Elsa and Michaelangelo

Things I've learn from toddlers.

With two darling stepdaughters, zero parenting experience and a child of my own along the way, you learn things.

1. No matter how close in age those girls maybe (3 & 4), they will rarely be in the same stage of liking something at the same time.
Sure they will like many of the same things. Same cartoons, same movies, but will they looovveee the same thing, no they will not. My four year old loves Frozen so much that she wanted posters, and dolls, and t-shirts. Recently we took them to pick out new bedding for their room, she had to have Elsa and Anna. She leaps around the house belting "Let It Go" so often that I fear my sanity has simply let go. Ah hah but my 3 year old brings up the pack with I'm different and slightly tomboy, so I only want ninja turtle stuff. T-shirts and posters and movies.

2. Since spanking is taboo, sometimes only mental warfare works.
The youngest one would ask incessantly and go ballistic if I said no to go to the park. She would even meltdown when she asked at 9:00pm to go to the park. After explaining it over and over again, I gave up on the truth. I used her fears against her. I told her we don't go to the park at night because the spiders hang out there. She immediately clammed up. She started mumbling under her breath about not liking spiders, and they make her cry. Victory #1, came with a delightful side gift, anytime she gets out of hand and the sun is going down, we tell her we are going to drop her off at the park. Silence is the only sound you will hear after that.

3. They're too smart.
Before the youngest was potty trained, I asked her one night, did you poop in your diaper, she lays down in front of me and says, probably.

4. They never stop talking.
It's like they're afraid if they stop talking, they'll forget how to talk. I once had a conversation about one kid needing ice cream money to pay off her bookie. I told her she didn't even know what a bookie was, more less owe them any money, and she simply yelled uh huh! So finally I asked was she in deep, and did she owe a lot, she said uh huh, I said about 5 large, she said probably.

5. Their hugs and love could cure cancer.
Maybe not literally but they can turn a bad day around in less then 5 seconds, even if they were the ones that created that bad day. Sometime its just wanting to hold your hand, and sometimes its a "You're the best _____ In the whole wide world", but it fixes everything that troubles you.