Sibling Rivalry

Notice the below post was one week prior to the volcanic cloud over Europe shutting down many airports and travel. I know I said it, but is my boy a genius or what?! A little eery but we will wait on deciding how eery until it happens again! :-)

Today was filled with love, laughter and playfulness of a two year old and four year old sibling along with screaming, fighting, tears and demands from those same siblings. Yes, our house is filled with both and while I hate the later it is the former that makes the other times easy to forget.

After a much needed energy burning excursion to the duck pond, park and library where the kids got along the majority of the time we came home for lunch. I knew I had stretched out our morning too much and I was going to be lucky to get food into my extremely exhausted 2 year old and my picky 4 year old eater before nap time. As I was heating left over Claro's sausage from the night before and was banging around the kitchen looking for other quick serve foods E started demanding chips with cheese (AKA Nachos - yes, she caught this bad habit from ME!). Since I wasn't sure she would even eat before nap I decided to indulge her while trying to figure out what else I could feed them. I didn't even take the time to grate the cheese. I sliced it straight from the cheddar cheese block, layed it on the chips and heated in the microwave (& as any Nacho connoisseur like myself knows, these are both big NO-NO's). She was delighted and started picking up chips immediately and eating away. I had already set a container of green bean baby food in front of her (both my kids still love baby food vegetables and frankly I see no reason why they can't have pureed veggies when they want) and away she went dipping her nachos in the green beans the way I would dip my nachos in hot salsa (make that the hotter the better). There she sat, cute pony tail & beautiful bow in hair, eating her nachos dipped in green beans all with a big beautiful smile while doing her side to side "happy dance". I couldn't help myself, it was one of those times that it just comes pouring out with out even trying, "E, I love you!". Meanwhile, my extremely picky eater L was pushing grilled hot dog pieces around his plate. He looked at me, waited a few seconds and then said, "why did you say you loved E but not me?". First of all, he only waited three seconds. Secondly, he was NOT even eating ... not even a little. Just doing what he does best ... staring at his food thinking about something else, anything else. I explained to him that E was eating well and it made me really happy. I said I love you as a way to express how thankful I was to her that she was eating so well. Enough said. He picked up his spoon and ate. That day at least. *Sigh* the battles of a picky eater. We mother's celebrate even the smallest victories. And yes, he got an I love you too!

**L and E pictures above on our recent road trip to the Arizona Grand Resort . When I showed him the picture and asked why he was making that face. He told me she was hugging him too long and too tight and he doesn't like that. LOL!