I'm stealing this quote from a friend who was explaining that he's just learning how to handle his 4 daughters. He said, "Boys are easy. Give them food, air, water and a little brother to beat up on and they're fine." As my almost 8 year old, Jonas, exploded into laughter. I'm pretty sure he agrees, especially on the beating up part.
Legos are the ultimate toy and the cause of much grief in our house. Jonas has TONS of Star Wars Lego ships, in pieces, all over the rug in "his" room. It's really he and Blue's room but even Blue calls it Jonas' room and is confused when I say things like, "Please put those Legos back in your room." Legos aren't meant for 3 yr olds in case you didn't know, it's even printed on the boxes. Try telling that to Blue. He is pretty good at building stuff but that usually means taking pieces from his brother's creations first. We have not found a Lego solution to problems like this one or to the pieces everywhere. I feel like we are pretty nice just to let the boys ALWAYS have their legos spread out on their rug. Today, Jonas explored a new solution to Bub's destruction of some newly built ships- I'm sure his own replica of Hoth Echo Base. While Jonas was at school, Blue was building ships and simultaneously destroying Jonas' ships. When Jonas got home he was mad as usual- nothing new here. Not too much protesting from either side so we thought they were working it out. Then I heard MaryJo say,"Jonas tied Blue up!" Again, nothing new here He's always got the upper hand on Blue. I didn't rush in too quickly because Blue wasn't screaming and that kid has a pair of lungs and uses them in self defense hourly. This is what I saw-Jonas had tied his Addidas jacket to his bunk bed and tied a ninja backpack to the jacket and tied up Bub's little wrists in the straps. At first I was super mad and called Nate in to help mediate. But then, even before I had untied Blue's hands, I had to hide my face because I was smiling. I thought it was funny. My little one was tied to a bed and couldn't get free and I was laughing. But to be fair to myself, he wasn't hurt and not even that sad about it AND had to have held still while Jonas tied him up. Not that he knew what was going on though.
He was punished. I had to stay out of eyesight of both boys because I couldn't stop smilaughing. Meanwhile, Nate was explaining that things tied tightly around wrists cut off blood circulation and that that was also why we don't let them tie things around their necks. Blue heard blood mentioned and came back to listen more closely. He likes blood and frequently asks Nate if his ice cream has blood on it. Then he told me Jonas did something to his blood. Jonas, like all of us, hates to be in the wrong and wouldn't look at us. We assured him we loved him. Told him he'd have to do the usual plus extra- 50 push ups, sit ups and 30 seconds of wall sits. And of course told him not to tie anybody up A-N-Y-M-O-R-E! Didn't mention that mom thought the whole thing was hillarious!
A side note to "tie" blood back into this enrty again. Just after this, North had disappeared for a minute so I went to look for him. Found him shut in the bathroom dumping out a box of tampons and putting them back in the box one by one. Watch out Jonas and Blue, North is coming! Watch out mom and dad you are headed for a lifetime of laughs!
