Master negotiator

Some days aren't as good as others.

Some days, it's rough being the big brother.

Some days, in the middle of playing quite happily with the teeny white truck, you look over and realize your little brother is playing with the teeny orange truck.
I don't think any of us realized how much that orange truck meant to Caleb until Jacob showed an interest in it and scooted over to play with it. (Mobility is providing the little guy all sorts of new opportunities to offend his siblings.) It's funny how things suddenly matter so much more when someone else has them.

I tried reminding Caleb that he had lots of other trucks to play with. I tried pointing out that Jacob only wanted to play with that one toy, and the right thing to do would be to let him play in peace. I talked about kindness, coveting, and taking turns. But none of that matters to a two year old in the middle of a crisis.

So while the little brother continued to gnaw on the teeny orange truck (so named because it is orange, and smallish), I distracted the big brother with promises of being allowed to pull all of the clean laundry out of the dryer to make a fluffy warm mountain to drive his other trucks on.

It worked, and for a moment Caleb forgot all about his misery. Until he pulled Jacob's clean puppy out of the dryer.

"Jacob loves this puppy?" he asked. I nodded.

"I share this puppy with Jacob," he said, mostly to himself I think, before marching off to start negotiations.

Jacob was still right where we left him, still slobbering all over teeny orange truck, when Caleb approached him with an offer he couldn't refuse.

"May I have my teeny orange truck, please, Jacob?" Caleb squatted down to get eye to eye with his little brother and pushed the puppy into his free hand. "I got your puppy for you."

Jacob grabbed the puppy, shoved it in his mouth, and did a quick double roll away from his brother. Caleb took that as a yes and began zooming the orange truck across the rug.

And all is right with the world.