In preschool, it's what you'd call an "A/B pattern."

So a weird detente of sorts has been established between Eddie and Chas and the neighbor boy, Daniel. It started the other day when Eddie walked up to him and said, "We should be friends because we still know each other."

That broke the ice, for now, and they've been playing together happily. At dinner tonight,Steph asked how they liked playing with Daniel again. They said it was nice. We all agreed it's best to be friends with your neighbors if you can and I said I was pleasantly surprised by the renewal of their friendship. "It's a pattern," Eddie said nonchalantly. "Wha?" I asked. "It's a pattern," he repeated. "First we're friends, then we're not. Then we're friends again and then we're not. Now, we're friends again." Then he gave me a "whaddya gonna do?" shrug and took another bite of cous cous. (Which he and Chas have decided to call either "goose goose" or, more ridiculously, "mongoose." Don't ask.)