Thunder and Lightning

Just as thunder compliments lightning in nature, my Thunder and Lightning compliment each other quite well, which is unfortunate for me at times.

Oh, silly boys.


Even at the ages of 5 and 3 1/2, Thunder and Lightning have learned the importance of teamwork. Especially when it comes to being disciplined and making their Mother laugh... out loud.

Most afternoons, as we wait for Her Highness in the car line, Thunder and Lightning beg to unbuckle and climb up to the front seat. And since we just sit in a parked car for about 10 minutes each day, I usually let them come up and do the super fun and quite annoying activities that they find most enjoyable. Mashing all the buttons on the dash, opening and slamming shut the "glub department" and putting the windows up and down a zillion times are all at the top of their list of favorites. One afternoon, Thunder and Lightning decided to leave the passenger window down and hang out of it. As school buses started to zoom by, I scolded the boys and told them to put their heads back in immediately. I then began a long and painful story that had been told to me by my own Mother (for doing the same thing, I'm sure). I told the gory details of a young girl who had been beheaded when her bus passed by a utility pole as she hung from a window, much the way the two of them were doing.

What? Too gruesome for such young boys? Too much information for children who just needed a little discipline? Don't judge. It takes more than your average slap on the wrist to get anything through to these fellows.

As I finished up the sad story, both Thunder and Lightning stared back at me with wide eyes, nodding slowly as I asked, "Do you understand now why you don't ever need to hang out of a car window again??" As it all sank in, both boys looked at one another. Then back at me. Then back to each other once more. And without saying a single word, Thunder and Lightning both pulled their heads into their shirts, like a turtle going into his shell, and began flailing their arms all about while squealing, "Is this what we would look like??!!?" Then mocking me, "Oh, noooo! The bus went by too fast and chopped off my head!!! Hhheeeellllllpppppp!!!" Flapping and flailing their arms, as their hands smacked against each other's bodies, then mine, they kept on, "Mooommmyyy!!! Oh, nooooo! A bus came by too fast and knocked off our heads! Ahhhhh!"

Total mockery. Why do I even bother??

They continued their beheaded scene as we pulled up to Her Highness' post. They kept squealing out the window, much to the delight of the school children who were still waiting for their parents, "Ahhhh! A bus just chopped off our heads! Ahhhhhhh!" Her Highness, however, was not amused. Thunder and Lightning clambered back to their booster seats and buckled up as Her Highness' eyes rolled from her coveted spot in the front seat. "Momma!!" She started, with clinched teeth, "I REALLY WISH you would NOT let the boys up front in the car line!! They are soooo embarrassing to me!! Puh-lease don't let them near the front anymore! Or near any windows at all!!! Ugggghhh."

"Best Brothers" they call one another.

They sure do love each other.