A brothers love

We are in the final countdown until Lady Little's wheels touch down a little closer to home. It has been a month since we saw her last. A long, testosterone filled month. I am in serious need of some good old fashioned girl talk and most definitely a mani/pedi day with my firstborn. Last night as we all settled in for the night I mentioned this need to the hubs. He just didn't get it, and actually looked quite offended that my boys were not enough to make me happy. Of course it's not that at all. I have enjoyed my boy time tremendously. I have loved watching Middle Little ride his bike over his new ramp as Littlest rolled his dump truck down the hill to see what it crashed into. It's just that life with all boys in the house is a bit more rough around the edges than it is when there is a girl in the mix. Plus, my boys just don't understand a bad hair day that can't be fixed with a baseball cap and in their world there is no reason to put on makeup before a trip to the flea market. She gets those things, and I am, as we all are, ready for her to come home.
The truth is though that while the sensitivity level of our household has gone down quite a bit since she left, I am happy to say that it has not been lost all together. A testament to that was my sweet Middle's actions yesterday. Littlest had his 3 year checkup with our family doctor. With the Hubs at work I had prepared myself to take both boys. Now, I can handle heading out with both boys most days, but when a doctors office waiting room, and possibility of shots is thrown in, I tend to have anxiety over it.
The morning did not begin as I had hoped. It was filled with bickering and all sorts of disagreeing. When we arrived and I began to fill out the paperwork, Littlest began acting like one of those kids. You know the ones that you look at in the store and think, or even maybe say out loud,"Boy, if that were my child...". It wasn't pretty. His actions mixed with the fact that Middle would really rather have been anywhere else at that moment and was not too timid to tell me so, prompted me to text my sweet hardworking husband to say that the next appointment was all his. After weighing and measuring we were put into our little room. Ahhh, a controllable environment with no senior citizens to horrify. All was going well. Middle was enjoying the company of our doctor and her nurse, who he may just have the tiniest crush on. Dr. I decided that we should check Littlest's iron level. "No problem", I said way too soon. "He does really well with the finger prick".
No such luck, as the lab they use requires a blood draw. Of course they don't require that you come into the lab, they know better.
Up on the table he went and the doctor sweetly explained to him just what would happen and while it didn't really sound anything like this, this is what I heard.
"You will hold your strong willed 3 year old down while we do our utmost to get the blood before he screams."
Now remember that an exasperated Middle was in the room with us, making a mental list of all of the places he would rather be than in this tiny room with his stinky brother and his grumpier by the minute Mom. While the doctor explained what was about to happen, this is what he must have heard."NOW we're going to set your sweet little brother on this table, see, and your Mom is going to hold him down, see, and laugh at his pain while we take this huge needle and fill this bucket up with his blood. Muahahahah!"
As the procedure began it looked like it might all go off without too much drama. Littlest was being very agreeable and held his squeezy truck while they tapped his chubby arm looking for a vein. I tenderly draped myself over him and brushed the hair from his forehead as they began. He watched in awe. What male of the species wouldn't love three women talking sweetly and focusing on just them, right? And then it happened. A scream that surely shocked the elderly patients in the other rooms ripped through the examining room. I tried my best to hold him still, but to no avail as the needle popped out of his arm.
"Well, we'll have to try the other arm", the nurse explained. We all did a swticharoo, but quickly decided that the other arm was best so again we traded places. As I looked over to check on Middle I saw that he had covered his ears to block out his little brothers cries. I did my best to assure him while also doing my utmost to keep Littlest from jumping off the table.
More determined than ever we began again. Holding tightly to his legs and making way more promises than I will ever be able to keep, I tried to explain the need to hold still so that these sweet ladies didn't need a stiff drink when the shift was over.
In a whirlwind of screams and tears we finally had success. As the three of us had a short celebration of victory and told Littlest what a big boy he had been, all of our eyes fell on my sweet Middle Little. He was curled up in a ball in the chair, covering his ears and his face. Before I could reach him, our sweet physician patted his back and told him it was all done. As he sat up we all saw it. The tears that were streaming down his face were every bit as big and real as his baby brother's. It was if he had felt the same fear and pain that his brother had. He came to my side and buried his face. I reassured both of my boys, and remembered back to a few days after we brought Littlest home. The hospital called to say that I had left something. As I hung up Middle looked at me with huge eyes and asked if we had to take his little brother back. All was well as we left the appointment. The stickers and lollipops that filled both of their hands must have wiped away the trauma. I didn't need stickers, the fact that we were on our way home was enough for me.
I'm sure that we will have more bicker filled days. Middle will surely have days where he wishes he was an only child, as all children do at one time or another. But no matter what, they are siblings, and while it may be fine in their own minds to torment eachother, everyone else had better watch out. Had the ones torturing his brother been a pack of bullies and not a sweet doctor nurse duo the outcome most likely would have been very different.