Luke and Max. Max and Luke. The names go together so well. They have many things in common, although they do not look anything alike. Max is slowly following in a lot of Luke's well...not so great traits. With a few notable exception.

Max is a negotiator, like Luke was. Luke would bargain to get this or that, say please a THOUSAND times. But when Luke finally faced facts that I was indeed dug in and not giving in, he'd give up and stomp off. He would return later totally normal, like conflict hadn't occurred. Max on the other hand, also negotiates. However, when Max sees that I am not giving in he begins to raise his voice and then raise it a little more. Raising it until he's downright yelling at me at the unfairness of it all. I try patience, I try ignoring him, I try talking to him in calm tones, I try banishing him to the basement. I try, try, try. Jarrod on the other hand has to simply tell him to knock it off and zip, nothin'. This is extremely frustrating, especially when my husband is not around.

The other notable difference is Luke, well, lies. I love that boy, I'm not trying to denigrate his character, but this is an especially heinous flaw. I gotta give it to the boy though, he sticks by his lies until the death. Unless he is faced with incontrovertible evidence he will insist he's truth-telling. You know he's lying, he knows he's lying.

Max on the other hand is almost a compulsive truth-teller. It almost shocks me after so long of dealing with Luke. I'm always ready for a battle. "MAX! Did you take Luke's money off his shelf?!?" "Yeah." he'll reply. What?! Really its just that easy. Its cracking me up just typing that, because its comical.

Just a small peek at my older children. Good night!