Andrew, Where Did You Leave Your Sister?

As  I watched the girls play in the backyard one evening, I was reminded of a story from my own childhood. R was pushing Baby Girl around the yard in her fire truck. She would push and push and push until she got her to the very corner of the yard and then run away with a silly grin on her face, leaving her sister sitting there all alone. Baby Girl would sit there unaware for quite sometime before realizing that she had been left, then she got annoyed.

Andrew and I as kids.

When I was young, my mother made it a point NOT to bring my brother and I to the store at the same time. Now, as a parent, I see why. My brother, Andrew, is almost two years older than me and was always quite the mischievous one. Just ask his 1st grade teacher. She taught for over 40 years and said he was the worst kid she ever had! I'm pretty sure he still wears that title like a badge of honor :) and I guess he turned out pretty well after all. (Spoken like a true little sister.)

So on occasion when mom was forced to take us both to the grocery store together, he always found some trouble to get into. I was young enough to sit strapped into the front of the cart while Andrew ran around. And without fail on each of these shopping trips, my mom would turn around to get something off the shelf and my brother would take off with the cart. He would push me down to the very last aisle of the store and leave me there. Mom would turn around and there would be Andrew..... but no Bethany. And mom would have to hunt me down.

"Andrew, where is your sister?!"

Yep, that's about right and it seems awfully familiar...

Oh wait.... yep! I knew I'd seen this play out before.

Now granted this was no Super Walmart and these were definitely not the days we live in now where children can't play in the front yard by themselves or ride their bikes down the street without a mom worrying.  But I can only imagine the look on my mom's face with the thought running through her head, "Again!? And this is EXACTLY why I don't bring both children to the store!"

Random story, I know. But I thought you would enjoy.