Oh, the Terror!

This morning the boys were out on the front street riding their tricycles (twins) and old fisher price horse (toddler), which my husband received for his first Christmas. The twins would go roaring off down the street racing each other to the mail boxes and the toddler slowly pushes himself along, as his feet get caught under the wheels, with a huge grin on his face. Once having reached their target, my designated biking boundary, the twins come roaring back towards our neighbors drive way, the opposing biking boundary. By this time, the toddler has managed about five feet on the horse. With gaping mouth, the toddler giggles as they race on by, narrowly missing him. The toddler lifts the horse up, with him on it, and turns around heading in the new direction after his older brothers.

In the midst of this, a lady heads towards us walking her dog. Everything stops and all eyes are focused on the dog, which is only a tiny puppy. The twins position themselves with their bikes between them and the dog. The toddler looks on with curiosity. Unlike the twins, the toddler is not (yet) allergic to dogs and finds them fascinating. After, the dog safely passes the twins, twin2 realizes that the toddler is still out in the open and could be terrorized by the miniature puppy. Twin2 runs over to the toddler and starts pushing the horse away from the dog and then begins dragging the toddler off the horse so as to have a barrier between them and the dog. The toddler screams with horror at not being able to chase the puppy down the road and tackle it. Twin2, on the other hand, is fully satisfied with having saved his little brother from peril. After the toddler calms down, I hear twin1 whisper, "Phew, close," under his breath. And I proceed to give twin2 complements on helping his little brother. With the threat fully over, on their bikes they go and the race is on.