Brudders

Joey and Alex: I swear, those two are going to grow up to be just like Click and Clack. Joey has become an eager student in the Alex School of Silliness, idolizing his brother and doing everything he can to please and emulate him.

After years of tagging after Ella, Alex loves having a minion of his own, at last, and is (almost...he is human) always kind and protective of his little protégé. Today, as soon as school was over, Alex burst into the house and gathered up his brother, throwing on a cape and crown and handing Joey a cardboard shield, and then leading him in a charge to the playground across the street.  I trailed after them, but I'm not sure I needed to: Alex took Joey in hand and helped him cross the street, passing on all skills that the police officers had taught him in school.  "Now look left, now look the other way...Okay, Joey, is it safe? Then GO!" And they went, cackling with laughter.

Then, while I put my feet up, Alex taught Joey the fine art of spinning on swings

and then brought his brother to hysterics by burying his feet in the pebbles

One for each finger.

But Joey had to wait a long time for all of that joy. Thursday is Alex's long day in Kindergarten, and by 9:00 AM, little brother was already heaving deep sighs, saying "I miss Alex."

I did my best to substitute, helping him put on puppet shows. Joey's been spending a lot of time playing with some little Ikea finger puppets, making them talk to each other and taking them through little adventures.  The puppets are adorably polite when they address each other: his dialogues tends to run along the lines of

"Mr. Rabbit, look, I can jump!"
"Oh, look, Mr. Frog, I can jump, too!"
"Do-nut! Do-nut!"
"Ahhh! Look, it's Mr. Shark!"
"Hi guys! No worry! I nice shark! Want to swim?"

Trustingly, Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Frog follow Mr. Shark into the water...and nothing bad happens at all!  They have a very pleasant swim together.

That's because, as Joey explains it, "All the animals are brudders. Because they are all best friends."

I'm sorry, for my own sake, that I didn't think to take a video of Joey playing with his puppets, but I did click on the camera for Joey's stage debut this afternoon.  He devised a little play and called me in to be his audience.

In case you can't quite follow the sublime humor, here's what happens: Joe walks into a room (saying "dum-de-dum-de-dum,"--my favorite part) finds a mysterious container, dumps it on himself, and discovers that it's full of bugs...and hilarity ensues.  Hm. Maybe something gets lost in translation. Perhaps you should watch it for yourself.

The thing that I love about this is that it's clearly derived from the Alexander Geels school slapstick comedy.

Tonight, at bedtime, Alex stalled by asking me "Momma, what should I be when I grow up?  I'll be an artist as my hobby, but what should I be for my job?"

Oh, I feel kind of sheepish about that one.  I guess I've made it clear to my kids from a very early age that they'll be getting practical jobs when they grow up, and that they won't be living in my basement.  (Although if they'd like to buy a house nearby, that would be lovely!)  I feel a little bad: I suppose a five-year-old should be able to dream about being an artist when he grows up.

I don't remember what I wanted to be at that age, but I'm sure artist was on the list at some point.  The earliest record of my career ambitions was from third grade, when I was Ella's age.  Our teacher, who clearly had a wonderful sense of humor, had us all write autobiographies.  I wrote in mine "When I grow up, I want to be an electrician." because I thought that was what my dad did. I drew a picture of myself wearing a yellow jumpsuit and holding a screwdriver.

But my dad wasn't an electrician at all; my confusion came from the fact that he worked at Lincoln Electric, a manufacturer of welders.  More's the shame that I didn't know that: I'd love to be able to say that I wanted to be a welder when I was eight, and that I drew a picture of myself with a mask and torch.

All that flashed through my mind as I thought over Alex's question, as Joey piped up in the background "Me, too. What I be for my job?

And then I asked "Well, boys, you like cars, right? Have you ever thought about auto mechanics...?"