Mace & the Monster

I will spin this two ways:

First, the literal. Mace has to come and put his glasses on the kitchen counter every night before bed so he won't fall asleep with them on and torque them even more than they already are. On Friday nights, he can stay up a little later and play in his room, but he's still really good about coming out and depositing the glasses before he goes to sleep. This Friday, he comes out and gets distracted by some piece of something he sees - picks it up and says, "What's this?" PJ tries to be funny and says, "Mace, it's a monster!" Now Mace, in true Mace fashion, takes a second to actually hear what dad said, then it sinks in. He drops the thing like it's on fire, jumps backward, shrieks and looks around him - trying to spot the monster in the room. PJ thinks it's hilarious - Mace, not so much. Poor dude is still terrified of so much: monsters, bugs, bees, snakes, spiders, aliens, and on and on. But he's developing a small sense of humor about it.

Second, Mace and our Monster. He and MaraJade really are best buds. I think their favorite time of the day is the mornings, when Tristen is off to school and before Mace goes. They just play and play and play. Right now, they're playing Monopoly Jr. on top of Twister. My favorite: how they play Hide and Seek. Example: Mace is the finder, Monster the hider. Mace: "1.....2......3.....4.....5.....6..78910 (how they both count), ready or not!" (Looking....Looking) then, "Where are you?" (Muffled voice) "In here!" (Run run run to "secret" location) "Found you!" (laughs and giggles of hilarity) MaraJade: "My turn now!" And over and over. It's even better when they're playing with Tristen, because once Mace finds MaraJade, Mace says, "I wonder where Tristen is?" and Monster says, "I know. I show you. Come on." Drives Tristen crazy.

They have similar interests and senses of humor, both love imaginative play, both go with the flow well, and they're wonderfully innocent still - it's just awesome to watch them. They also fight particularly spectacularly. And Mace is constantly coming in to ask, "Is MaraJade the boss?" or "Is MaraJade a grown up?" because she's such a bossy little cow - but he's the goofball who does what she says! And neither one of them can pick up worth a darn. Send them to a room to pick up 3 toys and in 5 minutes it'll be torn apart. Gotta love them.