On the eleventh day of Christmas...

...I'm going to bed and I have nothing new to share (at least not eleven new things to share). However, the eleven rules of sibling engagement from last year still apply, and so I leave you with a rerun.

"...I offer the eleven rules of sibling engagement in my house.

Today we took college boy back to campus. It's been a long break, can I say that? I had hopes, I honestly did, that he would have matured, even slightly, after being away from his siblings for 10 weeks. But, alas, he is still the same, developmentally-a-three-year-old son I sent away to college. If that surprises you and you think my college-age son is more immature than his peers, I assure you that many parents of teens (o.k., and young adults) will tell you that teens regress exponentially the older they are, and become the preschoolers they once were, except without the endless cuteness. I don't know when the regression reverses. Anybody? Anybody?

Anyway, I digress. The rules of engagement are the same as they were before college boy spent 10 weeks and thousands of dollars away from home, except that in shorts bursts of time, as are found at holiday breaks, they are excruciating to "parental units." And, of course, "parental units" have vastly less patience when dealing with major holidays, out-of-town family, and bickering children. The rules of engagement are, in many ways, similar to the toddler rules of possession, because, I have found, all children are really toddlers at heart.

1. Size is power, and I have it.

2. Age is power, and I have it.

3. I can get you in trouble, and that's power, and I have it.

4. The last cookie/candy/soda/piece of pizza/shotgun position in the car is mine because I say it is.

5. I can love you one minute and hate you the next minute and I don't have to warn you that I am changing my mind.

6. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names hurt feelings and I'm telling mom.

7. If mom screams, everybody freeze.

8. If mom asks who did it, don't say anything.

9. If engaged in verbal combat, always stoop to the developmental level of the youngest child involved.

10. Yelling in fun sounds just like yelling in anger to mom and we will be in trouble irregardless. Don't yell.

11. If you get in trouble, kissing mom on the cheek will break her down and she will forget that you are in trouble."