How do they do it?

So how do they do it? This is a question I ask myself every time I see a family with more than one child. Yesterday, I got peek into what that world is like. Ileana and Kim spent the day shopping at the outlet malls so I had the pleasure of spending the day with Ella and Sophie.

We had a lot of fun. We started off with a nice lunch where I learned my first lesson. Just because a child asks you for more food, it doesn’t mean that they need or want more food. I learned this after each girl cleared her plate and proceeded to ask me for more. It started with Sophie, “more broccoli” and then Ella, “more broccoli” and then Sophie, “more turkey, and then Ella, “more turkey”. After I had piled each of their plates with a wide array of foods, I noticed they weren’t touching anything. I think they just enjoyed watching me run back and forth to the kitchen or more likely; one could not handle having something less than the other.

Lunch was interesting. At the beginning, Sophie insisted on NOT having any salami (even though she loves it). She threw a minor tantrum and further showed her agitation by placing Pup Pup on her head – I don’t know why but this is Sophie’s sign for “leave me alone”. Ella, of course, would not be left out of this game as she immediately asked for her Cheetah to do the same.

I learned my second lesson soon after the “animal on the head affair”. In order to placate Sophie, I thought I would throw in the Ralph’s Word CD for her during lunch. The lesson is this: never play Ralph’s World for children while they are eating. Immediately after putting in the CD, the two of them practically went into convulsions. It was like those videos of the teenage girls screaming and fainting as the Beatles first got off the plane at JFK in ’64 – nuts. They soon calmed down or shall I say mellowed their dancing to a point where they could finish their food. I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning food off the floor.

After lunch we baked cookies. The girls were each put into the attire of their choice (we wouldn’t want to get messy) and we proceeded to scoop out batter on to cookie sheets. This was very funny. I bake with Sophie quite a bit so she knows the drill. She took the lead and taught Ella where each spoonful needed to go and how the paper needed to be held down during the process. By the way, if you want one of these cute outfits, let me know as my aunt made them.

After baking, we returned to the living room and listened to some music, had an impromptu animal parade, and then settled in for a story. Ella immediately jumped into my lap at the prospect of the story. Sophie countered with protestations of “my Chris, my Chris”. I haven’t had a girl react so jealously since Ileana confronted that woman at a bar back in ’91. Hmm, did that really happen or did I just make that up? Anyway, we read “Snowy Day” and then were off for our naps.

Sophie was uncharacteristically cooperative during naptime. They each slept in Sophie’s room, Sophie in her crib and Ella in the Pack and Play. The nap lasted almost 3 hours (is that a record?). When I came in to check on them at 4:20, I found two very happy girls having a contest of who could jump highest on their bed.

Ileana and Kim arrived home around 5:30 and Stacy and Sophie Mei joined us for a nice dinner. After dinner, the girls made a disaster area of our basement. There were no major injuries and I think they all had a good time. Not bad, right?