Ridiculous-ness

So last weekend we went to Pittsburgh, about a 5 hour drive, and Bode doesn't like car rides so he cried about an hour and a half each way. This has become the norm for the little guy so each of us had adjusted to it. I stopped being so sad when I heard him cry like this, it didn't make Dane angry anymore, and Eben just calmly watched his DVD player while Bode would cry off and on - sometimes pretty hard. We were used to it and it became a part of the car ride....well, until the last 30 minutes or so, when we were so very close to home. Eben started to LOSE it. He began crying sobbing every time Bode cried, or even made a little unhappy peep for that matter. So we had two very distressed children in the back seat.  At one point I looked back and Eben had blood all around his mouth, presumably from twisting and chewing his sippy cup to death while crying, cutting his mouth somewhere.  He started saying "HOME!" while sobbing, which broke our hearts...but to be honest, the scene was so ridiculous, Dane and I were laughing hysterically in the front seat.

Anyway, so ever since this odd situation in the car, Eben has become hypersensitive to Bode's cries/mild cranky noises.  Anytime Eben thinks Bode MAY start whining/crying, Eben looks and me and says, "Bode up!" or "Bode get him!" or "Bode tired Bode hungry pick up!".  If Bode does in fact start to cry or fuss a little, Eben breaks down into full out crocodile tears.  Even if Bode stops crying, Eben continues crying for minutes (very unlike him).  One night this went on for two hours straight, so, since it was Bode's fussy time of the night, I was playing defense the whole time - trying to prevent Bode from crying so I don't have an emotional disaster in my home.

It has now gotten to the point that I just don't console Eben much because it's so ridiculous.  Plus, what usually happens is that Eben will be sobbing and then suddenly, out of nowhere he stops and says, "Eben happy, haha" or "All done crying."  So, my thought is most of it is not real and it's some weird toddler way of getting some attention.  Anyway, here is a video of one moment during the really bad night...