Are we playing games?

This particular story took place when Hooper was 3 1/2 and Boston was six months old. At that age Hooper was asserting his independence in a big way. That is to say, he was a toot. No was his favorite word and he had lots of different ways of saying it. "I not!" "No way, Mommy!" "No I don't want to eat dinner!" These sayings made a daily appearance in our house at this time. When he was in a good mood, no might be followed by "Ah come on!". Bad moods meant you got an old fashioned foot stomping fit.

Boston on the other hand was just getting fun at six months. Colic was over. The first of teething was out of the way and he was very interested in all around him, especially his big brother. If Hooper was in the room, then Boston was happy. Thankfully most of the time Hooper didn't mind Boston and I following him around the house.

During February of 2010 Boston and I following Hooper wasn't just something to occupy time but a necessity. Boston was not only teething but he got RSV and a monster ear infection within two weeks. During the ear infection we did everything we could think of to keep him happy. Being around Hooper kept him happy the longest. One evening Boston and I were sitting on Hooper's bed with Hooper. Hooper was watching a video and playing, happily. Boston began reaching for Hooper so I held him up and leaned him into his brother so he could grab his shirt. Boston wasn't hurting Hooper but of course as brothers do, Hooper refused to play along. He didn't want Boston to so much as lay a finger on him. Boston was laughing and obviously enjoying himself while Hooper whined and moaned every time Boston touched him. Finally, having taken all he could stomach, Hooper turned around and looked Boston straight in the eye and sternly cried, "No Brother! We NOT playin games!"

I laughed so hard, I cried. Of course it was so funny that it would have been wrong to allow it to happen only once. So I then continued to let Boston grab Hooper's shirt and Hooper continued to let us know, he was not playing games. At one point I thought, "is this really why I had kids? To play puppet master in my own comedy show?" My answer: A little bit, yeah.