Adventures In Playland – Duo Dynamics, How The Rockstars’ Chemistry Has Changed

Morning Hugs

I love The Rockstars together. With Original Rockstar in school for so many hours during term time and Little Miss being a younger baby then, they had only relatively “fair weather” interactions, compared to how much time they spend together now school is off. The resulting change in their chemistry was……..interesting. Unexpected.

As mentioned earlier, Rockstar now looooves to cuddle Little Miss and will find any excuse to pick her up. Much to my apprehension, over the course of our last Aussie trip Little Miss’ interactions with her older brother lost their adoring, admiring quality as she discovered a much bigger world out there, and what with the constant toting her off in directions she hadn’t intended, most often to show her stuff Rockstar wants her to see (much of which she then pointedly refuses to look at), she has developed the ability to actually get annoyed at her brother, and voice it in a disapproving “NNngggg” lowing.

So while Rockstar is now the adoring older brother who wants to show off for her, crossed with a fussy mother hen and tiger brother, his sister is fast discovering she is her own little person. She doesn’t always want to slide down the baby slide with him. She might not always want to go down on her own either, but she can try the stairs instead, thank you very much.

Then one day at Wisekids when Little Miss apparently has no interest in a balloon Rockstar has picked up, only to gleefully make off with it when he’s left it around, she is accosted by a “Hey.” (When she was a younger baby she went through a period of reaching for whatever someone else had, she almost never does that now, it’s more like Who Has It Fair And Square – I used to get a hard boiled egg in her by putting it in her collaborating older brother’s bowl when he had his breakfast. One day I happened to mention that was technically Ko-ko’s when she was clamoring for it and that was that. She may manja me to mess with my food, but she doesn’t eat more than a taste or two of what’s in the bro’s bowl.)

An unusual flash of possessiveness over said balloon at Wisekids by Rockstar, and I warn him off his sis. I don’t accept, “<pause> Ok, my turn now then. OkMyTurnOkMyTurnOkMyTurn, AreYouDoneAreYouDoneAreYouDone, CanIHaveItPleaseCanIHaveItPlease?” because all that was in about 2 milliseconds and she was just holding it with the sudden overload of stuck together words coming at her. And I suppose eventually taking in our exchange. I tell Rockstar to wait, that’s just too many words, even I can barely make out what he’s saying.

A few more seconds however, and Rockstar is back to his normal self, no longer trying to take the balloon from his baby sis. “Thank you,” I say. Rockstar nods solemnly and returns to his original game of Playmobil Zoo figures.

With a delighted smile, that’s when Little Miss toddles after him and offers him the balloon.