Onto something

New things are happening at the Ryan's. Gavin is now afraid of monsters and penguins. He wakes up and says one or the other is there and scary. We have no idea where the monsters came from, but we are fairly sure the penguins were from a video. Either way, it's frustrating to try and convince an illogical three year old there are no scary penguins in his room at 3am.
Brayden has dropped his morning nap (mostly). He gets pooped by 11:30, but is usually quite the trooper and makes it until 1, so mommy can have the boys down together. I miss the morning nap terribly, but I am pretty sure Brayden is just fine with more play time and less down time. Sometimes I still try to give him the morning nap and it works, other times he happily chats to himself and yells "mama" whenever he hears someone walk by his door. I usually get him after 20 minutes of this...and try not to lament the loss of my time alone.
The newest and greatest as of late is (no, not the minivan) the fact that Gavin and Brayden are playing together now. They play trucks together, they play trains together, they ride their riding toys together and you frequently hear laughter in the process. It's amazing.
Gavin is fully embracing his big brother role. He loves to boss Brayden and you can often here him yelling, "Mama, Brayden's doing something." It's handy and obnoxious all at the same time. Gavin also likes to pick out toys for Brayden (probably so he can have the ones he wants, but I like to believe it's out of genuine kindness) and make sure he's occupied. He'll tell me to "set the timer" when Brayden has a toy he wants, because he needs his turn "soon". He has also become very good at holding Brayden's hand in parking lots and driveways and walking Brady where he needs to go (I will admit he likes to tell me, "Mom, it's your turn to hold him").
I am not sure exactly what the "Little brother" role is, but Brayden is fairly independent. He will happily get himself involved in an activity, but wants to be close by Gavin most the time. If Gavin is involved in something Brayden likes, Bray jumps right in (or on, in cases like the trains...this causes some problems). He will run to find Gavin if I ask where brother is and scream in delight (and I mean scream...to the point people on the phone think an injury occured...but it's just his "happy"). I will say, he definitely does not understand why he can't do big boy things and I believe is already pretty sure that life isn't fair. But mostly, you can tell he loves his brother.
All in all, it has been a relief. Do we still struggle with sharing? FOR SURE! Do we still scream when someone touches another "special toy"? You betcha! But in between I am hearing,
"Bray Bray, come here. I've somesing to show you."
"Bray Bray, here's your plane, let's ride!"
"Bray Bray, comeon!"
"Mom, what's Bray doing?...Oh, I'll find him!"
All of these usually met by screams of delight.
I'll take it. I'll take the screaming, I'll take the timer setting, I'll take the refereeing. Because for the moment, my boys are more than brothers, thet're friends. They are onto something...I pray diligently it remains!