Just a few of the perks of having two kids

I remember when Natalie was Vanessa's age she had to go everywhere with me. If I needed to throw a load of laundry in the dryer I would perch Nat on my hip and down to the basement we would go. If I needed to get the mail she would go back on the hip and we would go get it. If I needed to pee, yeah, she would go there with me too. It was kind of annoying that I never had a minute to do anything myself. And everything is harder when you are holding a squirmy toddler.

So now I have two squirmy kids. But the crazy thing is even though I have doubled the number of kids now I do have a minute or two to get things done by myself. I can leave the two girls together and feel relatively safe in the fact that they are ok. I don't want it to sound like I use my four-year-old as a babysitter, but I know that she is there to tell me what is going on. This morning I was making the girls breakfast and left them in the living room. After a minute Natalie yelled at me that Vanessa had found my purse and was trying to get the small bottle of sunscreen I keep in there to spray at her sister. I was able to get to the living room, remove the purse and the sunscreen and then get back to icing the cinnamon rolls. If it was just Vanessa I couldn't have left her there. I guarantee that there would have been a mess waiting for me when I got back.

Natalie is not only good at telling me when Vanessa is doing something wrong or dangerous, but she is also good at diffusing situations. Vanessa usually takes it a lot better when Natalie tells her she can't crawl up on the coffee table. The crying usually stops a lot faster when big sis kisses her bumps and bruises. Not always...sometimes it is much more annoying to my little one when her partner in crime reprimands her or tries to take away the pain be it physical or mental. There are many times that my girls just need their momma, but they do have each other. And as much as it comforts and helps them, I think it comforts and helps me ten times more.