O Brother

Listening to a child learn language is one of life's true treasures.  To witness a little person journey from using words for simple identification to connecting words and meanings into communication is magical indeed.  Our Jamie is doing that now, and thus a window into his personality unshutters.

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Jamie, like all younger brothers, looks up to his older brother Alex.  He wants to be able to do what his brother does, and truth be told, his attempts are quite credible.  He rides his tricycle rather skillfully for a two year old, he assembles legos with the patience, dexterity, and the eye of an older boy. He can match his bigger brother admirably in their frequent and frequently rowdy wrestling matches.

Jamie defiantly stakes his claims with loud pronouncements of "mine!"  Yet, forming the multisyllabic, multi-consanant "Alexander" is challenging for his little two year old tongue, so Jamie calls Alex "brother," which is just so darn cute (and inventive!).

Having family nine hours away makes for carefully planned visits that sometimes have a few months in between.  It has been three months since last we saw these boys, and the changes are dramatic.  Alex received his first report card with grade letters instead of global descriptors. He is more confident, more measured, and more insightful--he is more mature.

Jamie is stronger willed (he needs to be as the youngest of two boys!), more independent, more observant, and more articulate.  He still possesses a heck of a sense of humor and a grand unfettered joy about life and people.

I wish we didn't live so far away. I wish we could hop in a car and in a mere hour or two we could pop into their lives.  But life in this postmodern world doesn't often gather families in the same community anymore, so we do what we need to do--we drive and drive and drive.  But it is always worth those hours on the roads of Virginia. It was so very very good to hang out and catch up with these boys, our dear grandsons and two devoted brothers.