Easter Part II

I was a little tired last night, so today I wanted to share a conversation held yesterday between the ever-so-loving Harrison sibilings. We were driving home from the beach yesterday when Jacob and Ellie started arguing over some silly puddy that Ellie got from the Easter Bunny. I'm not exactly sure how it started, but this is how part of the conversation went:

E: "Mommy, Jacob won’t give me my silly puddy back."

J: "But you gave it to me."

E: "Yeah, but I want it back now."

I'm not quite sure what Jacob said next, but if I had to guess, it was probably a little antagonistic...

E: "You better give it back or else I will..."

I didn’t catch the end of that sentence either, but I'm quite certain it had something to do with her promising to do something destructive to Jacob’s silly puddy when she got back home.

J: "Mommy, tell her she can’t do that."

Meanwhile, I just sat in the passenger seat as if I didn't hear a word...ignoring the backseat requests for a Mommy intervention. I was hoping that they would work it out on their own, but that wasn't working so much and the conversation continued on...

J: "You don’t like me, do you?"

E: "I’m not going to answer that question right now."

J: "Why don’t you like me?"

The bickering continued...Ellie wanted her silly puddy back and Jacob wasn't giving it up since he felt his sister willingly gave it to him only a few seconds earlier. Not really something a Mommy would be proud of, but I guess her desire to share was gone in a matter of a nanosecond. I’m not even sure what happened next because I was trying my best to tone it all out, but then I heard the little one raise her voice and proclaim (amongst a few small tears)...

E: "NO, I don’t like you. THERE...I answered your question!"

I know it doesn’t sound very nice, but we all know children say things they don’t mean and it made me chuckle under my breath. My two can get along incredibly well one minute and then drive each other crazy mad the next. I guess I can relate since I, too, had the pleasure of experiencing many sibling showdowns. I can remember riding in the backseat of my parents car and complaining..."Mom, she won’t stop touching me.." as if that was even possible when all 3 of us are practically sitting on top of one another, shoulder to shoulder, in the small backseat.

On a side note, here is a quote I read in a magazine the other day-

"Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring - quite often the hard way."

One day my kids will understand that, but until then, I'm sure I'll experience many more sibling showdowns.