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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Oh Brother.

I'm in for it.  Seriously in for it.  For those of you who don't know my history, I grew up as the younger of two sisters. We obviously didn't have brothers in the picture to teach us about the world of boys, and it wasn't until later in life that I really had many boys that were friends.  All of this laughing about your bodily functions and wrestling each other to the ground to show affection is new to me.  While I first saw the world of male bonding between my cautious, thoughtful older son and my husband,;now it is becoming violently real with my throw-caution-to-the-wind, totally physical second born.

As far as I can be certain, these photos are completely sequential.  And hilarious.  Proceed with caution.  Excessive cuteness ahead.

 Brothers decide to sit together on the couch to read a book.  Older brother instructs younger brother to keep his filthy little paws off of this beloved Thomas Treasury. (I may be paraphrasing a bit here.)
 Older brother nicely reads stories to younger brother while carefully guarding said Holy Grail of Sodor with legs.
 Older brother raises leg to restate the boundary between younger brother and prized possession.
 Younger brother tests boundaries by showing casual interest in pictures.  (Nice move, young one.)
 Discovering a flaw in older brother's defenses, younger brother takes the opportunity to crawl on top of the most honored Thomas book.
 Epic fail.  Younger brother is pushed back to his place by good-natured older brother
 but will not be dissuaded by such a slight defensive move
 and opts for a full-on frontal attack.
 with his eye on the prize.
 Older brother chooses brains over brawn by pulling out blankie, younger brother's prized possession, and offering it to him at a reasonable distance from the biggest book of Thomas stories known to man.
 He continues to loudly instruct younger brother on proper Thomas Story Hour etiquette,
 which younger brother flat out ignores.
sometimes.

 Other times younger brother lures older brother into a false sense of security.
by making him think that younger brother will treat the book in question with the respect it deserves.

But more sinister intentions are lurking under that sweet, blond exterior.

He goes for a side assault!

using blankie as a weapon.

Which leads to a serious man-to-man conversation with older brother about who is still in charge of this couch.

Older brother's position as boy-in-charge is underscored by some friendly shoving,

some hand to hand combat,

and a very serious eye-to-eye conversation. (Any other mothers fearing for my younger son's vision?  No worries.  He's fine.)

And as usual, they decide to bond with some good, old fashioned screaming, thus, reuniting in their common plot to drive me out of my mind... before kindergarten.  

With younger brother well in hand, older brother can now resume his important task of imparting Thomas-related wisdom.

But make no mistake, younger brother is not finished... not by a long shot, especially since conflict resolution is so stinkin' fun.

Lesson learned: Boys can have conflict; but once they've gotten their physical aggression out, they move on.  

Wow.  I am so. glad. I have boys.

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