In the Produce Aisle

Sitting in the front of the race car grocery cart today, the boys were doing great. We'd started at the east side of the store and had worked our way all the way to the produce on the west side without any complications or altercations. I was looking at the corn, and suddenly the volume inside the cab of the race car was increasing in an unpleasant way. The next thing I knew, Zach was crying and saying that Drew had "bonked me in the nose with his head and it really hurt!" I got down to their level, really enjoying that whole my-kids-are-fighting-in-public annoyance, and asked Zach for details on what happened. He basically told me again that Drew bonked his head into Zach's nose on purpose, and to Zach's credit, his nose was red, so I'm sure it hurt. I asked Drew, "Drew, did you bonk Zach in the nose with your head?" And Drew said, "Zach hit me in head!" I wasn't sure if Drew was telling the same thing that just had happened, or what (it can be hard to tell with a two and a half year-old), so I said, "Zach hit you in the head? With what?" And Drew said, "With his hand!" Zach immediately said, "I did not!" and shifted his eyes around before looking at the ground. Hmmm, suspicious. So I asked Zach if he did hit Drew, and he basically wouldn't answer me, which told me the answer. I asked then if he hit Drew in the head before Drew head-butted his nose, and he said no, but not in a convincing way at all. So I asked again, and got the same response. Finally I had to pull out the threat. Our plans were to go to the pool after our grocery shopping, so I said, "Zach, tell me the truth, or we will not go to the pool today." And finally Zach admitted to hitting Drew in the face first, and then Drew head-butting his nose. I said, "Well, then I don't feel very sorry for you for getting your nose hurt, since you started it by hitting Drew. If you hit him first, don't you expect him to hit you back? You taught him to hit you by hitting him first. Now, I don't want to hear another word out of you two, other than 'Sorry.'" So Zach, with a trembling lip, said, "Sorry, Drew," and started to cry, and Drew said, "Sorry, Zach," right back. Then Zach said, "Mom, I just want to say one more thing." I told him ok, and he turned to Drew and said, "I love you!" and cried harder. Drew put his arms around Zach, leaned in against him, and said, "Don't cry, Zach! Don't cry! I love you!" and they hugged away. It nearly brought tears to my eyes! It was just the sweetest thing to see Drew comforting Zach and to see them making up. And thankfully, the last 15 minutes of the grocery shopping were totally uneventful.