Let's talk about sibling rivalry, shall we?

See, I read something ages ago that said that the way siblings interact in the early years is hugely indicative of how their future relationship will pan out.  "Got this!" I thought, as I watched a very young John Paul snuggle baby Cecilia, watching a newly-mobile Cecilia crawl after John Paul and lick him repeatedly while he giggled, watched the two of them sit quietly in a "reading nook" corner while he read books to her...

But then, see, Cecilia started having an opinion about things.  And showed herself to be just as stubborn as John Paul, if not more so.  And given that these two were born of two of the most stubborn people on the planet, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that I'm playing referee to the two opposing sides for most of the day ever day, right?

I mean, don't get me wrong, when they play together well they play really well.  I'm talking hours in their room playing Magic School Bus, or going to the basement for quiet hours to play board games (and clean them up. Seriously, they went through Cranium, Diplomacy, and Stratego yesterday and cleaned it all up).

See?  Best friends!

It struck me just how beautiful it is to see their relationship growing as Andrew and I sat on the couch watching them play in the basement today - John Paul suddenly discovered he can pick Cecilia up, and they spent a loooong time with him picking her up, staggering a few steps, and then dropping her on the floor.  She pulled him down on top of her and the giggles were CRAZY infectious.

And of course, you add twins to the mix?  Too cute to resist.

A snapshot:

John Paul is quietly playing the piano.  Cecilia is setting up a bed on the floor with a couch pillow and a fleece blanket, only to realize that Elizabeth has thrown her whole body on the pillow.

"Ewizabif!  Dat's my bed!  I'll make you your OWN bed!"

She runs off and gives Elizabeth a new pillow and blanket, then lies down again only to find Mary Claire is sitting directly next to her on the pillow...

"May Cwaire!  You're my guardian angel!!!"

And thus begins the game in which Cecilia runs away from her "guardian angels" and tells them to "Get back to heaven!!!"  Giggling everywhere, including from the adults in the room.  Seriously, the frantically giggling and running and falling toddlers?  It's really too much.

Cooperation at its finest

But then...

We can't get used to that kind of harmony, now can we?

Within minutes John Paul and Cecilia have been banished from the basement for doing something stupid, and I'm trying to get them to play together in their room so that I can make dinner in relative peace.

3 minutes of quiet and someone's wailing.

I return to find that they're fighting over who gets to throw the pink ball in the laundry basket.

Insert lecture on taking turns and sharing.

5 minutes later, I return to wailing and find them on the floor, tangled up in Cecilia's sheet, fighting over who gets to play with it.

A sheet.  Yes, they were fighting over a sheet.  And then John Paul stood up and he was sitting on his own sheet.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

2.5 minutes later, Cecilia comes running into the kitchen because "JOHN PAUL PUNCHED ME!"

"Why did he punch you?"

"Because I was tryin' to leave and I said I wouldn't pway wif him."

John Paul comes running in yelling...

"John Paul!  Did you punch your sister?"

"Yes, because she wanted to leave and I wanted to play with her!!!"

So John Paul is sent to his room for a time out and within a minute Cecilia is running back in there to play with him and wailing ensues yet again...

At this point I just separated both of them to different rooms for quiet time, but really?  How long is this going to go on?  I'm thinking years...

This is like, 8 months ago.  See, no crying!

The thing is, when they are good they are so very very good and so independent and so wonderful and lovely.  But when they're bad?  Oh they sure are horrid.

See?  So cute?  So loving!

And they're ONLY bad with each other, they never try to hit other kids and they share sooooo well with everyone else.  But they just go craaaaaaaazy on each other, and then forgive each other immediately.  No consequences, in their minds, except those imposed by parents.  And I don't know how much I need to step in and how much I should let them sort out themselves...

So I'm thinking it's time to find that "Siblings Without Rivalry" book I started reading and then abandoned and maaaaybe try to learn from it again?  Because I feel like all I'm doing right now is babysitting and refereeing, and there's not a whole lot of mothering going on...  And surely there's something I can do to fix this a little bit, right?

Because really, the fact that while he was praying evening prayer he kept kicking her (she was yell-singing "AL-LE-LU-YAAAAAAAAAAAA, AAA-LE-LU-PAAAAAAAASTAAAAAAAA, NOODLE NOODLE NOODLE!!!" when he was just trying to pray!) shouldn't be indicative of their future relationship, should it?

Make me feel better?  Tell me some ridiculous stories about your kids or about you and your siblings?  I know mine aren't the only ones who fight this way!

Is it terrible that I just want them to be like this all the time?

WIWS - 1 year!

This weekend marked two very important milestones:

First, Mary Claire's first pigtails!

As you can see, she loves them.

And second (and more importantly), is that after over a year of us telling John Paul that if he wakes up in the middle of the night needing to pee he should get out of bed and go on his own, he FINALLY DID IT!  Which means no more hollering in the middle of the night!  Now I'm trying to convince him that he can do the same thing when he wakes up in the morning - he can peel and cut up a banana himself and get himself water from the fridge, so pretty soon I can pretty much just expect him to serve breakfast to all the kids so I can stay in bed all day, right?  Right.

