A Moment

This will be quick because I am working, but I had to record this for my own memory.

I knew that having two children, a boy and a girl no less, would most definitely result in the two of them fighting over various different topics and toys in their world together. So it isn't surprising to me that this happens as a rather regular occurrence. Usually they are fighting over some toy or a book that The Girl snatched away from The Boy and ran in the other direction laughing hysterically at her hijinks. Then The Boy starts whining and crying and tries to get it back from her and she proves her strength (and smarts!) by winging her body in the opposite direction of him while simultaneously shrieking at a pitch so high that it could shatter glass. The Boy then lets go of said object to put his hands over his ears and The Girl runs off again, delighted by what she deems their "current game." This happens approximately 47 times a day. So I am used to it. I even sort of laugh at it when The Boy can't see me.

But I wasn't prepared for the verbal wars to start this early. I mean, I know The Boy has some speech delays, but he should still be able to win a linguistic sparring match with his 17 month old sister. And for the most part he does. But then this morning, on the way to both of their respective schools the following happened.

Before we have even left the driveway The Boy starts dictating which music he would like to hear off the iPod. There are basically three genres right now: Spiderman (which is the Spiderman theme song five times in a row--God help me!), Disney (which consists of the songs he likes from The Little Mermaid, Jungle Book and the most recently added Aladdin), and then "his other music" which is the standard several CD's of kids songs like Wheels on the Bus and Little Bunny Foo Foo etc... You get the drift.

This morning he started off with Spiderman and surprisingly The Girl really dug it. As soon as the song ended she would screech "More Piderman!" And then she would squeal with delight when the song came on again. After the 5 songs I can handle no more so I asked The Boy what he wanted next. He wanted Disney, but specifically he wanted his Aladdin songs. So I put those on. Then I started hearing, "nudder song....nudder SONG!...NUDDER SONG!!!" from the back (her very polite way of asking for another/different song). Apparently The Girl wasn't so keen on the Aladdin thing. But her brother was happily singing away. So I looked back at her and told her that brother liked these songs and we were going to listen to his first and then she could have one. (She is a fan of the "other" genre cause she hears those at daycare and can sing along to quite a few of them). She looked right at me and said, "No. No want it. Want nudder song!" I repeated to her what I had just told her and she still wasn't happy so she proceeded to just start yelling, "NO WANT IT...NO WANT IT...NO WANT IT..." I tried to turn up the music to drown out her loud voice, but wasn't completely successful. About 3/4 of the way through the song The Boy looks up at me and says, "Mommy, just change the song. Put on her music. This isn't worth it..." My poor sweetie.

I told him that no, his sister didn't get to get what she wanted by being loud and obnoxious and that he could finish his song. He said she was ruining it for him (shocker!) and wanted her to stop. So I said (to The Girl), if you can't agree on what we listen to in the car then we don't listen to anything. So I turned the whole thing off. It was quiet for a minute while she adjusted to what I had just said. Then in a very quiet voice I heard, "nudder song?" and The Boy saying "How about London Bridges?" and The Girl broke into her very own rendition of London Bridges and they sang it together until I found it on the iPod and put it on.

The amount of talking this child does at 17 months old is just wrong. Not only does she talk, but she knows what she's saying and also knows how to use her words to get what she wants. It amazes me. Her poor brother. He is so sweet and quiet. He doesn't stand a chance!