I'm in Big Trouble

I am in time out according to this little face.

Here's exactly how it happened. A few minutes before bathtime I turned off the TV because I am really, really trying to not have it on every waking second of the day, and I needed to get her stinky little self up the stairs and into the tub. I returned to the kitchen to finish unloading the dishwasher, and I heard Mimi's little squeaky voice being very animated about something. This consumes 90% of our day, so it took a second for me to realize her drama was directed at me. And this is how the conversation went:

"Mommy. MOMMY! I need you to look at my eyes. Look at my eyes, Mommy. You DO. NOT. EBER. DO. THAT. AGAIN. You hear me?" And then she gave me the look shown above.

At this point I had to turn around and giggle a little. My first instinct was to hang her by her toes for speaking to me in that way, but I was hoping that she was just kidding and decided to play along. "I'm so sorry, Mimi. What was it that I did?

"Mommy, DO NOT eber turn off the TB when I'm watching Curious George. I'm gonna count to 3 and then you go to Time-Out. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3. Okay, Mommy, now say you're sorry."

Sigh . . . I am truly in some serious trouble with this one. The Jr. High years are going to be a real hoot around the Darby house with Miss Bossy Pants for sure.

And she's already talked her little brother into driving her around. He doesn't care though. He weighs about as much as she does and can totally beat her up if she steps out of line.

See, he even made her get out and push when they ran out of gas.

Recently I pulled out the sewing machine for the first time in a really, really long time (yipee!) and have already made a prissy little outfit for Mack that my husband looked at and commented, "Please tell me that's for Mimi." Anyway, Mimi gets all in my business when I'm sewing and likes to dig through my scraps. She found a scrap that had a few threads attached, and it became her best friend (why do we buy her toys?). She has named it her "slinky toy" and runs around the house dangling it so either Ruthie or Mack will chase her, and she sat in the floor with Mack one morning playing keep-away for at least 10 minutes . . . this is a new record.
I've been home with the little ones for a couple of weeks now, and Miss Mimi has definitely kept me entertained. Like I said earlier I have tried to keep the TV off as much as possible, but I do turn it on when I put Mack down for his morning nap to keep Mimi busy and downstairs. I came down a couple of days ago to find her in full princess attire shaking it with Laila Ali on Yo Gabba Gabba. Maybe we do have hope for a spot on So You Think You Can Dance . . .
And then she decided she wanted to be a cowgirl. She told me she couldn't wait until Daddy got home so she could tell him, "Yeehaw!!"
Mimi and her Daddy are two peas in a pod. Their new favorite past-time is playing some silly game on the IPAD where they can talk to a cartoon dog and make him burp. If they could only make him toot, I think I might never be able to pull them away from it.

But this little guy is mine. I've claimed him. He is on my side. And he usually seems to agree.

And it is all my fault because I completely spoil him and baby him and pick him up when I should probably let him cry . . . but that's okay because he is a devoted mama's boy. This is what I see most of the time when I look down. Some sweet little blue eyes looking up at me.
No matter how much I baby him the truth is that I know he's going to be even a little wilder than Mimi. He started crawling earlier, is pulling up earlier, and has already discovered how to open and close things he shouldn't open and close much, much earlier than she did. He's noisy and messy and a complete bulldozer when he moves across the floor. But he absolutely melts in my arms and likes to snuggle his fuzzy little head under my chin. Mmmmm . . . I might eat him up. But I will probably need to do it before he turns into the two-year-old that his silly sister has . . .