Allow me to introduce you to my two children, Monkey #1:

and Monkey #2:

More and more these days, my children are the living incarnate of monkey see, monkey do. Eric does something, Danny mimics it. This morning, Eric was sitting on the stairs and, being a goof, shaking his head back and forth. Danny walked over, laughed, sat down, and started shaking his head. Later, Eric was playing some game that I guess he picked up at school. “Sit down, criss cross applesauce (crossing his legs), shake your whole body, aaaaand fall down!” So what does Danny do? Yep, he comes over, sits down, and then throws himself to the floor and busts a gut laughing.

The boys came over to the fridge for their drinks after school the other day. I gave Eric his, he gave me an energetic “thank you!” and went off. I put the lid on Danny’s, got him to verbalize for it (owk, his word for milk), and gave it to him. With a huge smile, he gave me a cheery “ay oo!” and followed his brother into the living room. Too bad Eric doesn’t give him opportunity to speak for himself more often!

What Danny doesn’t imitate, Eric does with or for him. He shares all his snacks with Danny, he gives toys to Danny, he tries to play with Danny the same way I do with him and Danny both. There never seems to be anything but a small token objection, and often there isn’t even that; he genuinely wants to do it.

We knew having our kids close together was something we wanted. Then, Danny came in a flourish of hospitalizations and fears, and for the past couple years I’ve honestly kind of questioned and resented that desire. I knew I couldn’t change the past, but having them so close in age created more work than I ever expected; after all, if I hadn’t been pregnant at the time, I would have caught CMV from Eric, become CMV immune, and then (hopefully, theoretically) had a perfectly healthy child. Hindsight’s 20/20, right?

Now, finally, I’m remembering and living why I was so excited to have two boys so close together. Eric goes up to Danny randomly to give him a hug and a kiss. “Danny, I love you.” Then they go off together, and the house fills with the laughter of two boys who totally dig each other, and who these days seem to do everything together.

It’s pretty awesome.