City of Brotherly Love

Portrait of the artist as a serious young man

Yesterday Luke's friends were teasing him, and they took it a little too far, and he got upset. That's sad, and everyone's apologized, and it's OK now, but that's not really the story.

The story is that while we were leaving the playground Zach was filled with righteous indignation on Luke's behalf. His first suggestion for how to "get back" at the boys was this: "I think you should go to their house, knock on the door, and then say a bad word."

By the time we got home, Zach was running around trying to figure out what kind of food he could make for Luke. Also he had refined his idea of what would be the ultimate punishment: "I think you should go to their birthday, and then give them a present for a girl. Then they would open the present and say, 'Oh. It's a girl present.'"

The layer of chocolate ice cream that came before the dirt

Something about Zach's concern must have softened Luke up a bit, because he lost the mocking edge that he usually has toward his brother. They were both filthy from the playground and I told them they needed to bathe, so they decided to shower together. The only complication about having Zach in the shower is that it's really hard for me to clean his hair, because I basically have to step in to the shower in order to get him shampooed and rinsed while he protests and squirms away. But they were happy to have a shower together, so whatever.

While they were in the shower, I sat in the bathroom for a little while listening to their conversation and splashing. Then I went off to the kitchen and finished cleaning the dishes, while continuing to hear happy sounds. Then I checked my email, while continuing to hear happy sounds. Then I went back in the bathroom, where the happy sounds continued. And then Luke nonchalantly mentioned, "Oh, by the way, Mom, I  washed and conditioned Zach's hair."

What?!? Really?!?!

This morning when he woke up, Zach announced that he wanted to take a shower with Luke again. We could be on to something here.