Brotherly love

We went out to eat last night to a restaurant that gives free balloons. (Well you know that they aren’t really free based on the price of our meal, but………) So A gets one as we are walking out. We head over to Best Buy and Target to shop-look (which means we are cheap and we went to play Rock Band at Best Buy) and A wants to take the balloon inside. Sure, why not. I mean, it’s tied to the girl’s wrist. It certainly can’t come undone, can it?

The balloon survives in Best Buy, even with a transfer to my wrist so the girl can play her some drums. (Do you have any idea how cute it is to see a 40 inch tall person playing those big ol’ Rock Band drums? She was actually pretty good.) After we leave Best Buy, we walk up to Target to shop-look. While we are in there, one of her brothers comes up behind and lightly touches the balloon. No sarcasm here, it really was a light touch.

So you know what happens next. The balloon comes untied and up it goes. Now, next time you go to Target, just check out how high the ceilings are. It’s nowhere near the height of our second home, Wal-Mart, however it is still pretty high. Definitely higher than I can reach, way out of L’s reach too. I’m no good at guesstimating the height, but I’m thinking it’s gone and the tears are not far behind. For me, it was over. There was no getting the balloon.

Now I did consider standing on the basket of the shopping cart and trying to reach up, but it just was not going to be pretty. There wasn’t a whole lot of action going on in the back of the store so I figured I wouldn’t have much of an audience. Wisdom prevailed and I opted out of shopping cart surfing. Maybe another time.

Well I’m married to a man who is pretty persistent, and I’ve never seen him not be able to do something if he sets his mind to it. So of course, reaching the balloon becomes the top priority. I’m going on down the aisle and I realize that I’m missing a few people and I turn around to see G on L's shoulders, reaching for the balloon. L even tried to jump a bit so G could grab it, but it wasn’t happening. It was still a good four to five feet from them.

G hops down and I’m figuring they gave it a really good try, but the balloon was going to be our gift to Target tonight. It was not coming home. We spent the next few minutes looking at all things important, video games and toys, and I’m thinking we are leaving. But no, here once again I sense that we’ve lost some members of our party. I look back down at the little red balloon and my heart skips a beat.

Now what I see is my 10 yr. old son, who is deathly afraid of heights, roller coasters and all things “thrillish” not sitting on my husband’s shoulders, but the boy is STANDING on the man’s shoulders. Standing. In the middle of Target. Stretching and reaching for a little girl’s balloon. His sister’s balloon. And he had it in his little hand.

What a picture to me. Brotherly love. Only love could cause him to do it. I know that L didn’t try and coerce him. You don’t coerce G. Ever. You will lose. He knows what he likes and what he’ll try. He doesn’t try much without serious, serious thought. But tonight he did. And I believe he did it because he loves his little sister. He’s got a great big ol’ heart in a little man’s body.

So rest assured that A is taken care of and loved by her brothers. She always will be. Curvy or straight. In the hospital or at home. She has her a little posse of boys that adore her.