Irritations

Olivia has discovered the fun of being irritating for the sake of being irritating.

You know the type, the person who will put their hand an eighth of an inch from your face and say, “I’m not touching you.”

Yeah, that’s her. Except, she’s figured out that Alyssa really hates it when she (Olivia) breathes on her. This means that Olivia will breathe on or near Alyssa every chance she gets, which leads to Alyssa constantly screeching, “Stop breathing on me!”

Talk about annoyances.

I know this is just sibling rivalry at its finest. I know this is a stage they will both outgrow, but I feel really stupid each time I have to tell Olivia to stop breathing on her sister or when I have to tell Alyssa, “She’s not breathing ON you, she’s breathing AT you.”

Like that somehow makes the act less irritating.

I’ve been in Alyssa’s shoes. His name is Aaron and he’s my cousin who is two years younger than I am. When my parents divorced, he and his mom moved in with us because my mom and dad had recently divorced.

Aaron liked to sit across from me at the table in the mornings and stare. His stare was intense, like irritatingly intense. I could often be heard hissing, “Stop looking at me!”

My mom or my aunt would inevitably put a cereal box between us so Aaron couldn’t stare and/or I couldn’t see him staring. My poor brother Jason just tried to stay out of the way when it came to Aaron and his stares and me and my hisses.

We were really annoying kids and I realize that I’m just getting back what I gave to my mom and aunt.