I get it!

Growing up with 2 older brothers you see a lot of mischief. One thing I observed time and time again was how the 2 of them handled getting caught. They could be fighting in the living room, get caught and yelled at by mom, and this would take place EVERY time:
Brian would apologize, smile, accept his punishment, and crack a joke which usually lessened the punishment
Brandon would fight, fight, fight with mom. It was Brian's fault, he started it, no way is a day of grounding a sufficient punishment, on and on and on.

Usually by the time Brandon had finished arguing (read:lost the battle) Brian had already weasled his way out of his punishment and had gone on his merry way. I've heard from Candace that this exact exchange occurred countless times with gene an Austin, gene always building more trouble and Austin always smiling his way out of it.

In all their years of boy-hood Brandon never learned, and neither did my mom. I'd get so mad watching Brian grin his way out of trouble every single time, often asking her why she allows it. Why do you ALWAYS crack a smile at WHATEVER Brian does? It just makes him do it more!!! And why doesn't he ever get in trouble?

I get it.

Last night I was giving William a bath and I was struggling with our battle of whether or not he is allowed to stand in the tub. He likes to stand up and line up shampoo/soap bottles on the ledges and then knock them all down, but I don't like him to stand because he could slip. It's a constant struggle.

At one point he was standing and I said 'William, sit on your bottom'. He wanted his toothbrush and Elmo toothpaste and kept asking, so I said 'I will give you your toothbrush when you sit down'. He looked at me, cocked his head sideways with a mischievous grin, and began to march in place. I was DETERMINED to keep a straight face and hold my ground. Then he marched faster. I again told him to sit down, so he added in some audibles: march, march, march...as he marched in place smiling and laughing. Eventually I felt my cheeks curling and couldn't hold it in - it was adorable! So I laughed, and what did he do? He sat down in pure victorious pride. Smiling and laughing and staring at me like 'oh mom, I've for your number'.

I'm doomed.


- manda