Clippies, Climbing and Cattiness

Another day, another Stecher party :) This week, we celebrated our nephews Jack and Aidan turning six! They are the first set of twin grandchildren in the Stecher family (that's usually not something you need to differentiate!), and I can't believe they're six already. They had a great pizza party, and the girls had a blast, except for the fact that Tessa and Annie refused to let anyone else hold them. Stranger anxiety x 2 ... except that the "strangers" were Grandma, aunts and uncles. You'd think they'd be more than happy to go to some open arms and some undivided attention for a change. Maybe next time!


Before leaving for the party, I tried something new. Since Tessa and Annie's hair has been slow to come in, they've never had anything in their hair. Sure, I could have been doing cute headbands this whole time, but - let's be honest - I barely manage to change them out of their pajamas most days, nevermind adorn their hair. So, I was attempting to put little clips in their hair for the first time for this party, but they had other ideas. It's hard enough to have a toddler "allow" clips in their hair without yanking them right out. Add in a grabby sister or three, and those "clippies" are doomed. I did manage to get some pictures before Annie's was stolen, and Tessa managed to keep her's in all night. They looked so...old :(

Of course, while I was doing all four girls' hair, things were being undone. This is my life. Matt may be the physics teacher, but I can tell you this: Anytime I try to do anything productive, something opposite and destructive is happening elsewhere. For every action, there is an opposite reaction. While I'm doing the dishes and cleaning up breakfast, the girls are playing "boat" and piling Bridget's bed with every object in their room. While I'm changing a load of laundry, babies are pulling every book off of their bookshelf. I feel like a clean-up crew, just one mess behind the kids all day long. The mischief during our "salon" time? Tessa and Annie decided to perfect their new act of climbing onto the dining room chairs, and then climbing onto the dining room table from there. And then prancing around on the table. Over and over again. Hilarious, right?

Now, chairs can not be trusted on the ground when the babies are on the loose. Or, the babies can not be trusted with the chairs. Either way, something tells me that this will get old:

When we were finally ready to leave the house, we had a little team chat:

Me: "Okay, girls. Raise your hand if you're going to be really friendly tonight."

Tessa: Blank stare. (Obviously she was plotting exactly how loud to cry when a friendly relative attempted to hold her.)

Annie: Blank stare. (Plotting how loud her sympathy cry should be. She still needs to add real tears to this act for it to be believable.)

Bridget (hand up high): "Me! Me! I'm going to be very friendly!"

Megan: "No, I am!! All of the beautiful people...I'm going to talk to them!"

???

No time to even question where that came from. We scrambled out the door and I was left wondering which Disney movie I'm to thank for instilling this principle.