Common Interests and Blossoming Brotherhood

This post is sponsored by Target. More Turtles, More Bold and Daring Fun: Blur the lines of fantasy and reality with your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Target.

It’s easy to say that these early years are incredibly monumental in the development of a child and their personalities. Each year starting from birth seems to clock in more emotional mileage than the last as they begin to grow into walking, talking small humans. I’m surprised by each of my children every day by how different they are from the week before and how their stages differ from each other at similar ages. Jack, our oldest who is now seven, has become increasingly interested and nearly dependent on his friends in our neighborhood and at school. His decisions for sports, activities and even his clothing are heavily influenced by what his buddies are doing and what they are interested in. It’s been one of the most surprising developments watching him change and grow in this way in the last year, and I can only be grateful that this all just seemed to start once we moved to California.

Jack went into first grade a very typical 6 year old, and he quickly bonded with one or two children who shared his love for basketball and science. They spent more and more time outside of school and eventually went to see a children’s movie together-one that was certainly a common denominator in their interests. In some ways they’ve gotten borderline obsessive about certain characters, brands and movies. Zoe is, like most little girls her age, completely obsessed with the more girly movies. Beau-even though he hasn’t seen it yet-falls over himself over everything with vehicles. Jack has always gravitated to Legos and latched onto the Lego Movie and songs in a way that I haven’t seen him do before. The newest feature coming out that he and his buddies are super excited about is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, it’ll likely be one that we treat him to with a friend or two, again.

With that interest, obviously, comes the desperate need for the toys and gadgets based on the movie, and now that we live close to a Target(finally!), I know right where to go to get them. Our baby moon vacation was coming up this week, so this was perfectly timed with my guilt over leaving them and I was able to grab a few special things to gift them before Justin and I left. Target, of course, did not disappoint. We found tons of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, as well as couple of dolls and even a few planes from Beau’s latest obsession.

Jack is more into the figurines and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Legos themed around the characters, while Beau will play with anything with wheels, specifically the Movie Van. The two of them played seamlessly with those toys-even without seeing the movie first-for hours. Given their age difference and the ages they are at, I haven’t seen as much camaraderie between them as I do with Beau and Zoe together. It was really, really sweet to watch-especially because they weren’t reenacting any fighting scenes. Just sweet brotherhood at it’s finest. Happy, happy momma.

I suspect there will be more movies that the kids will want to see and invite their friends to, and I personally can’t wait to see their excitement over it. I distinctly remember how happy Rainbow Bright and Cinderella made me feel, and how I’d play with those toys with friends for hours on end. It’s a lot of fun for me as a parent to share these moments with my kids, but more so fully embracing how certain toys, stories, and characters help develop bonds between friends and even siblings at their ages.

Thank you to Target for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.