Lessons Learned from John Wayne

Wilson is getting ready for his brother/sister to arrive in February. He is doing the preparation by "branding" his belongings. Let me see if I can give you the background of this strategy:

Saturday night we watched "Red River" with John Wayne. There's a scene where John Wayne and his ranch hands are branding their cattle. Wilson asked why they were branding cattle and I explained that if you brand something (cattle) everyone who sees the brand knows it belongs to you. See where this is going?

Friday night we ended up with two of the gift giveaways from the FW Cats game - piggy banks shaped like baseballs. Sunday night Wilson told me one was his and one was Peanut's. How kind of him to share with Peanut! I told him how proud we were that he was sharing and how wonderful it was for him to be a good big brother. A few hours later he told me to get a marker and write "Wilson" on one of the banks. Wilson can't read, but he can recognize his name when it's written down. Not only that but he wanted to make sure his name was in all of his books - so they don't get "lost". What he really means here is that if something is "branded" everyone knows it's yours. What Wilson didn't learn from John Wayne is that younger siblings can't read, and even if they could, they don't care. Younger siblings don't follow rancher codes of the Old West.

Later I saw the boy running around the house gathering up all unclaimed loose change. He lifted up sofa cushions, looked on Chris' desk, gathered money off of the dryer - all of it went to his room. I asked him if he was going to put any of that money in Peanut's bank. He was very precise in his answer "Peanut can get his own money." So you can lead your sibling to a plastic piggy bank, but you don't need to fill it up for him/her. I think Wilson's goal is to collect all money he can find before February brings Peanut - because it's not being selfish if there's no one else here yet. Smart kid.