Children

Some of you may know that I have a little brother named Ilyan. When he was two, he was an annoying little monster. When he was three, he was a terrible demon. Now he's four, and he's an absolute devil. But that's only when he's sleepy, hungry, or thirsty, which is thankfully no longer an hourly occurrence.  

My little brother is a creature that hates listening to reason, especially when he's in a bad mood. A couple weeks ago, Ilyan wanted to go to Curtis Orchard to pick apples and get apple donuts (which he actually hates, but gets them anyways). That particular day was a Saturday, but my father needed to go listen to a couple talks given by guest speakers at the university and my mother needed to finish writing a recommendation letter, so we had to tell Ilyan that he couldn't go to pick apples that day. We said we'd go tomorrow, but only if he followed instructions. Usually he would whine for a while, and try to convince us to take him that day before giving in. But that day, Ilyan was in bad mood since he didn't sleep well the night before. He started to repeat over and over, "But I wanna go~, but I wanna go~." I swear he said it at least fifty times before my father told the whining monster that he would take him to the park today instead, and temporarily made the whining stop. But not for long, since my father told him that he needed to go to the restroom quickly so they could get to the park early enough to stay and play. 

Ilyan hates going to the restroom. He'll hold it and hold it until he can't hold it anymore, then sprint to the bathroom. Sometimes he doesn't make it. My guess is that he wanted to play more and didn't want to take a break in his games to go potty, which evolved into a habit of constantly holding until the last minute. So my father trying to force Ilyan to go potty was like setting off the ticking time bomb, one that caused a case of extreme repetition rather than an explosion. This time, it was "But I don't wanna, but I don't wanna~" over and over again. Ilyan held off going to the bathroom for so long that he ended up not being able to go to the park at all. That put him in a really bad mood for the rest of the day. He didn't follow instructions, so my parents didn't take him to Curtis Orchard the next day, making him even more mad. (They felt bad for him so they took him the next weekend.) 

It's interesting when I tell friends stories like this, because they've only ever seen the shy, cute side of my little brother that he only shows when meeting new 'big kids.' A couple people are rather shocked that the sweet angel they saw come with my father to pick me up last week would be capable of such things. The rest, usually the ones that have younger siblings themselves, are completely understanding. Kids show their true demonic nature at home and magically become good angelic children outside when they meet unfamiliar people. Those little tricksters.