Raised by Wolves

When we first brought the twins home, Amber was so excited. She ran right over to us and was literally bouncing up and down. We let her hold them, one at a time, and she sat with her arms around them, the biggest grin on her face. Now, they're two. Amber is extremely over protective of her little brothers. She loves them so much. We named them Caleb and Alex. Caleb seems to be a bit more outgoing than Alex. He's always running around the house, knocking things over in the process. And he doesn't shut up. I mean, I know he's two, and he likes to talk now that he actually can, but seriously, that kid's mouth never closes. Alex is more calm. He usually sits by himself somewhere, playing nicely. He doesn't talk much, and doesn't cause much of a problem either.

Caleb is a little troublemaker, just like his sister was. She's eight now, and has gotten a little calmer. Caleb is always bothering her and Alex, though he seems to fight with his brother more than his sister. Last week, he knocked over a picture from on our dresser. There was glass everywhere, and Ryan nearly had a heart attack when he found him standing there with glass all over the floor, an innocent look on his face. He was in so much trouble. Ryan had put him in the corner of the living room, facing the wall. Caleb didn't handle time out well. He kicked and screamed and threw a fit. Alex would sit and watch him, letting me know if he got up.

At this very moment, the twins were playing on the floor in the living room, and Amber was watching cartoons. It didn't take long for the twins to start fighting. Ryan was out at the supermarket, so I had to deal with them alone. I could hear Alex screaming, and knew it was probably because of Caleb. Sure enough, when I walked in, Caleb was pretty much on top of his brother, trying to take a toy out of his hand. Amber had her hands over her ears. “Can you please shut them up? I'm trying to watch T.V!” I walked over to them. “Caleb! Stop it!” “No!” He had successfully took the toy from Alex, who was now crying. “Give the toy back to your brother Caleb.” “No, its mine!” I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “You have one more chance to give it back, if you don't, you're going to time out.” He still wouldn't listen. “Okay then, time out time it is.”

I took the toy out of his hand, gave it back to Alex, and picked him up. I placed him in the corner of the room, where he continued to kick the wall and scream until his face was red. Amber was very annoyed by this point. “Daddy, I can't watch T.V with Caleb screaming like that!” “I know sweetie, you just have to deal with it for now. There's nothing I can do to make him stop.” She pouted, and huffed as she got up and went to her room. Alex had stopped crying, and was continuing to play with his toy.

Caleb must have gotten up about ten times. Each time I put him back, he would just get back up and run away. How the hell does Ryan do this? “Daddy, Caweb's up again!” I ran back in the living room, just in time to grab Caleb, and put him back in the corner. “Thank you Alex.” He smiled, and returned his attention to his toys. “Caleb, we've been doing this for twenty minutes now, just stay here for five minutes and then you can go play.” “No! I don't want to!” I heard the front door, and Ryan walked in. “What's going on here?” “Oh my god, thank god you're back!” I ran over to him and hugged him, nearly knocking him over. “Ron, babe, what's going on?” “Caleb took Alex's toy and wouldn't give it back, so I put him in time out. He won't stay, I've put him back over ten times already.”

Ryan went over to where Caleb was. “Caleb, you have to stay here for five minutes, if you don't, you stay longer. Do you understand?” He ignored Ryan, and continued his tantrum. “Just leave him. If he gets up again we'll have to keep putting him back. He won't listen.” We went to the kitchen and restarted the timer. “I don't understand why he does this. How can one twin be so good, and the other be so bad?” “I have no idea.” “Maybe he'll calm down when he gets older like Amber did.” “Maybe, we'll just have to wait and see.” But of course, I hadn't known how wrong I would be.