Sibling rivalry

Someone asked me a couple weeks ago if my kids play well together. For the most part they kind of ignore each other until one has something the other one wants, or one takes something from the other. A few examples of some early sibling rivalry:

Ethan likes to pick at Emma but she doesn’t really care unless it entails him stealing something from her. We call him Swiper (for the non-Dora watching set that is the fox who steals Dora’s stuff, we have to say “Swiper, NO swiping” with our hand out in a stop sign when he comes on the screen). But the other day his efforts were futile. They were wrestling around on the floor and he sat on her chest. She was laughing her little butt off, and was not bothered by it at all. Fast forward about 10 minutes. He’s laying on the floor and she comes up and sits on HIS chest. He gets ticked and starts yelling, Mommy- help, mommy- Emma Mahkins!. He always uses her full name when he wants to get her in trouble. I told him that turnabout was fair play, and besides, he outweighs her.

This morning, both were on our bed watching Jojo, and I’m doing the dishes in the living room when I hear Emma yelling, then Ethan yelling, “Mommy, Emma Mahkins! Mommy, Mommy!” I walk in and he’s pointing at her diaper, which is unhooked on one side. I assume he did this in retaliation, as I see that she has swiped Lovey Bear. So I return Lovey Bear, close the diaper up and I’m done. Lovey bear and Bun Bun are off limits to the other sibling, as those are the most valued possessions in the house, and when they go missing, it’s an all out search effort to find them. Although it is cute for Ethan to come into the living room and say, with his hands out to the sides, palms up, “Mommy, where beah?” with the cutest confused look on his face.

Oh, and one more story for those of you who doubt the level of my WVU fan-ness, every time Ethan and Emma see the Flying WV on ANYTHING, they start yelling, GO GO GO! Hehe. I guess I rubbed off on them.