Brothers

Last year my mom gave us a book that was filled with ideas for Family Fun Night. When we first got it we used some of the ideas in it and successfully had a weekly FFN for awhile. Then, like everything else, FFN got forgotten when life got busy. We had good intentions and would talk about doing it but then just never did.

This week Shawn and I had a talk about distractions taking our time away from our family and bonding time. We talked about how much fun we have together and that we need to remember to enjoy that time rather than squander it away doing homework and working out and watching movies and us all spending time doing other things in separate rooms. After our conversation, Shawn added Family Fun Night to the calendar ~ no more excuses!

We didn't tell the boys that we were dedicating Tuesday nights to FFN until that day. As dinner was finishing up, Tyler asked me if he could go play the DS (Shawn's handheld video game thingamabob if you don't know). I told him that no, tonight was Family Fun Night. Instead of the excitement I'd expected because they had loved the FFN's we'd done in the past, he started grumbling because he'd wanted to play video games instead. I was disappointed in his reaction and I let him know about it. I gave him a little bit of a guilt trip, as moms are wont to do sometimes... And, well, it worked. He walked away, dejected, feeling badly about wanting to choose a video game over time with the family ~ which was my intended result.

As I finished the dishes from dinner, I could hear the boys talking in the living room. Gavin was asking Tyler what was wrong because he was pouting.

Tyler: "I just feel stupid"
Gavin: "You're not stupid, Tyler"
Tyler: "But I feel stupid because I didn't want to play a game for Family Fun Night"
Gavin: "Just because you feel something doesn't mean you are"

He made Tyler feel better and we went on to enjoy our evening. Especially Gavin, because he won the game we were playing ... and boy does that child love to win.

I love watching these boys grow up. I love the mostly positive ways they interact with each other. Sure, they fight, just like every other pair of siblings. But they love, too. Mostly they love. They'd be lost without each other. I think they'd be more devastated by a loss of a brother than a loss of a parent.

A part of me is jealous of their relationship ~ both because they share a closeness that I do not share with them and because I didn't experience this with my siblings. I loved my brother and sister but we just weren't close in this way.

Mostly, though, I am just glad they have each other.