My Middle Two

My middle two kids are quite the combination. They are both VERY VERY strong-willed and determined to do everything their way. They are stubborn. They are loud. They are very busy, always with something to do. They are also sweet and helpful. They like to have fun. They like to explore.

Their relationship reminds me of my youngest sisters when they were younger. Best friends one moment, and battling enemies the next. There's a lot of mischief, laughing, playing, teasing, whining, yelling, goofing-off, arguing, craziness, kindness . . . and the list could go on . . . when these two are together. When Shelby's around, she becomes the good conscience reminding them of what they should do, but without her they often get a bit crazy.

Here are a few pictures recently of what they often do:

When Declan wakes up, they hear him on the baby monitor and run up to see him. Now I have him in his carrier still because sometimes he sleeps upstairs, and sometimes he sleeps downstairs. It's also a bit of a protection because they nose-dive into his bed to join him. They then sit there and "hide" until I come up to get him. Lately, he gets so excited to have them there that he starts kicking crazily out of excitement. He ends up kicking Payden in the process, which causes her and Taylor to erupt in giggles. I sure hope that when he finally starts sleeping in the bed without the carrier that they decide to not join him. I'm afraid of what the nose-dive into his bed will bring.


This is what belts are for. Shelby and Taylor used to do this with the belts tied around their necks or waist. It took us forever to get them to stop putting them there and rather just hold the belt. Taylor and Payden have decided to hold it in their mouths. I don't really like this idea, but can't get them to stop. They end up tugging and pulling and yanking on the belt. As you can see, they have the best of times doing this. I'm just grateful Tom's going to be a dentist because I can forsee a broken tooth out of all this.



Bathtime . . . it is ALWAYS an eventful time for them. They can soak a bathroom in no time. I can't tell you the number of bathrugs they have gone through as they end up completely soaking just about every one I place down.

Now I know kids like to splash and play and pour. I'm fine with that as long as they do it on the tiled wall side of the tub. But these two inevitably "forget" and the next thing I know I'm soaked, the toilet's soaked, the rug's soaked, there's water EVERYWHERE. Of course, the jumping and sliding across the entire bottom of the tub doesn't help things either.


Now just like their play outside of the tub, inside the bath they are constantly back and forth between friends and enemies. My favorite is the tattling - they always tattle about each other over something that they themselves do as well, whether it's pouring water on the other's head, throwing water, splashing in the other's eyes. I'll have to admit that on many days I just try to get through their bath as quickly as possible to save me from going crazy and from having to pick up a mess. But when I have things to do in their room (which adjoins the bathroom), then it is nice to know they'll will have fun while I'm putting clothes away or changing sheets or whatnot.


These two are also very good at making messes. They get into things but it's more because it's part of an idea they had. Fortunately, they're not naughty on top of it all or I would possibly go crazy. Some of their grand ideas:
* take every piece of play food and play dish - which is A LOT - upstairs and play with in everyone's beds (I found play stuff upstairs for weeks).
* give every Littlest Pet Shop a bath (water EVERYWHERE). This has also been done with Little People.
* use the food in the pantry to pretend to cook with (fortunately they didn't take it all out, but they did cover a lot of the kitchen floor).
* practice cutting paper with scissors (there were small pieces of paper everywhere).
* slide the rocks from the rock pile in the backyard down the slide. There must have also been some throwing around as it took us a long while trying to find every rock in the yard.

The list could go on, but there is always a mess somewhere to clean-up because of these two. The other part of the mess making is that they play and then move on to the next thing without picking up the last thing. On a weekly basis our playroom floor disappears under a mound of toys that we then have to go in and clean up. Fortunately they're getting better about their mess making so the messes aren't as frequent as they used to be.

They also like to do things that should be supervised by Mom, yet they prefer to do it when Mom's not around. Things like coloring with markers, cutting with scissors, and lately - and I'm sure this is my fault as they see me take so many pictures - taking pictures. They grab the camera and start clicking away. On this day, it was Payden who decided to take pictures while Mom wasn't paying attention:


They also love to play the computer and watch each other. It's nice because I know that we can all have a nice quiet moment when they're playing on one of their favorites. As Payden doesn't use the computer yet, Taylor will even help her play on one of the preschool sites.


Although I often want to pull my hair out, go crazy, cry, etc. because of these two, I do love them and especially love the moments when they are playing together and laughing and giggling and having fun and being the best of friends.