Best Buds

Tuesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week.  Natalie, Luke, and I stay home, and some of my favorite moments happen on these days.  Natalie would likely follow James over a cliff, so she almost always plays with him when he is home.  But when he is at school, she and Luke have a different kind of play--much more of a sweet, little play led by Natalie.  While James is busy doing this (at a friend's 40th birthday party)

or this (at James Thomas's house before baseball)

 
Natalie and Luke get to have some quieter time together.  Well, somewhat quieter.  Luke is talking up a storm, so while he use to sit patiently at a tea party like so

he now says "mine, mine, mine" during the tea party and does NOT wait patiently (excuse the laundry in the background)

As a result, Natalie packs up her tea party and leaves

In addition to being forced to play tea party, Luke also makes a very good patient, sliding partner, and can even help organize Princesses into a proper receiving line

I often feel guilty that so much of Natalie and Luke's days are spent in the car shuffling James between school, practices and games, so I try and do nothing but let them play on Tuesdays.  However, they never mind a trip to the new HEB grocery store.  Much to my delight, Natalie has taught Luke to yell, and they only play this "game" at the grocery store.  I don't know what it is, but I swear every time we pass the cheese and yogurt aisle, these two start yelling back and forth.

Luke calls Natalie "Na Na", which thrills her.  I second guessed naming Natalie Natalie, mainly because I didn't want people calling her "Nat".  But "Na Na" and "Jame" have become the sweetest sound around the house.

I know sometime in the all too near future, James and Luke will likely bond over their love of all things superheroes and sports to the exclusion of Natalie.  But for right now, I am going to relish these slow Tuesdays spent with just these two.  And yes, apparently our Tuesdays are spent being naked (kids) or in pjs (yoga pants for me).

A little lagniappe: here are few of my favorite pictures from the past week.  The first one proves that, on this particular day, Luke loved the swing.  Most days he does not enjoy swinging, but he does LOVE Thomas the Train.  He is very content to go in the living room by himself and play with the trains and Hot Wheels.  The last one is from this morning--I was doing a morning yoga sequence, and James and Natalie joined in.