Brother and Sister

"I'm sorry. My brother's using it right now." This was Agatha to another child who wanted the shovel in a sandbox scrum the other evening. I'd never before heard her refer to Henry as "her brother" when speaking to another child. It's hard to put into words the warm and fuzzy feeling it gave me.

This has been the summer of becoming real playmates, maybe even friends. Earlier this week, they spent all afternoon building forts in Henry's room filled with pillows, blankets and stuffed animals which they were planning to sleep in. Henry chickened out at the last moment, choosing his comfy bed instead, but Agatha, undaunted, slept on the floor in his room. And did it again the next night. They took a night off last night, but this morning Michael heard Henry say, "Aggie, do you want to sleep together again tonight?"

Henry also takes responsibility for Agatha more lately. This week she's developed the habit of protesting when I (but not Michael!) drops her off at morning day camp. So on the way to camp today, Henry was instructing her in the back seat: "Now, when we get there, you don't whine or cry or say you're tired. You get out and walk in, and I'll see you later on the playground, okay? If you're tired, you should rest longer in your room, so you have good energy for camp." To which Agatha responded: "I'm tired."

Henry: "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. With the easy way, you get to walk in with me. With the hard way, you'll be crying and have to go in with the teacher. Which way do you want to do it?" Agatha: "The hard way." Henry, musingly: "I thought you were going to say the easy way." Mommy, thinking: Rookie mistake.

People have asked me if the kids will miss each other this year, not being at the same school anymore, at which I have always scoffed. But now I think they really might.