Ilan is not even 18 months old, yet he is already perfecting his role as annoying little brother. His latest stunt is to say "Ro Ro" again and again until Roan tells him, exasperated, "my name is not Ro Ro."
At which point Lani looks at him, smiles, and says "Ro Ro" at the top of his lungs. Or chants, "Ro Ro Ro Ro Ro Ro Ro Ro." Or, my favorite, pauses for dramatic effect, and only when Roan has turned back to whatever he was doing, says in a quiet, victorious tone of voice: "Ro Ro."
It's this last tactic that enrages Roan the most. He gets up in Ilan's face and shouts, "my name is not Ro Ro!" Or, "nobody's name is Ro Ro!"
Truly, Ilan can only say a few recognizable words: Dada, Mamma, Again, and Ro Ro. We are impressed that he's found a way to verbally torture Roan with such a limited vocabulary.
Ilan likes to save the Ro Ro game for mealtimes, when are all stuck at the table and he has a captive audience. It leads to a lot of shouting, and sometimes Roan is nearly brought to tears, but it's an improvement over the Feet on the Table game, where both kids ganged up on me.
I try to lessen the blow by explaining to Roan that Ilan doesn't know how to talk, and he only calls him Ro Ro because he hasn't learned to say Roan yet. So Roan has spent a lot of time patiently teaching Ilan how to say his name. The result is that Ilan will occasionally say "Ro-Ahhh." But why would he settle for Ro-Ah, when Ro Ro provokes a much more dramatic reaction?
The worst is when I mistakenly call him Ro Ro. Sometimes I don't even realize I've done it. Other times I realize it too late, but think I'm safe, because I'm upstairs and Roan is downstairs, or the clothes dryer is pounding away, or the music is on. But then I'll hear his voice, laced with frustration, traveling all the way up the stairs, cutting through the din of our daily lives, shouting, "my name is not Ro Ro!"
Aunty Nub, I think Roan understands how you feel.
CLASSIC.
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