It is a side we haven’t seen much of and truthfully, it was a welcome sight. Squabbling between my two youngest children has never happened before and so, three and a half years later, I am thankful. These two are nearly five years apart and my daughter has treated the brother with extra special needs as her own baby. He’s always been defiant and ignored her for the most part, but she has loved him from the get go. This morning, the tide changed and in a good way.

It’s disconcerting to have children that don’t bicker and fuss. I tell you this because my big three may as well be yelling, “off with their heads,” throughout the day. Never with Amos though, he has destroyed elaborate lego creations, back washed into drinks, torn homework sheets and leveled sand castles. Though people tell him no, it’s never been said with any level of venom that is measurable. No, I have been the Lone Ranger in scolding at the boy with autism at our house.

Until today. Blair was at it again, building a castle on our final beach day, and Amos the exterminator attacked. I couldn’t get to him in time and she lost the battle. She yelled at him or at least, said no like she meant it. He didn’t cry though, but he did get mad. He stepped back and started flinging sand at her back and quite a bit ended up in her bathing suit. We were both aware this was new territory for our Amos and we began to laugh. Finally, a war amongst siblings that has been too long coming.