Three's a (fun-loving) crowd

Somewhere in the past couple of months, the dynamics of our three kids has changed. It used to be baby Lucy was doted on and fought over constantly (well this does still happen). Then it seemed like Austin and Lucy got along better and Bennett felt left out. Then more recently Bennett and Lucy became good playmates and Austin was more left out and just seemed... older. But lately, suddenly, all three seem to enjoy playing together. Lucy seems old enough to enjoy the older boys' make believe games and Austin seems not too old still to play.  They like playing boat, camping, going to America (lots of that one lately), tickling and wrestling, reading to each other, chasing baby hippos (that was last weekend). Lucy has gotten interested in playing cars. Building blocks. And so on. Now, the three of them peacefully playing together only lasts so long, but it does last sometimes now. I sometimes worried that Lucy would feel left out with two older brothers so close in age, but at least for now, they all seem to be enjoying each other.

 We learned recently that Nero was the first person to put points on a crown (he styled it after Jupiter, who he decided was his ancestor). So we made crowns and Austin was king, Bennett a prince and mei mei of course was the princess.

 What could be more fun than taking turns pushing each other and riding in the stroller? Especially when you have a large, flat concrete area with (amazingly) few people. And on rollerblades. Note- Austin was getting pretty tired.

 They spent a couple hours in these "woods" in the park across the street. They found centipedes, ants, sticks, climbed trees and pretended they were monkeys for quite awhile. These woods have the added bonus of being near a train track (don't worry it is separated from the park) so you can have your nature and trains too!

They were looking out for hippos. Not sure how that started, but I think it was Lucy's idea. She LOVES animals of all kinds right now. They ended up walking about 20 baby hippos home with them on imaginary leashes. Boy, those hippos pulled and pulled and tired them out :)