Revenge is Best Served Cold, with 300 Parts and Instructions Written Half in Chinese

I often spend a lot of time thinking how much easier parenting would be if I happened to be the parent lucky enough to stuff a penis in my pants. Those bitter thoughts have ran through my mind more than usual on this miserable run up to Christmas. While I was in some packed shopping center pushing my way through crazed parents swarming some random toy like a herd of the zombie undead on fresh brains prime for the suckling, Rowdy would be napping in the recliner with our rambunctious children pawned off on his mom. I stayed up until 3 am wrapping presents while he stayed up just as late playing cards with the fellas. Last Saturday he took care of the boys while I photographed a wedding. Because we were leaving the next morning as soon as he finished feeding cattle for our Christmas celebration at Rowdy's dad in Oklahoma City, I knew the next morning I'd be rushing around like crackheads in the middle of a drug sting. My lone request for Rowdy in preparation for this trip to see his family (who I adore, by the way) was to bath the boys before they went to sleep. The next morning when I asked him if he had completed this task, he replied that he had fully intended to do this, especially in light of all the dirt fights they had, but that he simply got too busy with the super exciting football game he was watching. I wanted to kill him, I did, but I knew that would frankly take time that I just didn't have. I would have bitched at him, but Rowdy was also blessed with his uncanny ability to complete ignore all negative input from any and all females and absorbing all the positive ones. It's bullshit, really.
I spent that last few days with an admitted case of penis envy, thank you very much, Dr. Freud. That is, until the bounty of Christmas presents were unwrapped, shredded paper flung from here to yonder, and a small army of unassembled toys stared Rowdy stone cold in the face. It was like they were taunting him. A couple were constructed within a few moments, a couple appeared to require an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conquer.
Rowdy sat leg-crossed and baffled on the living room floor, nuts and bolts and springs and aluminum bars scattered around him in a semi-circle. Periodically, words that are typically frowned upon on Christmas were muttered under his breath, the four letter kind that with a tendency in starting with "F" or "S" or "D," the words I hold most dear.
And it was in this snowfall of toy parts that I realized maybe I shouldn't have been so rough on Rowdy while I was in the middle of my Christmas fury. I'm sure if Rowdy read this post, he'd swear I bought all those difficult-to-assemble toys on purpose, not because the boys would love them, but just to share some of my Christmas misery with him. But, that's really not the case. Now I see that maybe being the Daddy isn't so easy after all.

Kickin' Ass, by any means necessary

Ridge was still a baby himself when we brought Rolan home, just 18 months himself. He drug Rolan around like a little baby doll, not old enough to realize he could easily harm his little brother, but big enough to understand he had a considerable advantage when it came to fist throwing time.
That worked well for Ridge until Rolan was seasoned a few months past one year. Through rough interaction with his older brother, Rolan learned to defend himself at a much younger age than Ridge did.
Rolan will bite, he'll claw, he'll kick and he will most certainly find some foreign object to use as a size equalizer, if you know what I mean. Ridge can still handle his baby brother if he puts an effort toward the undertaking, but he doesn't really possess the instinct to go for the kill as Rolan does. He continues to dominate the house wide toy cartel, but that doesn't mean Rolan goes down without a ruthless fight.
When I snapped this photograph, the two boys were just playing chase. Although this is typically one of Rolan's favorite interactive games, a toy caught his eye a few moments into it. Two-year-olds aren't world-renowned for their attention span, so you can see how he was distracted. However, his big brother still yearned to play with his younger sibling. He yanked the toy from Rolan, knowing Rolan would speed after him for the bait and the horseplay would resume.
Ridge achieved his goal in that, but it didn't go as gingerly as he had anticipated. So, just as Rolan caught up to him, I clicked the camera's button, thus capturing the brutal, two-fisted pinch that Rolan unleashed.
Like I said, kickin' ass by any means necessary.