New Friends

This post is about Eirik and his "best" friend Benjamin .
Since Erin and I love to hang out all the time, our boys get to be together all the time. This has been a great blessing for all of us, and yet lately it has become quite comical. As these boys' personalities are starting to come more into focus, their differences are too. Eirik is a very needy, social, interactive, impatient, no attention span type of boy. Benjamin, on the other hand is very independent, meticulous, detailed, scrutinizing, and reflective. These traits make them great friends since they learn a lot from each other (I fear Eirik learns more positive traits from Benjamin than vise versa) but it also creates some interesting dynamics. For example, Eirik always wants to play with what Ben has, so Ben has developed a helpful tactic. When he finds a toy he wants to play with, he gets it and runs and hides before Eirik can try to take it away or trade him for something else. Eirik will of course chase him and Benjamin will turn and push him to keep him away from his prized toy. Then Benjamin gets in trouble and has to say he's sorry and share. Poor Benjamin, he just wants to be left alone. Eirik loves to give hugs. In fact, he likes it so much that sometimes I think he hits Benjamin so that he can quickly say sorry and give him a hug. Ben hates hugs and runs away from Eirik leaving him crying and chasing him. This happened at church. Eirik was so happy to see Benjamin at church that he chased him out of sacrament on their way to nursery. Eirik was insisting that Benjamin hold his hand, but Benjamin would have nothing to do with it. He ran from a crying frustrated Eirik pleading "Bejamees, hand, hand!!" all the way down the hall. Eirik is always trying to play catch with Ben. He gives him the ball or the bat or the net or whatever and then Benjamin goes off to play with it by himself. Eirik gets so frustrated. It just cracks me up, and makes me sad because Ben just wants Eirik to LEAVE HIM ALONE, and Eirik just wants someone to play with him ALL THE TIME!
I just hope they stay "best buds". Eirik still squeals with delight when I say we are going to Benjamin's house. I just hope Benjamin doesn't start hating to have Eirik around. Erin and I just wouldn't be able to deal with that! :)