Anyway, moving on...

We had kind of a weird morning today - Andrew's off from singing this week so he decided to take John Paul to Latin Mass with him this afternoon, and I took Cecilia on my own.  But she woke up late so we missed our 8:30 usual Mass and went to the 9 at our old parish, which felt like a time warp!

Then I realized that last year at this time was the first time I did a WIWS post and thank goodness, Cecilia has come a LONG way since that terrible behavior that used to be the norm!  I can't remember the last time I had to take her out of Mass, and her only real issue is needing to hold still a little more and maybe start participating more, which I'll absolutely take for an almost-3-year-old.  She definitely earned the doughnut she got after Mass :)

Here's what I wore (and what John Paul wore, because he had to get in the picture, of course...):

Shirt:  Banana Republic via ThredUp

Skirt:  eShakti

Belt:  Kohl's

Tights:  H&M

Shoes:  DSW (I'm thinking black shoes would work a lot better...  but I don't really have any that work right now!)

Scarf:  Target (gift)

Looks like John Paul and I inadvertently color coordinated, although he got play dough on his outfit and had to change his clothes before he left.

Play dough + toothpicks + skewers + cheerios = awesome time waster :)

And now the babies are napping, the boys are gone, and Cecilia is in the throes of some VERY important play dough playing (won't even eat lunch because she doesn't want to stop making play dough spaghetti!)

Seriously, what a difference a year makes!

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple - check out more Mass style!

Quick Takes - Hair Cut!

--1--

Cecilia and John Paul set up the chairs in a straight line, and Elizabeth and Mary Claire immediately climbed up and sat down like such big kids!  So I had to grab a picture, and of course the babies were the only ones who cooperated...

But we were using books as props and Cecilia REALLY wanted "Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over" and John Paul wasn't giving it up...

Mary Claire LOVES flipping through books.  Elizabeth LOVES the taste of books.

Sigh.

--2--

I had to return some Christmas clothes for them that were the wrong size, and really wanted to get the same thing in a size up but theeeeen I found these adorable one-piece hooded outfits and I couldn't resist!  Although Mary Claire's makes her look like a boy buuuut it's not like we ever leave the house, so it's cool.

--3--

Why yes, she IS wearing two different shoes in that last picture!

She and Elizabeth are always bringing me random items of clothing and demanding to have them put on, so she brought me two different shoes and a babyleg and I obliged.

--4--

It suddenly occurred to me that my hair was looking a little terrible...  Because I haven't gotten it cut since before the twins were born!

Here's what happens:

1.  I get my hair cut

2.  I have a baby (or two) and then never have time for another hair cut

3.  Baby turns one and suddenly I realize, "Hey, my hair looks awful!"

4.  And then I realize, "Hey, it's long enough that I might as well just wait and do Locks of Love and get a free cut!"

5.  So I wear it up in a bun for the months it takes to grow long enough...

6.  And by the time I'm ready to get it cut, I'm usually pregnant again.

So I remembered that Sheena  (and a lot of the rest of the internet) cuts her own hair and thought, "Well, why don't I just do that in the meantime?"

Before

After

Using this tutorial on youtube, it took about 10 minutes, including watching the video!  I messed with the layers around my face a little the next day, but I'm really happy with how it turned out - there's a lot less weight to my hair and I feel like I can wear it down again.

--5--

Of course, wearing it down means dealing with baby fingers...  Mostly though, they're not too grabby now, although Mary Claire got tangled in my hair and kindly returned a piece she had yanked out, handing it to me and saying, "Chash!" (trash)

Lovely.

--6--

This week's posts:

How to Shop Without Leaving the House - Because it's cold!  And you've got kids you don't want to bundle up!  And the internet is easier than real life!

WIWS: January-Style - I'm working on a winter style post - it's coming soon!

Not Much But Grace - Perhaps the craziest dinner we've ever had.  Thank goodness they chose the weekend and NOT the day we had our priest over for dinner!

--7--

Oh speaking of which, we finally had our house blessed for Epiphany!  We had it planned for the day after but things fell through and we had to wait until this past Tuesday.  And the kids weren't terrible during dinner!  And they weren't terrible during the blessing or afterwards!  And Father very kindly read to Cecilia for as long as she wanted after dinner, even though her first book of choice was "Twinkle Toes" and I don't know that I've ever heard anything funnier than a priest reading, "Oh how I love to dance, I love to twirl, I love to prance..."

So basically it was a miracle.

But I felt really badly, because our newest priest has been at our parish since July and he told us this is the first time he's been to dinner at a parishioner's house.  I couldn't believe it!  I just kind of assume that all priests are so busy that they pretty much are eating at someone else's house every night, so I don't ask...  Clearly I was wrong!

So can you try to have a priest over to dinner?  That's my challenge to you - at least make the offer!  I'm definitely going to try inviting ours over more often (we live 3 minutes from the rectory soooo I've got no excuse!).

That's all I have for you - check out more at Conversion Diary!

