Little Sister

Never before have I thought little sisters have much to complain about. I was an older sister. I thought we were the ones that suffered. Our stuff was never sacred, our secrets were rarely safe and our curfews were much, much earlier! But now that I see sisters in action from the motherly perspective I can honestly say that the little sisterhood is no picnic.  (my belated apologies, Ash!)

Audrey wants everything that Natalie wants. Period. It doesn't matter if she's ready for it, if it fits or if it's even fun...she wants it. She wants to ride Natalie's 2 wheel bike. She wants to wear high heeled plastic dress up shoes. She even wants to puff on Natalie's inhaler and cries when we don't give it to her. And when she does get her hands on something that she's coveted, it usually gets yanked away from her by Natalie in a not so gentle and loving way.

Audrey is a much more emotional toddler than Natalie was and I truly believe it's because she hears NO a lot more in a day.  Our house was Natalie-proof, for the most part, when she was this age so she didn't hear many NOs.  But Audrey is tempted by all sorts of forbidden fun like choking hazard dress up clip-on earrings, ink pens, glitter paints, glue sticks, and lots and lots of Disney Princess lip glosses.   She has two parents and one preschooler removing items from her sticky little fingers all day long.  That can be tough on the spirit.

But when the cat's away...the cute little mouse does like to play.  And she prefers to play in Natalie's dress up clothes.  Audrey brought me this dress the other day (needing a bit of assistance) and then put on the heels herself.  She clickety clopped through the house like a true princess-in-training.  What big sister doesn't know won't hurt her!