Sibling sweetness

What parent doesn't love to hear or hear of moments when their children demonstrated sweet, selfless love to their siblings without any parental involvement--and two moments in two consecutive days, no less??

Sibling sweetness #1
Cooper has been working hard for the last month or so to be a more improved member of the Hough Family. His efforts have ebbed and flowed for about 3 weeks. But last Sunday became a turning point for him. By Tuesday, his efforts to turn over a new leaf were still going strong. I was cautiously optimistic, however because it was a pretty dramatic switch from his previous attitude and as most parents know, those quick changes tend to fade...you want the efforts to be in smaller increments so that the new attitude and behavior is long lasting.

But to Cooper's credit, this last week, he has made big strides in "checking himself" and thinking before his knee-jerk reactions to things he doesn't like, such as answers or requests from his parents or the annoyances of siblings, for example.

Thursday was July 11th. Or 7/11, meaning...free slurpies at 7 Eleven. Which, up until last year after Uncle Kevin introduced Jake to the Slurpie, is ironic since we don't ever get those types of things for the kids. But hey, they're free, so why not?

We had just picked Jake up from day four of basketball camp Thursday afternoon before heading to 7 Eleven. Jake expressed his hope that he might get a small Slurpie which cost $1.19. I didn't think I had enough for him to get one, since we were going because they were free. But after scrounging around, the Slurpie stars aligned, because I managed to find 2 dollar bills and 2 quarters in my wallet (I never have cash). I gave Jake the money for him and Cooper to each get a small. After getting the flavor orders for the rest of us in the car, Jake and Coop went back inside to get in line. About 5 minutes later, the boys came walking out with slurpies in their hands and arms. We distributed the drinks to the little kids and Jake said he had to go back to get his. Cooper went to the passenger side of the burb to give Karcyn hers and then stayed in the car. That's when I noticed he was drinking a free slurpie himself. I asked him why he didn't get a bigger one and he said, "Oh, they were out of the smalls so I told Jake he could have the medium one."

Really???

I was surprised when I heard Cooper's response because this was a reaction I wasn't accustomed to. Later that evening when he and I were driving to Tae Kwon Do, I asked him to tell me more about what happened at 7 Eleven. He said, "Oh, well, they were all out of small cups so I thought to myself, you know, Jake just spent many hours working hard at basketball camp, he's got to be hot and tired and thirsty. I think he deserves to have the medium slurpie so I told him he could use the money for my slurpie to get it."

WOW. I explained to Cooper that THIS is what life was all about. Taking your eyes off of you and putting them on someone else and what he demonstrated was Christ-like love. My mommy heart wanted to burst with joy when he walked me through his thought process. I couldn't stop gushing to him about it.

Sibling sweetness #2
Friday, 7/12, with our suburban and car topper packed almost-to-the-gills, we had just finished having family prayer and were about to drive away for our campout when I asked Jared if he packed the firewood. He smiled, put the car back in park and jumped out to get it. Because we had no cargo room left for wood, Jared shoved the bundles between Karcyn and Cooper in the 3rd row seat. The bundles were pretty high and not very stable. Jared asked Cooper to do what he could to keep them from tumbling around. Even Karcyn put her hand up on top to help the cause.

We were about 3 miles from the Cape Lookout campground at the coast when we took a pretty sharp turn. From the backseat we heard a loud "Owwwwwwww!!" Cooper got smacked hard by the top bundle of wood.

Karcyn immediately responded by saying, "Ohhhh--I'm soooooo sorry!" Cooper actually piped in and said it wasn't her fault even before Jared and I could assure her of the same thing.

Karcyn was obviously very concerned and quickly asked, "Did you get a wood cut??"

Cooper started moaning a bit from his new injury and then we heard Karcyn in the sweetest, most remorseful voice say, "I wish I had stronger hands."

My mommy heart instantly melted and my eyes became teary. Even after we told Karcyn that the wood bundle smacking Cooper wasn't her fault, she was still thinking that if only her hands would have been stronger, then maybe she could have kept the wood from hurting Cooper.