I want you to love me like my dog does, baby

Occasionally, the children's interactions with each other sound like this:

"ZEKE! Give it back!"

"You weren't using it."

"It's MINE!"

"I don't care."

"You're stupid."

"No, you're stupid."

"Mama, Zeke called me 'stupid!'"

"MAMAAAAAA!!!"

It's annoying as hell.

But most of the time, I hear a lot of giggling and sounds of things crashing followed by "don't tell Mama!" and happy chatter.

I grew up with two younger brothers, and the age difference between Josh and me is the same as that between Zeke and Josie, but I don't remember playing with him as much as Josie and Zeke play together. I remember being more solitary in my playtime pursuits as a kid, though I could be totally misremembering some of the earlier years.

In any event, I love that they get to go through these years together, entertaining each other endlessly.  They even still want to marry each other.

Reading a book together (naked, of course)

Here are some of their favorite activities:

• playing "mamas and babies."  Zeke is usually the baby.
• bouncing on my bed, which for some reason also involves pulling all of the blankets and pillows from elsewhere in the house into my room.  They work flips in when they jump from the arm of the sofa in my bedroom onto the bed, and then have enough momentum to flip over or go crashing into the headboard (which is padded, thank goodness).  Lately they've added the stability ball into the mix, so they're bouncing on the stability ball on the bed.  Sometimes I feel like I should put a stop to this on the grounds that someone could get hurt, but I guess they'll figure it out.
• throwing things off the second floor balcony into the front yard (they get in trouble for this, but they do it anyway). 
• pushing each other around the house in laundry baskets
• playing "roly poly," a game in which they sit on opposite ends of the hallway, set up obstacles between them, and roll a little blue ball back and forth between them
• going outside to look for worms and slugs in the garden
• going around the block, either walking or on their bikes (they're allowed to do this by themselves)
• playing hide and go seek, or as Josie now calls it, "hide and go Zeke"

They're getting more creative.  The other night I was reading and they came into the room, naked from the waist down, holding ice packs (the kind you stick in a cooler) on their butts.  

"Hi, Mama."

"Hi.  What are you doing?" I asked.

"We're putting ice packs on our butts," Zeke explained.

"Yes, I can see that.  Why?"

"We want to see whose butt gets redder."

"Ah."

"Do you want me to get you an ice pack, Mama?"

"No, thanks.  I'm good."

I went back to my book.

Recently I heard Zeke say, "hey, Josie, want to play 'dog?'"

"Sure!"

Turns out the game consists of Josie pretending to be a dog while Zeke throws things down the hallway for her to fetch.

"Aw, girl," I thought to myself.  "Grow some self respect."

"Josie, don't act like a dog.  You don't want to be treated like a dog," I implored.

"I like dogs, Mama!"  she responded.

OK, then.