Thursday, April 28, 2016

"When I say 'play,' you play!"

The beauty of rotating toys is that we can pull out something that barely got a second glance three months ago and it is the hot new toy in the house. We pulled out this drum full of instruments a couple days ago and yesterday William could hardly wait to finish setting the table so he could go "play instruments with Barrett." He finished his chore (pretty well, actually), sat down beside his brother in such a friendly way, and asked, "Barrett, want to play with me?" "Yeah!" replied Barrett. Will picked up the drum, handed Barrett one of the other instruments, and instructed Barrett in this cute little voice, "Okay Barrett, when I say play, you play!" He would start to play the drum and Barrett would just sit there like a bump on a log. William patiently instructed again and again, yet Barrett continued to sit there with his thumb in his mouth, his blanket in his lap, and the maraca in his other hand. William must have said this twelve times, each time starting to play the drum only to stop a few beats in. I began to think he just liked the sound of his own voice telling Barrett, "Okay Barrett, when I say play, you play!" I felt bad for William. I thought, should I make Barrett play? Why isn't he playing his instrument? Is he just being a stinker? After a while more I asked Barrett these questions and he just sat there like a bump on a log. I realized that Barrett was getting quite a kick out of foiling William each time. Oh, well. I still don't know what I should have done. If it were Barrett trying to engage William I probably would have told William to be a good sport and play. 


It could have been such a cute brother band moment. I do think William may have a future as a conductor though.


It also occurs to me, as I sit and write this, that I probably should have just stayed out of it. Why do I always have to be such a hovering mom?


1 comment:

  1. At least Will seemed perfectly happy playing the drums by himself as well. Who knows? Maybe he'll be a one man band and think back to this exact day as the start of that passion.

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