It started when he wanted to play with the bouncy horse that Sadie was bouncing on. To be totally honest I'm pretty sure the reason Sadie was bouncing on the horse was because she saw Patch looking at it and seeing a sibling glance at a toy, especially in the dead of winter, instantly makes that toy 1000 times more attractive (it becomes 5000 times more attractive if the sibling in question is actually playing with the toy and you can get it away from them).
After a few minutes of bouncing I instituted the my-head-is-starting-to-hurt-from-Patch-yelling-that-it's-his-turn-rule and asked Sadie is she couldn't give her brother a turn sometime in the near, near future. The horse had lost his shiny wonderfulness so she happily jumped off and after halfheartedly trying to lift her brother onto the horse, stepped aside so that I could help him up.
There was relative calm for a few minutes that looked something like this (you can see Patch riding on the horse in the back ground):
And then the toddler whine/scream started again, only this time it was accompanied by an older sister who was loudly complaining that someone was touching the thing that she'd been building and "Patch-What-Are-You-Doing-Stop-Right-Now?!?!?!"
On another day, trying to pull the rug out from under her. Literally. |
It must be the cold and the staying inside to stay snuggly warm.
Finally I called Sadie over, while Patch grabbed the stable and tried to hold it out of her reach. "Maybe you could let Patch could play with that wiseman and camel." I started out lamely and then, seeing her expression, which clearly said why-would-I-want-to-play-with-him-when-he's-just-going-to-knock-everything-over, changed tactics. Sure I could ask her to play with him but with the mood they were both in that wouldn't be fun for anybody. So instead I said: "I think what you should really do is use the nativity to tell Patch the story of Jesus. I'm not sure if Patch really knows about Jesus. So maybe this is your big chance to tell someone about Jesus."
As I expected, Sadie picked up this new responsibility and ran with it. Ten minutes later Patch was doing his best to escape from her by running around the living room while she followed him around saying things like: "Wait Patch! I have to tell you what happened next! The Wisemen went back to their own country... what was their country Mom? But they were warned not to go back to King Herod to tell him where the baby was... Patch, are you listening? I need to tell you something!"
So there you have it. One solution to a little brother who won't leave his big sister alone is to suggest that she teach him something... and if he's anything like Patch, watch him head in the opposite direction.
I do hope the weather warms up slightly (maybe not so much that the snow melts but enough so that my computer stops telling me it feelings like 0 or lower outside) before they start going completely and totally stir crazy.
Haha...this is hilarious!!!
ReplyDeleteIs it bad that my first thought was, "oh thank the lord it's not just my kids!" ? lol
ReplyDeleteThis is so funny! Poor Sadie! Wait until James and Patch become a dynamic duo of torturers (I have 5 brothers and no sisters! I know whereof I speak!) But that is still years off.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of redirect here, and Patch is probably thinking, "Mommy, you rat!" :-)
God bless. ~ Bonnie