Life as a 2 year old, like Zach, can be a considerable amount of fun. Each day there are new things to enjoy and experience – as well as an ever expanding vocabulary! But one thing that is not so fun is having a little brother. Sure, they are cute and sometimes funny, but really, in the end they are out to take your rightful place as the ‘number one’.
This story will serve as an example as to how well big brother Zach handles this test.
It was a crisp autumn evening, and da-da had just returned home after a long day at work. Because it had been a rather long and tiring week, he thought it would be a nice idea to go out as family to Wal-Mart and purchase each boy a little toy car. Zach thought this was a splendid idea, but when his parents made it clear that not only he, but brother Patrick would be getting a new car, his face fell. Quickly he grabbed an old and beat-up toy car from the floor and handed it to Patrick. Certainly this would be sufficient? But apparently not – ma-ma and da-da were clearly going to be including Patrick in this new toy purchase.
Sigh.
After arriving at Wal-Mart, and spending a long time walking up-and-down the toy aisles, Zach finally found the toy car he wanted. A ‘beeg’ black ‘caw’.
He was quite pleased with it, but certainly not so pleased with what Patrick chose.
Trying to explain that Patrick could also have a toy car that wasn’t 100% for Zach proved to be a fruitless exercise. We explained that Patrick’s car was so ‘niney’ (tiny) but that didn’t really make much of a difference to him. A down-hearted boy trudged his way to the checkout line with his family, all the while trying to avoid the gleam of the green paint of Patrick’s new ‘caw’.
When we arrived home, Zach was very excited to play with his new car, but as soon as we took Patrick’s out, things took a turn for the worse. Apparently the concept of Patrick having his own toy was never going to be understood. As drool dripped from the chassis of the green car, Zach shrieked his disapproval and tried with all his might to grab it from the clutches of his little brother.
Chaos ensued and the end result was two crying boys with no ‘caws’.
Today, order has been restored and all is well. The green car? Last seen parked in a traffic jam that Zach created when he got up this morning (traffic is really fierce on the Badgley couch at 10am).
