Oh, Brother

Ah, yes . . . I think we have entered a new phase in the development of Oscar and Edgar’s fraternal relationship . . . The Age of Wrestling, which,  I imagine,  will last for the next thirty to forty years.

When a friend and her four-year-old son were visiting this week, the fraternization on display for our guests was at a fevered pitch.   There was pinching, pushing, poking, a little firetruck-throwing, and some good old-fashioned barricading to be viewed.  When it was time for me to intervene, Oscar must have sensed it was the right moment for an explanation. 

He said to our guests, “Don’t worry . . . We may act like brothers, but we’re really friends!”

And off he ran . . . to act like a brother to his brother. 

I was reminded this week that they are going to be the ones to create and define their relationship.  We can guide, model, and suggest; but the ultimate look of their sibling relationship will be theirs.  And though I am tickled by the distinction Oscar made between “brothers” and “friends,” I am so grateful that despite the occasional hullabaloo he sees his brother as his friend. 

There is sure to be more wrestling–and pinching, pushing, and poking–but at the end of the day they are there for each other.   They are each other’s constant playmate, partner in crime, and occasional nemesis.  But this, I suspect, is the sowing of the seed of a lifelong partnership.  And as their mother, it will one day give me great peace to know that they have each other.