Don't Mess with Henry's Sister

Henry's always been protective of Maren. The first time I really noticed it was when Maren was pretty little. I'm not sure how old she was, but probably less than a year. We were walking through the grocery store-- Maren in the cart and Henry at my side. Suddenly Henry tugged on my shirt and whispered, "Mom, that boy is smiling at Maren." I said something like, "That's nice." Henry shook his head and with a straight face said, "I don't like that."

Fast forward a few years. One day last week I picked up a couple of Henry's friends on our way to the park. It got a little quiet in the back and I noticed in the rear view mirror one of the kids whispering something to Henry. Henry looked at the kid for a second and said, "That's not funny." The kid got a little defensive and said, "I was just kidding." Here's Henry-- "I don't care if you're kidding. I don't like it and if you say that again, I'll punch you in the face." My first reaction was to laugh, but I did not. My second reaction was to tell Henry to cool it and apologize, but after thinking about that kid and the things that I had heard come out of his mouth, I decided to pretend I didn't hear it and trust Henry's judgment.

Later that day I asked Henry what his friend said. Apparently the kid said Maren was weird. I told Henry he did good.