Protective?

Today we were at the public pool.  My older two boys are finally old enough that I probably shouldn't haul them through the girl's bathroom with me to enter the pool.  So usually they walk through the boys' side (do not get me wrong--I am NOT afraid to follow them, if need be, ALL THE WAY THROUGH the Men's side just for protection). But, even with my fearlessness, the momentary separation can still create issues.

Today as we were leaving, I told the boys to go together, but Emmett ran through turbo-speed without Tyson.  I get on the other side of the bathrooms and meet up with Emmett.  We're looking for Tyson, and I'm even poking my head into the men's bathroom to see if he's in there.  I began to get nervous about Tyson, because we couldn't find him anywhere.  We headed outside the gates to see if he was by the vehicle already, and THAT'S when I see him still inside the pool gate, poking around. 


"TYSON!  There you are!  We're over here.  Would you hurry through the bathrooms?  We've got to go home!"  I called.

"I'm waiting for Emmett," he responded.

"I've got him already, Son.  Just hurry, please--we need to load up."

Tyson came quickly and got in the van, but he was slightly unsettled and huffing at me a bit when he said emphatically, "Mom, what's more important: brothers or swimming?"

Wondering where he was going with this, I slowly replied, "Brothers."

"SEE?!  I don't want to live a lonely life with just one brother who doesn't do much.  I was looking for Emmett to make sure he was okay," Tyson chided. 


(Might I add, "DUH, MOM!")

I laughed most the way home.  It's so sweet to see how caring & protective he is of his younger brother, but it was so hilarious to simultaneously see my five-year-old's true perspective of his one-year-old brother.