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Dadvice B101.5's "Chris & Dee in the Mornings" Chris Centore Games A s parents, we all know one of the greatest things about having children is watching them grow up. There are so many small things we observe on a daily basis that can bring so much pride and joy: seeing them learn how to read and write, their first time striking out in baseball or scoring their first goal in soccer, losing teeth, and watching those marks on the doorway that show how much they've grown in a few years. Sometimes it goes unnoticed, but I always like to step back observe and see how much we've all grown. One of the more interesting things is having two boys who are eerily similar to me—which makes my wife a little scared—play the same games so differently. As Young NC gets closer to seven, he's not as inclined to play the "cutsie" games anymore. He's a big boy now and wants to act that way. However, I can still watch Little A play the big boy games in a "cutsie" way. Last week while putting Little A to bed, we did our normal routine of a story and some fun before he called it a night. On this particular night, he wanted to play with his Hot Wheels, so I let him and watched him have a race with his cars. Young NC has been having nightly Hot Wheel races for a couple of years now and I had seen his way of racing the cars. Well, Little A's race was completely different—from the shape and length of the imaginary track to which car was going to win that night's contest. Until then I figured a race was a race and there wouldn't be a lot of differences when pushing cars around a bed. It intrigued me that two boys who are so alike could be so different when it came to a simple game. Bottom line is that it made me happy to know that they'll always be brothers, but always be themselves. The one thing they did do similarly was not let me win a race - never, ever! 36 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • May 2013