Saturday, March 31, 2007

Sass and spitfire

Eliana has started sassing. It pisses me off, and it cracks me up. Fortunately, the two play off each other so that I can calmly deal with the situation without getting upset or laughing in front of her. The other day I gave her two choices and she didn't like either, so she said, "No, Mommy. You do (whatever). That's your Only Choice." I tried again and she repeated herself a little more rudely "No, you listen to ME" so I left the room and closed the door behind me and told her she could come out when she was ready to listen and stop sassing. It was a preschool morning so a few minutes later I stopped by and poked my head in and said, "Are you ready to stop sassing and say sorry to Mommy for being sassy?" She said, "YOU say sorry to ME for sassing. You sassed me, Mommy, that is not OK." I said, "I see you need a few more minutes," closed the door again, ran to the other room, and fell over laughing, PO'd at the same time.

Kes is throwing some really good fits lately too... and pulling hair. Especially Elly's hair (Elly incites her). She pulls her clothes, too, when Elly gets into her space and she feels threatened. What busts me up is she'll grab at Elly's clothes 5 or 6 times in quick succession, with this huge stormy look on her face, and then suddenly her eyes will pop wide open and she'll smile and throw her arms around Elly and give her a huge kiss. Like, "Oh crap, what am I doing? I LOVE sister! Sorry!" Kes stopped calling me Mama, for the most part, and calls me Mommy now. For two days she couldn't say the first M, and it was so cute. "Aahhh-mi! Aahh-mi!" I was kind of sad when she got the hang of it so fast.

They are playing together a ton lately, and actually do a great job of cooperating, overall. Someone asked me what it's like to have two kids, and I told her that as much as I love each of them, the most rewarding thing in my entire life has been watching them love each other. It's pretty humbling to watch them blossom together. I'm so glad they're so close and hope they stay that way into old age.