Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Actions? or Words?

Every day, I hear at least one (or two, or fourteen) of the following:

"You're being a brat!"

"Why do you have to be so IDIOTIC?!"

"Mom! Her paper is touching my FOOT!"

"She just ran past me and whapped me in the head on purpose!"

"Stop LOOKING at me!"

"Well, fine! Then I don't want to play with you EVER AGAIN."

"Aaaaaargh!" (door slam)

But when I go through the pictures I've taken over the past week,I find these:


I guess even the best sibling relationships have their moments of dysfunction? For example, I can clearly remember being furious with Uncle Awesome in the base comissary when I was about eleven. I can't remember what his offense was, although I can assure you that it was annoying in the extreme. What I can remember is my hand literally ITCHING with the need to punch him. I also remember weighing the swift and terrible punishment my mother was sure to rain down on me versus the satisfaction of wiping the smirk off his face. So I guess I get it.

What it's hard to communicate to your eleven-year-old is that someday, years from now, you're going to think your little sister is really cool. Even though today she seems to be Satan.

Or convincing the eight-year-old that the condescending despot posing as her older sister will someday be her best friend.

I promise.

2 comments:

#1quiltinggrandma said...

Our granddaughters are oh so normal :-) Grandma

Breath it in deeply and enjoy every second. These are unquestionably the best times of your lives. Later, you will look back on these times and agree. Not that you will not have good times in the future, such as with your grandchildren, but these are the best of times. Thank you for sharing with us. Grandpa

Nana said...

As you remember, you and Uncle Awesome had your moments, too - sort of a love/hate relationship while you were both young. Remember the imaginary line we had to draw down the middle of the back seat when we drove from NY to CA? Ay yi yi! If one of you dared to set something down that went over that line by a fraction of an inch, you'd have thought a serious crime had been committed! Next thing we knew, the two of you were laughing together. Those were the years when my hair started turning gray. :)