Skyler watched his parents as they tried to get Noel to walk. His mom was handling the camera and his dad was trying to coax Noel into walking. He'd stand her up and she'd flop to the floor, not even giving it a try.
"Maybe if she was trying to get to a toy," his mom said. "That's how we got Skyler to walk."
"I know she can do it. She walks around the playpen all the time," Clark said, grabbing Noel as she attempted to crawl off. "She's just being lazy."
Skyler handed his dad the Minnie Mouse stuffed animal, Noel's favorite toy at the moment. His dad tried for a good 30 minutes. His mom turned the camera off every once in a while, while his dad thought up a new way to approach it.
Skyler got hungry and went to the kitchen for some chocolate pudding. He brought it back out, so he could continue watching. Noel saw what he had and started charging for the pudding. She was walking, almost running, toward it. She took a good 6 steps before running into him. Skyler was caught off guard and fell to the floor, hitting the coffee table. Of course, it didn't hurt him, but it did split the coffee table into two. It also sent the pudding into the air and then onto his face. Noel got some on her fingers and started sucking her fingers.
Skyler looked over at his mom. She'd caught the whole thing on tape. "Are you going to erase that?" he asked.
His mom laughed, "Not a chance. We'll be watching this for many years to come. In fact, when you bring your girlfriends over to the house, I'll not only have the traditional naked baby pictures but a wonderful home movie."
Skyler frowned at her. He knew she was just joking. For one thing, 90 percent of their home videos were off limits due to the powers demonstrated in it. He still didn't like that she had gotten it on tape though. His dad was smiling, when he brought him the towel to clean his face. He didn't think it was funny one bit. Noel wasn't smiling because she was busy trying to suck off the remaining pudding before their dad finished wiping it off her fingers. She'd probably think it was funny too, once she was old enough to watch the home movie and understand it.
"Well, at least we know how to get her to practice walking, dangle pudding in front of her," his dad joked.
At school, he was relating some of the story and talking to Shankar about how little sisters got on his nerves. He didn't really expect him to understand it. Shankar had made great leaps in speaking English, but you had to talk slow and Skyler was talking fast because he was so annoyed about the incident.
Shankar nodded. "I do not know about little sisters, but know about little brothers. I have," he paused as he tried to think of the English word and he held up 2 fingers instead. "brothers."
"I bet it's not as bad as a little sister," Skyler said. "She gets away with almost everything because she's too little to know better, but I think she does know sometimes. She gets this little sparkle in her eyes and a knowing smile."
Shankar laughed. "Your sister sound funny. I want that I could meet her."
"Really?" Skyler asked. "You can come over to my house if it's okay with your parents."
Shankar nodded his head eagerly, "I tell them."
Shankar asked his parents and they said yes. So that Saturday afternoon, Shankar got to spend a couple hours over at Skyler's. Shankar's parents brought a translator and talked with his parents while Skyler and Shankar played.
"Where are your brothers?" Skyler asked.
"They are with my grandmother. She live with us." He smiled suddenly. "My little brother learn to walk, but he not make me fall."
They went into Noel's room. His parents had put her in there to take a nap. They were hoping she would take one, but she'd been fighting sleep lately. She was sitting up in her crib playing with her Minnie Mouse toy. She had the ear in her mouth, apparently trying to eat the ear.
"This is Noel," Skyler introduced.
Shankar put his hand through the bars and Noel grabbed it. "Ow," Shankar said, pulling it back put quickly. "She is as strong as many big men. It must be how she make you fall."
Skyler looked at her. Sometimes he forgot that she was really strong, but not near as strong as she was probably going to be. His mom said she did have the strength of a grown man, but she wasn't too hard for her to handle. His mom was used to it though. Shankar was just surprised that a baby had a grip like that. Skyler felt a knot in his stomach. He was getting closer to Shankar and now he would have to start lying about some things. It made him feel bad, but he knew it had to be done. Some things you just couldn't share with people because it would make bad things happen. He'd learned that very young. His mom and dad told him it wasn't real lying. It was self-defense.
"You want to play?" Shankar asked.
"Yeah," Skyler said, smiling and nodding. "Come see my ro--" Skyler plummeted to the floor.
Shankar laughed. Noel had managed to get out of her crib somehow and walk over and push him to the floor. Noel was giggling. Skyler sighed. He knew she was aware that she was bugging him. Sibling rivalry began very young indeed.
TBC
