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First, the bad news:
1. They find the most creative ways to annoy me. Like during school, the twins (one on each side of me), would make their art erasers climb “Mt. Eden” (that’s me) to “conquer” it. Of course, they’ve never conquered Mt. Eden, because I always flick them off before they reach the peak (the top of my head!).
2. If I don’t hide when they play army, I become the target of their manhunt. So, no matter what I am doing, I must stop and hide when I hear them playing army. My favorite hiding spot recently (shhhh, don’t tell them!) is under our air hockey table in an old toy box.
3. They find all kinds of ways to distract me from what I’m doing … Elijah just LOVES to show me any and every thing he’s learning in school … even though I’m trying to get school done too! I mean, I don’t show HIM everything I’m learning – he’d go NUTS!
4. I’m always being tricked or scared by someone… Just the other day, I was working on my Bible narration when Jonah sneaked up behind me and I about jumped all the way TO the Holy Land!
5. They seem to do whatever they want no matter what I say … I’ve asked them (okay, yes, I’ve even yelled at them –nicely, of course!) not to mess with my toy sheep (Sheepy), but they just think it’s a big joke – APPARENTLY. On top of that, every time we go to see my grandparents, they bring along my special Lego dinosaur so that they can hide it and make me think it’s going to get lost … EVERY time we go!!!
Okay, I could keep going, but I think you probably get the point. Besides, I really do think that the good outnumbers the bad…
Now for the good news:
1. They’re my best friends…and my mom keeps telling me to hang in there when it’s rough sometimes (like the days I think Sheepy is my only friend) because they’ll always be there for me in the long run.
2. There’s always someone around to be my hero. I can’t count how many times one (or all) of my brothers have come to my rescue or stood up for me.
3. I actually kind of like all the rough-housing, playing outside, racing our bikes and all that stuff … besides, I get stronger when I wrestle them … and I’m still trying to figure out a way to get faster at running than Jonathon (he’s really fast!).
4. Since they tend to play in pairs, there’s always one of them around for me to play with and that gives me the chance to get to know them personally. I love that time.
5. I love that my little brother just LOVES me to read to him. Even though I get kind of tired of reading out loud to him sometimes, I love that he wants me to so badly. It makes me feel pretty special…and I feel really bad when I don’t have the time to read out loud to him.
6. I don’t have to mow the lawn, weed-eat or do other things of that nature. With three brothers and a very hard-working dad, there’s always a “man” around to take care of those sorts of things, which frees up my time to be able to do some of my favorite things, like help my mom in the kitchen, pick strawberries from our strawberry patch and work on my knitting (I’m making a scarf right now & working on a blanket for my brother).
7. There is always someone around doing SOMETHING to make me laugh…always! And they don’t even have to try!