Friday, June 03, 2011

Love Those Kids

This week started out rough. We're still in the transition of school being out and all three of us being together all of the time. Until today, each day has been filled with lots of whining and bickering between the two kids. Joy.

Earlier in the week, I threatened that if they couldn't get along, several things would happen. One of which was us cleaning all of the toys out of Eli's room so that we could pull her bed in there. Yup, I made that awesome ultimatum of 'if you can't get along, you'll have to live together'. I'm a rock star, I know. Thankfully, they haven't called my bluff, and they've been much better since.

Today was an AWESOME day, actually. Not only did they not fight (at all, I'm pretty sure!), they really really got along and played together. We ran a few errands and they were nice to each other, we ate meals and they had pleasant conversations, and most of all, while I asked them to play quietly independently for 30 minutes while I edited, they begged me to let them play together. And they did. In harmony. With love. And (gasp) sharing. Eli pulled out a bunch of legos to share with Maddux cuz she only has a handful. Then he GAVE her a green baseboard to have for her use. Thirty full minutes of non-bribed, non-forced sibling awesomeness.

The other day we went to the pool with friends. Eli played with the boys and Maddux played with the girls. At one point, Maddux was trying to learn how to get down to the pool floor to retrieve a dive stick. We went through this last year and I'd shove her back down so she could reach it. But she wasn't picking that up this year; she couldn't seem to figure out how to get her body totally upside down. Eli came over and demonstrated it for her and explained it again. She got it on the first try after that. I praised the heck out of him for being an awesome big brother who just taught his little sister something. Wow.

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