"The A Says..."

Recently Liam has rediscovered Leapfrog's Letter and Words Factory DVD's...awesome, catchy (if annoying, for parents) movies to teach kids letters and reading. He mastered his abc's with them back when he was 2, and each of my kids in turn followed suit. Today I put batteries in one of their ABC toys, so Liam is obsessed with singing the song and acting out the movie.

He and Audrey were cute together, doing it through one cycle of ABC. Then Audrey started to get bored. Liam, clueless, kept getting in her face saying "audrey's turn..the A says..." - waiting for her to play along. She had enough harassment and kept running away. He'd follow, getting more annoyed.

"Here buddy, I"ll do it with you," I say.

Liam: "No mom, Audrey's turn."

Audrey ran into the kitchen, grabbed an apple, sat at the table and said "No Liam, I need a break!"

She is too much.

Liam kept on with it, relentlessly trying to engage his sister's back. I love it that he wants to play-act with her, and wait to see how it will play out.

Liam plays by himself for a while, singing the song, waiting, for Audrey.

After a while she says, "Ok sweetheart, I'm ready to play now. After I finish my apple."

Moments like these I love - to see how she is learning to communicate with Liam and find her own boundaries, even in the midst of his dogged determination to do what he wants to do.

Now she is reading her book aloud, very loudly, her back to Liam, and he keeps saying "excuse me Audrey" and tapping her shoulder. "The A Says..."

The will figure it out!