Cake drama

AUDITION NOTICE: Seeking male actor with impressive vocals and imposing stage presence. Character in family comedy-drama is charming yet strong-willed, prone to speak his mind. Come to audition with a short, prepared sketch; plan on also showcasing improvisation skills. Part will be double-cast.

Act I, Scene I: Samuel helping himself to the cooling cake layers, what was to be brother Kyle's birthday cake.

Director's Notes:

The first thing I thought upon seeing this scene unfold today (OK, make that second thing; first I screamed!) was that Kyle finally got his due.

Jeff was in a similar vein when I told him of the incident. "Samuel's revenge," he titled it.

You see, Kyle has had a ruinous hand (finger!) in every single birthday cake in our family. He sneaks his mark on foodstuffs everywhere. On Christmas Eve I toiled to finish neighbor gifts of mini bread loaves, and Kyle found them. 

It's enough to drive me crazy!

I almost expect it from Samuel, but surely 14-year-old Kyle is above such behavior. Right?

Kyle and Samuel are very much alike, not just in the sense of Samuel physically resembling the toddler Kyle once was. They are impulsively alike in the here and now.  In button-pushing, boundary-defining, will-asserting and even tantrum-throwing, they get equal billing. It just comes with the ages.

I remember one article in the type of cheerful parenting magazine I devoured when Kyle was a baby calling the toddler age "a first adolescence." Perhaps, then, this tricky patch in Kyle's life could be considered "a second toddler period."

As such I must lovingly help him navigate it. "Be gentle," those glossy baby mags counseled. With teens it ought to be the same. Just because I think Kyle should know better most of the time is no reason for me to be more harsh than kind when I teach him.

So, Happy Birthday, Kyle! You are a special young man. My gift to you is to work on being a more patient, gentle, loving mother, the kind that you deserve.

Think of Samuel as cross-training.

Photo of Kyle and Samuel from 2009.