Brothers

For every 2-3 sweet moments like the wagon pulling described in the birthday post, there are 5-6 sour moments between the two Maidy boys. This afternoon, as I was coming out of my room after a conference call, I heard Ben whining and crying in the living room. I assumed it was b/c Sam had walked away from him to get something. What I discovered was my first glimpse at the kind of torture a big brother could and would bestow on a younger sibling, and the consequences of being born 2nd, the little brother, constantly on the receiving end of big brother's "whim" (a.k.a. abuse).

There was an empty diaper box left out in the living room. Jack decided it would be a good, no, GREAT idea, if Ben were to wear said box as a hat. Ben didn't think it was such a great idea, but there was no escape. Sam had put Ben in his walker so that she could go ahead and prepare the boys' lunches (I'm sure Ben will one day seek revenge on Sam for this tragic error in judgment).

Ben could not get away - he could not see where he was going. He could not see daylight for that matter and his initial anger of being kept in the dark soon turned into fear and then terror as he let out a shrill scream in the category of "The sky is falling, I'm going to die!"

Jack completely ignored my commands to stop pushing down on the box over Ben's head. I don't think Sam saw what was going on as either she was too enthralled with making lunch and was tuned out to Ben's complaints or assumed Ben's complaints were of the typical "I can't see you, you walked away and I need you to be right next to me at all times..." complaint.

Note to Sam: You can never assume Ben's complaints are of the typical kind when he is left alone with Jack. :-) It is almost always trouble.

The scene between my two boys was funny once I 'saved' Ben though. I wanted to laugh out loud. And I laughed, head turned to the side so that Jack could not see my face or make out the noise I was making, and laughed in that almost silent, hushed way all parents have learned to do (God forbid Jack saw me laugh as this would only have encouraged his crazy efforts to 'entertain' his little brother).

Ben latched onto me, red faced, tears streaming down his plump, square cheeks, left thumb already on its way to his mouth, and his tear logged eyes staring down at Jack as if to say, "idiot! you could have killed me if it wasn't for this lumbering,laughing in my ear woman I cling to at present!" Jack refused to apologize as instructed. Instead, he got into the box which was now sitting next to the walker and said, "look Mommy! I'm inside!" It was as if his sole purpose in this experiment was to see if he could get my attention to show me he could get inside that box in the most round-about, random way.

5-10 minutes later, once they sat down to lunch, sitting on opposite sides of the table, both seemed to have forgotten the previous event. I thought to myself, "it must be nice having the memory of a flea, or a 95 year old, or a pot head." All is forgotten in a matter of minutes.

I wish I could do the same....quite often these days...