sisters are hard work, but worth it

Lately I feel like the biggest battle I face is keeping both girls happy at the same time.  They are complete opposites in so many ways and it is literally exhausting to help them try to get along.  Marley has a particular way that she likes things to be.  Vivi has a particular way that she likes things to be thrown all over the place.  Sometimes it looks like this:

Marley builds a tower, Vivi knocks it down.
Marley gets out crayons to draw, Vivi pulls them off the table and eats them.
Marley is changing her baby's clothes, Vivi grabs them and runs laughing in the other direction.

But, it's not only Vivi doing the terrorizing.  Sometimes it looks like this:

Vivi picks out a book to look at, Marley takes it away from her.
Vivi decides to play with a toy, Marley says, "I was wondering where that was!" and takes it.
Vivi is eating some cheese in her high chair, Marley steals it and shoves it in her own mouth.

Marley understands what she is doing most of the time, and is properly corrected when it happens.  Vivi is just now getting to the age where she understands she will get a big reaction if she does something to bother Marley.  I am trying to teach her to leave Marley's things alone, but we all know that won't really be resolved for... well forever.

It just wears me out trying to help them play together.  I want them to be best friends and love playing as sisters, but most of the time is seems impossible.

But then, the clouds part and my girls sparkle.  And I think, "They are so perfect."  Even if it only lasts for one minute, that one minute is enough to restore my faith and remind me that "this, too, shall pass."

This video was taken during one of those moments.  We had just been at the park all morning.  I ran there with the stroller, we played with some new friends, and then had the long walk home.  When we were almost home, Vivi fell asleep on Marley's shoulder.  You can't really hear it in the video, but Marley is singing "Twinkle Twinkle Littler Star" to her as she rubs her face.




And the kiss on the hand.  Oh, my heart turned to mush.  They really do love each other.  We must be doing something right here. And then at the park later, I saw a dad trying to wrangle twin toddler boys and I was reminded that we actually have it pretty easy.