters. Mudgie, however, has been completely obsessed with Fireman Sam. The show has a boy who is always being naughty and doing something he's not supposed to, usually resulting in a fire. I can't stand the show, but the ensuing battle between Mudgie and Aaron doesn't help to make me any fonder of it. For his part, once it's on, Aaron is pretty good about putting up with it!

It was a pretty boring week. Our house goes on the market next week, so we've been doing our best to pick it up and keep it clean. To try to maintain a presentable house, I took the boys to JamTime (an indoor play space) to run around and burn off some energy on Saturday. This is an environment that really seems to highlight their differences. We'd been there before, but Aaron is much more independent now, making those differences all the more evident. Mudgie spotted 2 little toy tractors just after we got there and started playing with them. Aaron roamed around to scope out all the stuff. Mudgie then found a big ride-on digger that he wanted to play with, but he also didn't want to give up the little tractors. After I told him he couldn't hoard all the toys he liked, he tried to convince Aaron to play with the little tractors (so he could take them back when he was done with the ride-on toy). Aaron, however, didn't want to be tied down to 1 toy, and refused. Mudgie got really upset and wanted to go home, but Aaron was having such a good time, and we had just gotten there, so I told him we were staying. After a little crying, we found a nice quiet place for him to play on his own. Then, Aaron the explorer, discovered the ball pit. Shortly after that, Mudgie decided he was ready to join in, and the two of them had a nice time in there. After that, they moved to the bouncey house, where they invented a game where I'd push them down. They loved that one! After that they were both in a great mood and played until lunch.

Mudgie still needed to right near me the whole time, but Aaron was happy to go off and explore. While I always knew where he was, he would come find me every few minutes to "check in," but was fine running all over the place by himself. In a lot of ways, these boys are very similar. They are both cuddlers, they both love my belly button, and they both shun vegetables. But in a lot of ways, they are so different, and a place like that highlights some of those differences.