Love/hate

On the weekend, Megan was kind enough to drop off a Fisher Price Loving Family minivan that she found at Value Village. She knows that Mallory has a Loving Family dollhouse and that I am collecting bits and pieces to go along with it. Well, I was. Most things we have came from eBay and I am getting sick of paying more to ship an article than it cost to buy it. I check the toy section of Value Village for these pieces whenever I am there, too, but I have yet to spot anything. Maybe my eyes just aren't as good as Megan's.

Anyway, she brought this van over while the kids were asleep, and when they woke up I showed it to them. And what followed next was that all heck broke out. Mallory wanted to play with the van because it was part of the dollhouse (very obviously so - it is turquoise and pink, just like the dollhouse) and Liam wanted to play with it because it has wheels and can be zipped around the house. Much fighting and many tears ensued.

The following morning, I went grocery shopping, and Mallory decided to come with me. She wanted to bring Liam's Spiderman wallet with her. Good for her, for figuring out that a trip to the grocery store requires a wallet. But she made the mistake of telling Liam she wanted to take it. Liam didn't need the wallet up to that point but of course as soon as she showed her interest, he suddenly very much needed to play with the wallet, too. I tried reasoning with him that Mallory had let him play with her van and so he needed to let her play with the wallet. Of course, there was no reasoning with him by that point, so I handed Mallory the wallet and we made a beeline out the door and left Chad to deal with the hysterics. Sorry, Chad.It is not always this way at our house. Lately, the kids have been becoming very good little buddies. It is happening more and more often that they are playing with each other instead of coming to us and asking us to play with them. On the weekend there was one fairly long stretch where they were giggling away about something in the playroom and having a ball together. Last night they made a great tag team watering plants together. Liam would fill Mallory's bucket for her to let her in on the action, and then he enjoyed squirting the hose on his own for a bit while she ran off to empty her bucket. He was doing a great job of helping his little sister when she needed him to, and appreciating the fact that as the big kid, there are things he gets to do that she can't. I am a little bit sad for Mallory when I think of Liam going to school in the fall, and her being left at Cindy's without him. I think she is going to miss him. Then again, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe a bit of separation will help these two to appreciate each other more when they are together again.