It's interesting to watch the dynamic of brothers evolve, especially from the mom's side. I never got to watch that with my own brothers, because I was the youngest, so it was already established by the time I came around. And since I've never been a brother, I can't speak from first hand experience.
It's different with a brother and sister. I remember when Jill was born. She would sit there in her swing, with that bald head and huge blue eyes. Swinging her would make her mad most of the time, so she just sat there, watching the world go round. Thomas was 14 1/2 months old when she was born, and had just started to walk, so he would toddle up and watch her. They were almost face to face when he did, and he watched her in rapt attention, silent, studying this new face. Then suddenly, his arm would fly back and he would smack her BAM! Right across the face. And if you didn't get to him quick enough, he'd do it again, because usually she hadn't gotten a cry out yet. I'm 100% convinced that he thought she was a doll that cried when he smacked her. She was not amused.
It was different with Seth. Thomas had just turned five when Seth was born, so there was a bit of maturity, or whatever you want to call it. I'm sure he was interested, but I don't remember that much. I do remember that by the time he was six or seven, Thomas would remark at how odd it was that they got along so well. He attributes it to them having the same interests -- they do -- and Seth's demeanor, which is much the same as Thomas' -- chill. Granted, they aren't exactly the same, mind you, but they do have a lot in common.
Take this afternoon, for instance. Thomas stopped by to say hi and to borrow my power adaptor for my car. He got talking to Seth about a TV show that he is watching. Now, Thomas has literally been trying to get the boy to watch this show for MONTHS. He guaranteed him that he was going to love it, but somehow, his cajoling wasn't working. He practically begged him to watch it at one point. He finally resorted to telling him that every time he came over, he was going to punch him if he hadn't watched it yet.
And he did. Seth got punched in the arm more than a time or two. To be fair, he was warned every time, he knew it was coming, and there was always laughter involved. He even ducked a couple of times and got away, but it was always there when he came back: a single punch to the right deltoid, as a reminder to do what the bro said. Then one day, he gave up. He said it was futile, so why bother. The brother was not going to listen to his words of wisdom. He sighed and looked melancholy. The influence of the older brother seemed to have left the building.
Well, somehow this weekend, he decided to watch it. I'm still not sure what the trigger was, but he watched an entire season twice in the same weekend, between him and Chris doing nerd stuff, checking on the chickens, and of course, the two of them eating me out of house and home. He's hooked.
So Thomas stopped by today, and was blown away. "Mom, do you know what Seth did? He watched the whole season in two days." Seth said "twice." Thomas looked amazed and said "you watched it twice?" "Yeah. It's really good. You need to bring me season 2." Thomas just shook his head. He just hasn't realized, some things take time, while the idea germinates around in that head for a while.
Seth promptly went to Facebook and offered to loan the DVDs to a friend from school. Said friend swore he will bring the DVDs back. If not, Thomas may go back to plan one: a punch every time he's here until the DVDs arrive. Brothers.....
No comments:
Post a Comment