Brothers

I don't know exactly how it started, or if it was just the continuation of yesterday's fight, but there came a point when I'd had enough.  Isaac and Andrew struggle to be kind to each other.  It's the age old story of sibling rivalry, and these two have it bad.  Andrew always wants what Isaac has, mainly because Isaac recently just pulled it from Andrew's hands, or vice versa.  Anyway, who knows what these two were battling about all afternoon, but the timeouts, threats and yelling weren't making an progress in their behavior.  Finally, I just sent them to bed at 6:00.  I knew they'd have to get up to eat dinner, and I also knew that since they share a room it was quite likely that the fighting would continue.  But at least they were not yelling at each other in my kitchen, which was progress.  Andrew sobbed as I changed him into his jammies and tucked him into his bed with Mickey Mouse.  Isaac slinked away and tried to hide from me.  He defiantly said he wasn't going to change, and he wasn't going to bed.  I walked away and left him in his room, not exactly sobbing, but raging.

What happened next will remain as one of my very favorite memories of raising children.  Isaac was so very, very mad at me.  He said, "I HATE her."  He said it over and over again.  And I can only imagine what Andrew was thinking, but what he said was, "No you don't."  They went back and forth, with Andrew adding comments like, "But I love her!"  and "She's the sweetest mommy ever!" while Isaac stormed around the room insisting he hated me.  I could only smile as I heard my little three year old defending me against the wrath of his older brother.