Pushing Buttons

Pictures can tell a story. This one - to me - tells about how sweet Benny is, how busy and active and happy.


This one tells a story of two brothers who snuggled up together so one could "read" a story to the other ... good friends and good brothers.


Here we have a spontaneous dance. They're both loving it, and enjoying playing with each other.


But pictures don't tell the whole story. Those pictures don't tell the story of how both Alex and Ben have an innate ability to know how to push buttons ... or how much the like to do just that.

Especially to each other.

And so I have a story to tell that will belie the sweet innocence you see in the pictures above ... but it is just as accurate as the stories those pictures tell.

Alex has a bike with training wheels that he refers to as his "rocket bike". Since he has gotten big enough for this big boy bike, Benny usually uses Alex's cast-off tricycle. But Benny likes the rocket bike, too, despite the fact that he's incapable of riding it. We gently encourage Alex to let Benny sit on it when Alex is busy with something else anyway.

Alex left the house one day to find Benny sitting on his bike. Mindful of our instruction, he didn't tell Benny to get off of it, but he did darkly warn that Benny needed to keep it on the driveway. Sensing a button-pushing opportunity, Benny promptly hopped off and wheeled it into the grass.

Alex promptly started scolding him. "Benny, no! Keep it on the driveway!"

At that, Benny decided to push that button a little harder. Smiling angelically, he informed Alex that he was going to give the bike to the neighbor. And then he started for their yard, struggling to push the bike along through the grass.

Alex. Flipped. Out.

He immediately ran screeching into the garage to tell Dad what was going on. Dad, upon hearing that Benny was giving the bike away, tried to calm Alex down. After all, Benny wasn't really giving the bike to the neighbors, right? He went out to talk to Benny.

And found him half-way across the neighbors' yard, sing-songing as he went, "Going to the neighbor's!"

Luke quickly got Benny back in our yard. He started telling Benny how he shouldn't be doing that, but Benny just replied with all the virtue he could summon, "Sharing. Sharing is nice. Sharing with the neighbors."

And that, my friends, is why you shouldn't always believe what you see in pictures.