The two sides of my brain....

So siblings are going to fight with each other - I know that. I myself am a sibling, so I know that it happens. 99% of the time, my two kids play really well together. For example, this morning I ruled the tv off limits and they have happily played all morning long including an extra sweet time of Ansley reading books aloud to her little brother.
We spent the past 5 days at the beach (pictures to come) and they played in the sand, jumped waves together, swam in the pool. On the ride home from the beach, they sat next to each other in the truck (as in, within arms reach of each other) and were still happy enough with each other's company. We were home about 5 minutes and I sent them to the back yard so I could begin to tackle the post beach piles of clothes mixed with sand. I looked out the back window and saw Ansley on top of Stephen, her little fists ready to go and Stephen with his foot up ready to kick her off. Admittedly, I probably stood there frozen for a few seconds because I had never seen this in my own family - EVER. I pull kids off each other regularly at school, but my own two kids?!?!?!? I was shocked! I opened the door and they immediately jumped off each other."Did I just see the two of you actually fighting?" I asked.
"Yes." they both replied with little faces turned down but eyes looking up to see my reaction. I was still so stunned, I wasn't even sure what to say. So I sent one to face one wall and the other to another wall.

"Are we in time out?" Stephen asked. "YES." I said. "And it may be a while because mommy has to process this."

Jamey entered the scene at this point and called Ansley in to talk with him. Long story short, there was a disagreement about whose monkey was eaten by Tilly (strangely, no one cared that the poor monkey was Tilly's afternoon snack - apparently just the ownership of the now in pieces monkey was in question) Ansley said Stephen hit her, so she pushed him, and so the fight began. Jamey then called Stephen in to talk to him and received pretty much the same story.
"Did you hit Sissy?" Jamey asked him.
"I did." Stephen said sadly.
"Why did you hit her?"
"Well, sometimes my nice brain gets blocked. And then my mean brain is not blocked. So that is what happened and then I hit her."
Well, there you go. Stephen will be working on getting more control of his "nice brain" in the near future. This is certainly not an easy task for a child or an adult.
Jamey finished out his talk with Stephen with a straight face. He sent both kids to their rooms to retrieve a beloved toy which was now lost to the top of dad's closet for a week.
Here is to a violence free end of Spring Break week.