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Dueling Brothers

Good gosh!

The boys have just been at each other lately.

It’s all my fault, really. I was commenting the other day about how well the two of them get along, how they love to play together, how they rarely fight. BAM! Not so fast, said the universe. Here comes some trouble.

The last week of so, they’ve been doing whatever they can to push each other’s buttons Or rather, Nicholas does whatever he can to push Benjamin’s buttons, while Benjamin ignores him (to a point), which drives Nicholas crazy.

Case in point:

We were in the car driving home from Costco (honestly, I spend way too much of my life in Costco), when Nicholas pointed out a car to Benjamin, or at least tried to point out a car to Benjamin.

“Look Ben!! A décapotable, a décapotable!” (This means convertible in French, and when Nicholas says it, it sounds like déco-patate).

Nothing from Ben.

“Ben, Ben!! A décapotable!!! Look, LOOK!!”

Still nothing from Ben, and by now the car was long gone.

Nicholas, more or less at the decibel of a jumbo-jet: “BEN!! BEN!!! THERE WAS A….”

Finally, Benjamin interrupted: “I know Nicholas. A décapotable. You told me. Stop telling me!!”

I intervened, “Benjamin, that’s not kind. Nicholas is trying to show you the car.”

“I know Mommy. But, he doesn’t need to keep telling me. I saw it.”

I ended up explaining to Ben that he needs to reply when his brother tells him something, that there is no way that Nicholas can know that he has been heard (although really, at the volume that Nicholas got to, I’m pretty sure Grandma & Grandpa up in Canada heard him), unless he, Ben that is, replies (eerily, this sounded a lot like a few conversations that I have had with Pierre….)

“You know Ben. You could say ‘I saw it Nicholas’ or ‘Wow! That’s cool Nicholas’. Just let him know you heard him.”

So, in a complete deadpan voice, devoid of emotion, intonation or interest, Benjamin turned to his brother and said: “Wow, Nicholas. A décapotable. That’s fantastic.”

Geez.

That was the start of it. Since then it has been a week of taking each other’s toys, getting in each other’s space, and generally annoying the heck out of each other (and me!): Nicholas taking the pieces that Benjamin needs to build his Lego, Benjamin not letting Nicholas play with a favorite truck, both boys needing absolutely to sit in the exact same place on the couch…At one point, Nicholas was clinging to Benjamin’s legs, begging to play, as Ben yelled and cried to be left alone. I separated them, sending each to his room to play alone, where they both cried and begged to be let out to play together.

Seriously??!!

This better be a very, VERY short-lived phase.

Do your kiddos fight? What do you do to survive it?

xo Naomi

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