Tag: brotherhood

motherhood

Subterfuge

WFAM

I love that teenage boys think parents have no idea on how to beat the system.

T.Puzzle was in a world of hurt.  He did not like what was served for dinner (trust us, no one in our house found this shocking) and he tried to slyly dump its remainders from his bowl.  Mad Dog called him out but Lil’ T.P. took it even further.  He lied about it.  Said he had finished everything.

Um. No.

He was almost sent straight to bed.  Instead, Mad Dog determined the best course of action was to let him stay up but he would allow T.Puzzle zero snacks.  While zero snacks does not seem that extreme, to a growing boy who barely touched his dinner, this felt rather catastrophic (which is kind of the point if we are being honest).

The boys went back to their game room.  It is set in the furthest reach of our home, tucked away but still a few steps from the kitchen.

Always the kitchen with these guys!  In and out, snacks upon snacks.  I sometimes marvel they both haven’t turned into potato chips by the sheer volume of snack foods they consume.

So, when Full Speed comes meandering into the kitchen, he decides for the first time in ages he is going to have Oatmeal Squares.  While this seems like a normal, teenagery snack, and it is, it also happens to be one of T.Puzzle’s regular favorites.

“You’re planning to give your brother some aren’t you?” said Mad Dog.

“Maybe.” said Full Speed.

Boy, you can’t beat the system when your Mom and Dad invented the system.

I dedicate this post to all the siblings out there fighting parental oppression.  It is real and causes so many problems like learning, growing and developing into normal, human adults.

Fight on, my friends.

Fight on!

IMG_8199
T.Puzzle doing his best to ‘tower’ over me.  Nice try!

 

children, gratitude, happiness, kids, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, Taekwondo

Board Break

WFAM

Time flies when you’re having fun or when you are simply living your life as quietly as possible hoping for the best.

Another Tiny Tiger’s graduation was upon us.

T.Puzzle has struggled to break the necessary board to advance his belt.  Full Speed asked permission from the instructor to help hold the board for T.Puzzle. 

That was the highlight for me; watching Full Speed want to be the ‘big brother’ for T.Puzzle.

After what seemed like 87 million attempts (all of them failed), T.Puzzle could not break the board.

The instructor asked Full Speed to step in and break the board on T.Puzzle’s behalf.

And break he did.

Eventually, T.Puzzle was allotted some more attempts as graduation was winding down.  He kind of sort of broke it on his own accord.

He earned his new belt and the pride spread across his face from ear to ear.

It’s great to earn a new belt, but even better to have a brother who’s got your back.

children, eyesight, health, surgery

Times Two

WFAM

Full Speed knows something is up. Little T.Puzzle’s first surgery is tomorrow and the air in the house is soaked in anxiety (mainly mine).

I’m taking both boys to the eye doctor this morning. As I picked out little T.Puzzle’s regulatory Thomas shirt for him to wear, Full Speed said he wanted to wear the same.

He never says that anymore. I think it’s his way of showing support for his little brother.

Maybe we’ll make it through after all….

Two is better than one
children, mommyhood

My Brother, My Rival

WFAM

Little brothers live to torture their elder siblings. I had the boys at McDonald’s. They both had eaten and had finagled their toys from me. They were Hotwheels cars or something like that and eventually little T.Puzzle steals his older brother’s car. Full Speed lets out a whiny cry and little T.Puzzle begins to run in circles around him all the while smiling with glee. I do my best to intervene but sense that T.Puzzle is about to take flight. I manage to get him back towards Full Speed and tell him to hand the stolen toy back to his brother nicely.

Of course he launches it across the room and instead of a sweet apology he barks out ‘sorry!’ like a drill sergeant.

I do my best to correct him. I make him pick up the toy and actually hand it to Full Speed. Then I have him say sorry until it sounds at least slightly (ever so slightly) sincere and we move on with our evening.

I try to cut the kid some slack. I am a younger sibling, too. I understand sometimes it’s hard to be in the shadow of an older sibling but I don’t condone being mean or violent. He could always do what I did. He could hit his older sibling and as Full Speed comes in for a counter attack, he could run behind me and scream, “Full Speed’s trying to hit me!” My sister used to love it when I did that to her (not really).

If I had to do it all again, I’m glad I have my sister. She has known me my entire lifetime and thankfully, still wants to be my friend. I hope my boys are friends when they grow older, too. By the looks of this following picture where little T.Puzzle is happily making Full Speed cringe, I’m not so sure. Fingers crossed.

children, gratitude, happiness

My Friend, My Brother

WFAM

The boys have been sleeping in the same room. When we upgraded little T.Puzzle’s bed from a crib, we purchased a trundle bed with this intent in mind. Usually, T.Puzzle goes to bed in the ‘super secret spy’ pull-out part, and then Full Speed slips in quietly (sort of) a few minutes later to the upper ‘big boy’ portion. They know the rules. If Mom so much as hears a peep out of either one, Full Speed will be immediately relocated to his own room with no warning and no questions asked. So far, I haven’t had to follow through on that threat. They must actually want to be in the same room. After all the smack-downs I have witnessed I find this shocking.

They decided to mix it up over the weekend. They decided to sleep in the same bed for fun.

Little T.Puzzle thought this was remarkable. When I was helping him get dressed the next morning he said, “Mommy! Full Speed slept with me on my Thomas sheeps!”

Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.