Food Fight

Nico and Leo are starting to interact more and play together. They share a room now and Nico will wake up and say things like: "You're such a cute little baby, Copo!" while Leo babbles back. Copo is Leo's new nickname this month. A few weeks ago it was Keeksay. Nico rarely calls him Leo, and when he does, it sounds more like Yeo. They bring out the mischievous side in each other and they both delight in pulling every single book off their shelves, ripping out pages and trying to eat them, and distracting one another when it's time to sleep. As expected, they have scuffles over toys every day. When Leo manages to get a hold of something that doesn't officially belong to him, Nico swoops in to snatch it. He'll then find some random toy that he could care less about and try to pass it off to Leo as the coolest thing in the world.

A few days ago, they had their first fight over food. We were in Union Market, a place I usually avoid when I'm with both of them because the aisles are narrow and hard to navigate with a stroller.  We stopped in to pick up a few things and I promised Nico some cut watermelon, a good on the go snack that helps distract him from ice cream and chocolate croissants. Leo was quiet in the stroller, not saying a word. But once we got on the long line that was already about ten people deep and quickly growing, he spotted the watermelon. He started squawking like a bird, this unusual sound that kept getting louder and louder as I scrambled to take him out of the stroller and soothe him. He might have been flailing his arms, too. Nico picked up on his excitement about the watermelon and immediately began shouting "It's mine. All mine! I'm going to eat all of that watermelon! He can't have ANY!" while Leo's squawking grew louder and louder. Feeling like that Mom, I could see myself in both of them. In Nico's unwillingness to share his food, something I still struggle with even though I'm an adult and should know better. And Leo's impatience because he suddenly needed to eat something right away. Wanting to flee, I was relieved when a woman behind us came to my rescue. She opened up the watermelon while I held Leo with one arm and tried to keep Nico from running away with the other. Once they both had some, the squawking and shouting subsided until they each finished a piece and were ready for another.