Passive aggressive much?

Brace yourselves; this will be a shock.

Last weekend the boys were wrestling, and someone got hurt. I know, hard to believe since it only happens about every three and a half minutes in our house.

This time was a little different from usual, however. This time Ethan was the hurter, and Josh was the hurtee. (Sorry, too much law school.) Apparently, Josh was holding Ethan's legs, so Ethan began flailing his feet and accidentally kicked Josh in the nose. Hard.

Naturally, Josh was unhappy about this turn of events, and we had to really work with him to get him to control his anger. He was livid, which is his usual reaction to getting hurt. We're working on that.

So, David talked with Josh upstairs and tried to calm him down. Then Josh came down and hoped that I would share in his indignation and spank Ethan to within an inch of his life. When that didn't happen, Josh got even angrier. After a bit of serious intervention, I convinced him that he needed to control his temper and forgive Ethan for hurting him, especially when it was accidental.

At least I thought I convinced him.

When he and I finished talking, I went over to the dishwasher where Lauren was trying to make words with the magnetic letters. (Our fridge is stainless steel, so we have to do magnets on the dishwasher.) As Lauren and I were putting together words, I noticed that Josh had joined us and had spelled out Ethan's name with the letters.

Thinking I knew him oh-so-well, I said, "Joshua, what mean thing are you about to write about your brother?"

"Nothing," he replied innocently.

He then proceeded to put a Star Wars Jedi magnet next to Ethan's name, make a shooting sound, and knock the letters E-T-H-A-N right off the dishwasher door.