The Bicker Twins

I've had a packed week of blogging, so just a short note today to point you to Deep South Moms, where I have a post up about my daughters and their relationship. Please go take a look.

Miss Elizabeth Anne Gardner Has Arrived!

This is a guest post by knittergran, grandmother of hokgardner's new daughter!

Elizabeth Anne was born at 10:38 last night (Sunday evening), and weighs four pounds, fifteen ounces.
(Eat, girl, eat!)

Yes, she was four weeks early, but hokgardner went into hard labor and the doctor said there was a reason for that and that it was time for Elizabeth to meet everyone.
hokgardner is doing fine, considering, but wants MORE DRUGS please, and Elizabeth (isn't that just the loveliest name!) is now breathing regular air rather than air with oxygen added. She needs to meet three requirements in order to come home:

1. Breathe completely on her own.
2. Eat via her mouth rather than through a tube.
3. Maintain her own body temperature.

She is currently in NICU, but not in an incubator, so that's a good sign, and she's well enough that her big sisters are visiting her this afternoon. They have to scrub up in order to meet her, and I'm sure the solemnity of all of that will quite impress them. Lily, in fact, announced no fewer than four times at breakfast that SHE had wished for a girl and that's what they have gotten.

The new mother of four will be back blogging soon, I'm sure, but wanted you all to know about the newest Gardner! Pictures to follow....

Poor little brother

It must be tough having two big sisters. You desperately want to play in their room with them, but when they do allow you in, they do things like cram you in a tutu and laugh hysterically. Or they put bows and clips and headbands in your hair, which you try to tug out on your own but end up crying because you pull your own hair in the process.

I promise, little man, that when you get older, you'll get them back with all sorts of gross boy stuff.

Poor Lily

Lily just doesn't get it sometimes. Saturday we put Campbell on the trampoline for the first time. The girls and I sat around the edges and kept Campbell from walking off the side. He ran from me to Ella and back again over and over, laughing and screeching every time he plopped down on his bottom. I have video of him doing it with B and the girls, and if I can figure out how to load it I will.

Anyway, when I was on the trampoline with them, Lily got very upset because Campbell was only running to me and to Ella. Lily desperately wanted him to run to her. So instead of just sitting back and waiting for him to come to her, Lily would grab at him and tackle him. Of course, Campbell would protest, pushing her away and crying, which hurt her feelings more.

When I got Campbell off the trampoline, and while Ella was having her turn bouncing, I tried to explain to Lily that perhaps Campbell doesn't run up and hug her as often as he does Ella because every time he does, she flattens him with a tackle. Lily just loves, loves, loves Campbell, and that's the problem - she is very aggressive in her affections. She just can't leave him alone. If he walks too close to Lily, she grabs him. She picks him up and totes him around, even though he inevitably screams and yells and goes limp.

And it's just heartbreaking to see. She will come to me in tears saying, "I want to hold Campbell, but he won't let me." Or, "I want to carry Campbell, but he keeps walking away." B and I have explained to her so many times that Campbell isn't a baby anymore and that he has his own little mind now and knows what he likes and doesn't like, but it just doesn't work. She insists on lugging him around or tackling him to give Campbell hugs. As a result, he tends to run the other way when she comes near him.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or should we just ride this out and hope that Lily eventually figures out what she needs to do?

Sisters

Just when I thought I've seen every fight the girls could have, they surprise me. As I've written before, Lily has mastered the art of driving Ella insane. She can tell when Ella's on the edge, and she knows how to give her just the right push.

One of her favorite things to do it start whistling. Lily figured out how to whistle on her own, but Ella hasn't yet. This makes Ella so angry. When Lily started whistling, Ella came to me in tears and said, "I don't understand why you would teach Lily to whistle but not me." I pointed out to Ella that I can't whistle as well as Lily can, so there was no way she learned it from me. So there are time when Ella's upset about something, and Lily will just sit there and whistle a little song. Ella will start yelling about how Lily it teasing her by showing off. I ignore it most of the time.

The other night Lily came up with a new way of bugging Ella. We had ravioli with spinach in the sauce for dinner. Ella put a fleck of spinach on her tongue and declared it icky. Lily, on the other hand, gobbled it down. So Brandon and I told her she was like Popeye. Ella protested that even though Lily had eaten spinach, she still wouldn't be stronger, and then she showed off all sorts of strong things she could do. Lily didn't say anything at this point. But then she struck at bedtime. The girls were in brushing their teeth, and Lily started singing

I'm Lily the sailorgirl
I'm Lily the sailorgirl
I'm strong to the finish
'Cause I ate my spinach
I'm Lily the sailorgirl

over and over again, mostly because Ella flipped out when she did it. Brandon and I heard screams from Ella, then she came running out to tell us that Lily was teasing her for not eating spinach.

We were stunned that a. Lily came up with the song, and b. that it bugged Ella so much. Who would have thought there would be sibling rivalry over who ate spinach and who didn't.