Brothers and Sisters

I vividly remember the days that Mason refused to acknowledge the existence of his older brother and sister. To him, the family consisted of 3 people, himself, Mommy, and Daddy.

Many times we tried to get them to interact with one another, but Mason had zero interest. He’d gladly play in the same vicinity as they did, but never with them.

It made me sad. One thing I loved about my childhood is playing with my brothers and sisters from sunup to sundown. I wanted Mason to have that same pleasure, and I wanted Kyler and Claire-Marie to have it as well. Especially Claire-Marie, as Kyler goes to his Dad’s house a couple of nights a week.

They yearned for his attention so badly.

Things have gotten better lately. Mason still likes his “me” time and prefers to play by himself. However there are environments where he relishes the opportunity to play with his siblings.

For starters, the bathtub.

Granted, Kyler has gotten past the age where he’s going to volunteer to take a bath with his brother. Claire-Marie however is a different story. She LOVES to take a bath with Mason because it’s one of the few places where he really interacts with her. It’s really a joy to watch.

He does all those things he should be doing.

He looks her straight in the eye.

He tells her to blow bubbles in the water

He tells her to pour water on him.

She tells him to put bubbles on his face and pretend to be Santa Claus and he eagerly complies and they endlessly laugh. It’s a challenge to get either of them out of the tub. They really enjoy the time together.

Last night, Kyler and I came up with a new game to get some more interaction time for him. Mason LOVES to be thrown on the couch. I instructed Kyler to grab Mason’s ankles while I grabbed his hands. We swung him high in the air multiple times before throwing him on the oversized fluffy couch.

He collapsed on the floor giggling so hard that I was sure he was going to leave a puddle.

When he recovered he gave Kyler a hug and said “I love you Kyler, swing me again?”

So for the next 20 minutes, we repeated it over, and over, and over. He wouldn’t let us stop. Each time we threw him, he’d repeat the process of hugging his brother, telling him he loved him, and asking to do it again.

It was free therapy for all of us.

I’m glad I wrote this blog today. For whatever reason, it was a bad day. Writing this made me feel a whole lot better.