Too Much Togetherness

We've been seeing a lot of my mother-in-law these past two weeks and, frankly, it is starting to wear on my nerves. Today is the twelfth day in a row she's been here. I assured her that Matthew could come with us to the other boys' swimming lesson this afternoon, but she said that it was no trouble, that she wanted to come and stay with him. She hates to think of Matthew watching his brothers having fun in the water while he is forced to sit on the sidelines until his cast comes off in a few weeks.

Happily, today was the last day of this session of swimming and the last afternoon Stephanie will be here for awhile. The boys have one more session this summer, which starts the week after next and runs in the morning instead of the afternoon. Matthew will have to miss two of those lessons before he gets his cast off; then he can go back into the pool.

Stephanie is a good grandmother and she loves the boys. We have different ideas about parenting, however, which make things around here a little stressful at times. For instance she thinks I don't feed the boys properly because I don't make them finish everything on their plate. I don't like to contradict her directly, but I also don't want the boys to think that stuffing themselves is a Good Thing.

Though she denies it, Matthew is Stephanie's favorite, which is why she has been coming here every day to stay with him. Stephen, too, seems to sense his grandmother's preference for his twin. When I returned home from the vet yesterday afternoon, I learned Stephen had gotten in trouble for talking back to her. She had put him in timeout on the steps for five minutes, and he was still sulking when I returned. While I backed her up on her decision, I could also see the sorrowful look in Stephen's eyes. As soon as I could, I called him over.

"What?" he asked belligerently, looking as though he expected to be scolded again.

"Just come here," I repeated. He trudged over, face downcast. I picked him up and hugged him for a long time. He held himself rigid for a few seconds, then relaxed in my arms. I thought Stephen has been getting a lot of negative attention lately; maybe some positive attention is what he needs.

"I love you, Reno," I whispered in his ear. He smiled at me, his lovely big eyes crinkled up into crescent moon shapes. He kissed me and then slithered off my lap, bad mood forgotten.

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