Real Brothers

Corbin held the remote out to his brother and as soon as Brian started to reach for it, he yanked it out of reach with a mischievous grin.  Brian giggled.

He did it again.

And then again.

Brian was still giggling but I told Corbin to cut it out and give it to his brother.

Corbin handed the remote to his little brother and laughed, “Oh, mom, it’s okay.  It’s fun when we act like real brothers!”

Real brothers.

realbrothersThis vacation I have witnessed them purposely aggravating each other again and again and again.  Probably the thing that make most parents really excited that tomorrow is the first day back to school after a long winter break.  But, those are the things that we marvel over.

There’s no doubt that my two boys love and care for each other.  But their sibling relationship is definitely not like that of Corbin’s friends or what he sees in the media. He knew that there was a piece missing to their brotherly relationship.   They have never really fought about anything, which is great I know and I shouldn’t complain, but it’s because there is such little give and take in their relationship.  It’s that social interaction piece that was missing, that we were craving.

Last Monday I watched them play Disney Infinity together and Brian picked up Corbin’s character and threw him over the edge, I smirked and I laughed so hard on the inside.  I actually celebrated that this little brother was trying to be annoying!

But I wasn’t the only one that noticed.  Corbin noticed too and he was ready for some “real” brother interaction.

They tormented each other all day long playing the game.  I watched the minutes and honestly, the hours, tick away that day as they played and laughed and teased each other.  And I just forgot about the time limit for electronics and I just watched their relationship grow and change.  They were annoying each other but laughing through it all.

I grew up with seven younger siblings, so I know a thing or two about sibling relationships.  I know about the days where you are each other’s best friends and I know about the days where you put tape down on the floor to dictate where the other one wasn’t allowed.  I know about the love and having built-in best friends for life and I know about how annoyed you can get with little siblings always getting in the way.

Who would’ve thought that the memories I have of my siblings being annoying (and I know they have plenty of me being annoying as well), were the memories that I would want my children to create?  That those little moments of annoyance would end up meaning so much?

 

 

Heather Nelson

About Heather Nelson

Heather resides in Rockland where she is busy juggling life as a newlywed, a mom to two boys (one of which who has autism), a part time job in direct sales, and a full-time job as a pediatric occupational therapy assistant. She has a love for live music, karaoke, and cheering on the underdogs.