For everything Bolivia and the rest of South America have to offer from a standpoint of cultural diversity, I never forget that this is also the place where my family is coming together more, where my kids are growing a little more each day, and where they finally start interacting together.
This weekend was supposed to be special. Liebi decides to make the first batch of Christmas cookies, and she will have the boys help them. So she creates the dough, breaks out the cookie cutters, and gets to work. I had especially created two Christmas CD’s, because I am a sucker for Christmas music, in particular carols by choirs (I used to sing in one myself as a kid) and classic popular tunes by stars like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante, or the Andrews Sisters. A perfect stage, perfect music, and the perfect setting, right?
Cookie cutters are popular to little kids from an early age, at least from the first time they come in contact with play dough. My kids are no different, and they froth at the mouth at this prospect of play fun with their mother and the fact they are making cookies, a word even my youngest one knows.
Each boy is equipped with a couple of cookie cutters and a generous ball of dough, which will keep them occupied for a while and enable them to create dozens of cookies. Each kid is seated in his own chair and seems pleased as punch to be there. Being the doting father that I am, I run upstairs to get the camera. When I get there, I notice the battery needs more juice. This lack of preparation will prove to be costly. I needs to wait for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, the boys are eagerly at work pressing the cutters into the dough and are visibly thrilled by the results. Liebi then hands Axl a red lollipop, and with that disaster strikes. Baby Bash, of course, doesn’t wish to be slighted and holds out his hand for a lolly of his own. Liebi offers him a green one, then an orange one, but to no avail. Bash has to have the darn red one. Titanic, again meet the iceberg.
Axl, of course, refuses to fork it over. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, being that red things are the ‘it’ thing for kids, kind of the equivalent of red sports cars for the man dealing with the inevitable midlife crisis. What makes this episode annoying is that Axl isn’t even eating the lolly, not even touching it. Perhaps he is using it as a microphone, we will never know.
Being no shrinking violet, Bash now decides he will have to fight for what he believes is rightfully his and reaches over in an attempt to grab it. Axl immediately decides there is one thing to do to protect his treasure: run.
Quicker than a kid devouring a cookie, the boys are out of their chairs and the race is on. Axl hurries to the living room and Bash, though two years younger and with smaller and skinnier legs, tracks him down in no time. Where is the last resort for little kids to go to when they feel there is no way out? Yep, the mother, and Axl hightails it back to the kitchen. Surprisingly, Bash is quickly on his tail and corners him next to the fridge, where he wrestles his big brother for the lolly. The two have to be separated, because Bash won’t let him go. To make matters worse, the crying and screaming is accompanied by the wailing of the cat, who can’t stand anything less than a peaceful household and will have her say when this is not the case.
Baby Bash is inconsolable. It's going to be the red lolly or bust. Eventually he does get the lolly (after Axl decides he has no further use for it), licks it a few times, and then throws it on the floor, smashing it to bits. Thus the biggest fight in the short history of the brothers ends.
Not quite. Not without a little instigation by the big brother. A few days later, the boys are summoned to cut the next batch of cookies. Axl’s first question when he takes the chair is, “Can I have a red lolly?”
This weekend was supposed to be special. Liebi decides to make the first batch of Christmas cookies, and she will have the boys help them. So she creates the dough, breaks out the cookie cutters, and gets to work. I had especially created two Christmas CD’s, because I am a sucker for Christmas music, in particular carols by choirs (I used to sing in one myself as a kid) and classic popular tunes by stars like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jimmy Durante, or the Andrews Sisters. A perfect stage, perfect music, and the perfect setting, right?
Cookie cutters are popular to little kids from an early age, at least from the first time they come in contact with play dough. My kids are no different, and they froth at the mouth at this prospect of play fun with their mother and the fact they are making cookies, a word even my youngest one knows.
Each boy is equipped with a couple of cookie cutters and a generous ball of dough, which will keep them occupied for a while and enable them to create dozens of cookies. Each kid is seated in his own chair and seems pleased as punch to be there. Being the doting father that I am, I run upstairs to get the camera. When I get there, I notice the battery needs more juice. This lack of preparation will prove to be costly. I needs to wait for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, the boys are eagerly at work pressing the cutters into the dough and are visibly thrilled by the results. Liebi then hands Axl a red lollipop, and with that disaster strikes. Baby Bash, of course, doesn’t wish to be slighted and holds out his hand for a lolly of his own. Liebi offers him a green one, then an orange one, but to no avail. Bash has to have the darn red one. Titanic, again meet the iceberg.
Axl, of course, refuses to fork it over. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, being that red things are the ‘it’ thing for kids, kind of the equivalent of red sports cars for the man dealing with the inevitable midlife crisis. What makes this episode annoying is that Axl isn’t even eating the lolly, not even touching it. Perhaps he is using it as a microphone, we will never know.
Being no shrinking violet, Bash now decides he will have to fight for what he believes is rightfully his and reaches over in an attempt to grab it. Axl immediately decides there is one thing to do to protect his treasure: run.
Quicker than a kid devouring a cookie, the boys are out of their chairs and the race is on. Axl hurries to the living room and Bash, though two years younger and with smaller and skinnier legs, tracks him down in no time. Where is the last resort for little kids to go to when they feel there is no way out? Yep, the mother, and Axl hightails it back to the kitchen. Surprisingly, Bash is quickly on his tail and corners him next to the fridge, where he wrestles his big brother for the lolly. The two have to be separated, because Bash won’t let him go. To make matters worse, the crying and screaming is accompanied by the wailing of the cat, who can’t stand anything less than a peaceful household and will have her say when this is not the case.
Baby Bash is inconsolable. It's going to be the red lolly or bust. Eventually he does get the lolly (after Axl decides he has no further use for it), licks it a few times, and then throws it on the floor, smashing it to bits. Thus the biggest fight in the short history of the brothers ends.
Not quite. Not without a little instigation by the big brother. A few days later, the boys are summoned to cut the next batch of cookies. Axl’s first question when he takes the chair is, “Can I have a red lolly?”
