And yet another...

Tonight the girls, working together, almost achieved another milestone. For the first time in their short lives they almost drove us crazy.

I am an only child and David has one sister who is 8 years older, so neither of us are very familiar with the apparent miraculous ability of siblings to push each other's buttons. And I can't say we've figured out how to deal with it. There was a lot of "Lilli, stop (fill in the blank) your sister", "Elizabeth, cut that out!" Seriously, the look of evil delight on Elizabeth's face as she yanked Elmo out of her sister's hands and waited for her reaction (naturally a piercing shriek) was frightening to see, and the glee with which Lilli was headbutting her sister in the face as they were pushed around Target in their shared cart made us fear for the future when they have access to things like scissors. This is new behavior for them that we need to figure out, and while generally they get along and play together beautifully, tonight they individually and in combination got on our last nerve.

We have never been so glad to put them to bed.

And you know what's funny? As I've said more than once I listen to a lot of podcasts. And I recently sent a nice long e-mail to one I interact with fairly regularly on how having two children is just as easy as having one. If we had planned Lilli, we might have not gotten around to more since we were so happy with dynamic the three of us had, but when Lilli came along she fit into the mix pretty seamlessly. We'd already adjusted to the changes a baby makes on your couple life, like actually having to eat balanced meals at regular times, and we were used to carrying a diaper bag and coordinating every departure from the house with military precision. So it was easy. And Elizabeth never had any problems accepting her sister. None of the things I hear about where the older child asks the mom to take the new baby back to the hospital. And Lilli was such a sweet and good natured baby, content to go anywhere and do anything. But now that she's developed her own distinct personality that is quite different from her sister's, things are getting interesting. And, I have to say, occasionally exhausting.

That being said...goodnight!