The loudest

Last week I shared things I heard Big Brother say. I would have loved to include Little Brother, but he’s not so good at talking yet. Instead of riddling an entire page full typos and misspelled words on purpose in an attempt to give the actual sound of his words I thought I’d just write down how he communicates in one word demands and other ways.

Every single day no matter the weather Little Brother wants to be outside playing cars, especially with his brother’s cars because they are the best.  First he grabs my hand and gestures with his saying, “Dom on!” in a tone just below a whisper. He wants us to be in stealth mode and not allow Big Brother to catch on to us. I help my two-year-old break into his older brother’s room and rob it of about five cars (what he can carry).  Little Brother then very sneakily gets his sandals on and stands at the door begging to be allowed outside, or, “Ouuu die,” as he calls it. We go out and it might take about ten minutes before Big Brother notices we aren’t in the house and comes barreling out with a suspicious look on his face. He knows to check what cars Little Brother is pushing through the dirt or playing with at the car table. He stands over Little Brother like a police officer does a robbery suspect.

Little Brother slowly turns his head to look at his brother and says, “what?!” In a way that aggravates Big Brother who then says, “I know you took my cars I want them back.” Little Brother then shrugs his shoulders, shakes his head no and points to me. Without actually talking Little Brother has just relayed that he did NOT steal because mommy let him in the room. I am in the eyes of my older son an accomplice to preschool breaking and entering along with armed robbery. Little Brother had a Nerf gun on him when we jacked the cars.  Guess what, I’m the one Big Brother stays angry with because I did let Little Brother in his room. I couldn’t help it!

Any time I go shopping I try to wait to see if my husband will watch one of the boys or go with me. We almost always have an extra kid or two in the afternoons and weekends.

So I do try to wait it out in hopes that I’ll be done babysitting by the time my husband gets home, or better yet he’ll accompany me so I have an adult to take kids to the bathroom. We all know that is a never-ending process of one went and the others didn’t have to but as soon as one is back from the bathroom another one in the group has to go! Of course of the times we are out shopping Little Brother always shouts “POOP!” or “PEE!” loud enough for anyone in a ten-aisle radius to hear it’s potty time. When it is just my husband and our boys he takes them with him while I go around checking things off my list. I don’t need a phone to call to find out their location or wander around aimlessly looking for my family. All I have to do is stop and listen. It doesn’t take long before I distinguish my baby amongst the sea of other whining kids, crying babies, and bustling shoppers. It’s always Little Brother I hear laughing or talking in the crowd because he is the loudest.

A while back we were at a birthday party for the great uncle of my sons. It was one of those times where my husband and I took turns eating because Little Brother had found out how to escape the building it was held at. Unlike the other children who were happy to play tag or run around in the buildings gym, our kid wanted only to escape to the outside and run around a parking lot. He was also in the final stages of potty training and was down to an accident a day. I had just changed his clothes and had finally sat down to finish my food after forty minutes of chasing Little Brother. A minute later my husband sat down with me and Little Brother wasn’t with him. He said he found a way to keep Little Brother in the building so we could rest assured he wouldn’t escape. Then he began to say, “I had to move this box across the hallway over there because our kid climbed it and was ready to…” Just then an ear splitting alarm rang through the building and my husband and I both knew immediately ‘our kid’ probably did it. He wasn’t out of our sight longer than 45 seconds! My husband bolted to the hallway twenty feet away and found Little Brother. He had pushed a thirty-pound box across a huge hallway so he could reach the fire alarm. He pulled it and then curled up face down in a panic after hearing the loud siren.  I was mortified; we packed up and left in two minutes flat. If Little Brother wanted to leave all he had to do was say home, but he didn’t have to after that stunt. I didn’t want to wait for the fire department to show up. Luckily for us the alarm was turned off and the fire department didn’t have to rush over. Without saying a word Little Brother proved even without talking he is the loudest.