"If You're Happy and You Know It"

Dallin has had a little over a year and a half to work on being a big brother. And now that Sierra is old enough to participate in his cunning "older brother tricks" he is enjoying his role in life quite a bit. It has come to our attention that Dallin is destined for a career in management-- or so he thinks-- why else would he encourage his little sister to do things like break dry spaghetti noodles into a million tiny pieces and scatter them on the kitchen floor, or see how far she can run with the end of the toilet paper roll from the bathroom? Under his direction Sierra participates in many of his "experiments" but when mom wants to know who is responsible for the mess, Dallin quickly assures me that it was Sierra who made the mess (True, but who encouraged her?). This week Dallin was once again testing his magical "Big Brother Powers"-- First off let me say, Sierra loves to sing and Dance. One of her favorite songs is "If You're Happy and You know it". With that in mind, let me begin my story:

Thursday Evening during dinner I left the kids at the table eating while I poured Dallin another glass of milk. While in the kitchen I heard Dallin begin singing "If you're happy and you know it, SPILL YOUR PEAS . . If you're happy and you know it, SPILL YOUR PEAS . . . If you're Happy and you know it, and you really want to show it, if you're happy and you know it, SPILL YOUR PEAS." Dallin was giggling after each verse and I responded "Oh, Dallin you're so silly!" (He does afterall enjoy changing the words to songs.) That is, until I realized why he was giggling. Every time he would sing "if you're happy and you know it, spill your Peas" Sierra would take a spoonful of peas from her plate and pour them on the ground, causing Dallin to giggle with delight as she made a big mess under his instruction.

I must say I am a bit frightened for the future older brother tricks he will play, mostly because I grew up the guinea pig for many big brother experiments (licking 9V batteries, jumping off the roof, getting in a garbage can that was then placed on a skateboard and pushed off a ramp etc. . .). I guess we still have a lot to look forward to. . . and Sierra has a lot to learn.