frenemies of the state

Oh this? This would be their version of harmony. 

Rhett and Rad are coming up on 2 years of being brothers. They are the very best of frenemies. Never were there such devoted frenemies. It's a love/hate/love/hate/waitlove/nowait...hate relationship. Yet they are a unified troublemaking front. Rhett's kind of trouble takes real finesse and Rad's kind of trouble requires a bulldozer.

They love a good brawl. 2 kids, 1 crib...TODDLER CAGE MATCHES! Pretty sure you could get pay per view on that...

Rad bites Rhett on occasion and sends him into a fit of tears and hysterics and dramatic declarations that "Rad is NOT my brother right NOW!!!" And Rhett has a knack for clothes lining Rad. Rad's response? A swift punch to Rhett's back.

There are times when the wrestling is just for fun and brotherly love. Rhett's new thing is to lay down next to Rad and get him to punch him in the bum over and over again. They both find it hilarious and Jake and I bond over our synchronized stares of, "they both crazy."

I'm hopping that as with all of the less pleasant stages of child rearing, that this WWF brawl stage is just that...a stage. But there's always an outlier right? I don't know 100% if Rhett and Rad are ever going to outgrow their fighting stage. Maybe it's an 18+ year stage...?

But!! I've noticed little things they say and do that have me and Jake looking at each other and saying the old cliché, "they're really growing up." 

Of course now that I'm sitting down I can't think of the best examples, but off the top of my head I remember Rhett hearing Rad wake up from his nap last week (dear brother Rad needs his marathon naps...or else) and he scrambled to get up from is toys and get two lions so that Rad could start playing right away. Maybe he was being nice or maybe he was just trying to pull the old distract and defend his toy set up. Let's go with nice. 

And whenever Rad falls down and starts crying Rhett drops what he's doing and starts making a big fuss over him, "Oh, Raddie! Is it SO bad?" 

One more. When we get Rad dressed in the morning he comes walking into our room and Rhett (usually, often) says "Wow Rad! You look so HANDSOME!" And Rad puffs his little chest up with pride and marches around showing off his usually wrinkled t-shirt. 

Rad my relationship works best when we aren't separated by more than 3 feet. He's at an impasse of emotions and just can't quite figure out if he's a happy camper or a gloomy Gus. He does have an unadulterated admiration of Rhett and loves to sneak Rhett's shirts from his dresser and try to put them on like pants.  For not having many words in his little vernacular he has an impressive manner skill set and promptly kisses Rhett immediately after punching him. And pretty much the only time he tries to utter more than one word sentences, they always have to do with Rhett. He says thank you Rhett "dan do Rah" and love you Rhett "ooov do Rah" and "Hi Rah!"  

We'll see how the dynamic changes once baby number 3 joins the fray...exciting stuff.