Trevor and Bryce: my two kids, lol

As of this weekend, I'll have had Bryce as part of my family for two weeks. In these past two weeks, I've realized that Bryce and my son, Trevor, are around the same intelligence level.
Bryce is very smart. A lot smarter than I expected him to be. And smart is a good thing. Usually. Bryce, however, is in the stage of using his intelligence as defiant craftiness. He will wait for opportunities to get into things when he KNOWS I'm not looking.
For instance, he's allowed to be on my couch, but that's it. No lounging allowed on any other furniture--ESPECIALLY beds! Doggie rule of the house #1. Well, Bryce has realized that he can get a few lounging moments on my pillows if I'm not in the room...or if I turn to leave the room. And if, to his apparent misfortune, I catch him cozying up in my covers and yank him off my bed, what does he do? Gives me the look that screams, "Well! You're just...mean! Hmph. Fine! I'll just go to Trevor's bed because HE likes me!" And off he struts, like an oversized arrogant rooster, across the hall to Trevor's room, with me on his tail demanding, "Don't even THINK about it!"
He'll get to Trevor's bed and look over his shoulder at me before attempting the jump. He tried it once. Now he just looks at me and contemplates if he should cross that line. But he still puts on a show. And much to Trevor's amusement which, obviously, only encourages Bryce to push the boundaries with me as he looks at Trevor, wags his tail and puts on a big ol' grin.
A few nights ago, I was tucking Trevor into bed and knelt down to say his prayers with him. Bryce laid down behind me. He saw Trevor's large pile of stuffed animals stacked up against the bed between me and the wall. He reached over and pulled out a big yellow stuffed duck and started grrrr-ing and pawing at it. I turned around and took it from him and said, "No. Those are Trevor's toys. You go play with yours."
I turned back to Trevor to finish prayers. Bryce waited a few moments to make sure I was completely focused on Trevor, and then made another attempt to grab a stuffed toy, this time a smaller, not-so-brightly colored one: Bambi. He was also sneakier in his effort to snatch it. Once he thought he'd gotten it and it was his, I whirled around and took it away, trying not to laugh, again telling him, more firmly this time, "No! You do not play with Trevor's toys!"
Back to Trevor, who was giggling uncontrollably about the whole thing. A few moments went by, and this time I kept an eye on Bryce as he thought I was unaware and focused completely on Trevor again. Trevor, on the other hand, was watching Bryce behind me. In those few moments, between me watching Bryce out of the corner of my eye and Trevor going into hysterical laughter to give it away, Bryce made his final attempt to get a stuffed toy. Only this time, he was sneaky as could be. He inched forward towards the pile, stretched his neck, used his nose to scoot a few big toys out of the way, and found a tiny purple Teeny Beanie Baby bunny that he oh-so-gently grabbed by the tip of the ear with his front teeth.
I couldn't help it. I had to laugh.
Then the last two nights, the booger decided to steal food off the countertops and table. I must say, I drew the line on that last night. He nearly wolfed down half a hamburger when Trevor got up from the table and then saw me turn around to tend to Trevor. In all of three seconds, he had that half a hamburger in his chops. But boy, I tell ya what, he didn't even get a chance to do much more than get it in his mouth when I turned back around and tackled him, pryed open his jaws and let it drop to the floor (where Blackie was waiting to oblige a cleanup, but didn't dare come near to get it when she heard me yell at Bryce). He got thrown outside with a smack on his furry butt. I was so mad at him! It was only the night before when he jumped up and stole food off the stovetop, and since he got in trouble for countertops, he figured he'd try tabletops instead. I suppose I wasn't specific enough for him, lol--Doggie rule #2: No stealing food from trash cans, off countertops AND tabletops!
Then there's the issue of Trevor and Bryce together. It's like having two toddlers together that are either happy to play with each other or they bicker and argue. Most of the time they just goof around together. Other times Trevor gets fed up and I get the, "MOOOOOM! Bryce won't leave me alone!"
Then I tell the two of them, "You, over there. And you, over there. Trevor, if you want to play with him or have him sit with you then don't whine about it. And Bryce, quit trying to sit on Trevor when he's watching a movie!" Or something along those lines.
I've recently realized that I have two kids now. But it really is fun. :-)