How to Shop Without Leaving the House (Five Favorites)

Hands-down, my least favorite thing to do with kids in tow is try to get shopping done.  We have it down to an art at Costco and Trader Joe's (thank you samples, you are the best form of bribery), but anything else is just bound to be a bust.  Add four little kids to winter weather, and there's no way I want to leave the house, particularly since it takes an hour to get coats, hats, gloves etc. on before we leave!

So here are my five favorite ways to shop without leaving the house:

1.  Grocery staples:

Peapod and other similar grocery delivery services are SO convenient, but hard to use for me, because I don't get most of my groceries at a conventional grocery store.  They have coupons for free delivery every once in a while, and usually require a $50 minimum purchase.  So this works really well for me when we're stocking up on staples like flour, toilet paper, etc.

2.  Fresh produce:

From the Farmer (or your local CSA) - This is more of a treat for me than anything else, especially when farmer's markets are closed for the season.  They drop off a basket of fresh local produce on your doorstep on a weekly basis (or however often you want - we just do it once a month) and it is ALWAYS amazing and beautiful and such fun to be able to plan a menu around the delicious fresh produce we get!  It's $35 for a small basket, which is on the pricey side but if you mention my name (Rosie Hill) you can get $20 off your first order, which is absolutely worth it!  Best of all, you can schedule deliveries online, so no need to hide in the bathroom to make a phone call so your 4-year-old doesn't try to get in on the call with you (wait, am I the only one who has to do that?).

Is that not the biggest carrot you've ever seen?  Totally don't find them like that at the grocery store!

3.  Meat

Relay Foods (available in DC, Baltimore, Northern VA, Richmond, Williamsburg, Staunton, Charlottesville - you name it!) is kind of a combination of the two - Peapod-style shopping, but with tons of fresh local produce available, as well as typical grocery store items.  They also have a minimum purchase, but frequent promotions AND you get $30 off your first purchase if you use my invite code!  Their meat is fabulous, the only problem is how often things go out of stock.  But they deliver on most days straight to your door, which a lot less notice needed than with Peapod.

4.  Clothes for you

Twice

I know, I extol the virtues of Twice all the time.  But seriously, it's so awesome!  Free shipping on orders over $49, free returns, and they have measurements listed on their clothing so you have a much better idea of what will fit/be too short, etc.  I find it really useful for staples, and they're super-generous with credit and coupon codes, plus their customer service is fabulous!  I just got a J.Crew denim jacket for $2.01 because of my credit from selling my old clothes, credit from you awesome ladies signing up through my link, and some other coupon codes!

Shirt & sweater, Twice.  John Paul's polo & jeans from ThredUp.

ThredUp is decent for adult clothes too, but they don't list measurements and their returns don't include free shipping, so I vastly prefer Twice.

5. Clothes for the kids



ThredUp

Hands-down, ThredUp.  I just got a huge order of stuff for the kids, Gymboree galore, Osh Kosh, Carter's, etc...  Nothing over $8 and most of it was under $4!  And every single item was in perfect condition.  This is about what I expect to pay at my favorite consignment store, only I didn't have to leave the house and shipping was free, so I guess it was technically cheaper than going somewhere to shop since I didn't have to pay for gas.

There's a LOT on their site, but if you know what you're looking for it's easy.  Cecilia pretty much only wants to wear elastic waist skirts, so I found the cheapest ones in her size and snapped them up.  Browsing isn't a lot of fun because there's so much that it gets overwhelming, but narrowing it down is easy with their search feature.

Returns are not easy, since you have to pay return shipping.  But for kids' clothes?  I'm not returning anything, because it doesn't have to fit the way clothes have to fit me!

Cecilia paired her new striped skirt with a striped shirt, because that's how she rolls.

Linking up with Hallie at Moxie Wife - check out more favorites!

WIWS - January Style

We had a rather odd occurrence happen this morning - somehow Mary Claire was the baby who ended up in our bed in the wee hours, and Elizabeth ended up staying in her crib until 7:30.  What the what?  This has never happened before.  And she was SO confused and amazed when she woke up and was in her crib and it was light outside.  Again, never happened before.  So weird.  And awesome - let's hope this becomes a trend!  Sleeping babies would make me veeeeeeeery happy.

Aaaaaanyway, immediately upon waking this morning, John Paul's first question was, "Could I please have my January 12 Magnifikid?  It's the Baptism of our Lord!!!  It's Ordinary Time now!!!"

Gotta love a little liturgy nerd.

I very sneakily headed into the babies' room this morning and took a picture without the kids bombarding me and trying to knock the camera off of whatever makeshift surface I used THAT week to take my outfit picture...

Here's what I wore:

Hat:  Zulily

Scarf:  Amazon (here)

Shirt:  H&M

Dress (styled as a skirt):  Ann Taylor via Twice

Tights:  H&M

Shoes:  DSW

Belt:  Stolen off a sweater from...  I dunno?  JC Penney?  It's old...

Unwashed hair:  Earliest riser woke at 7, so no time to shower!  Thank goodness for hats :)

I'm working on a winter mom style post - mostly it consists of layering sweaters and long-sleeved tops over my same old summer staples and wearing tights...  Is it worth writing/taking pictures of outfits?  We shall see...  What do you think - will you read it?

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple - happy Sunday!