referee

Yesterday morning, Laci woke up at five. Five a.m. Too early, but not entirely unusual for her. I brought her back to my bed where she usually goes back to sleep for a while. But as soon as we got all cozy under the blankets, I heard Mia on the monitor. I just shut my eyes and sighed for a minute, hoping by some miracle that Mia would go back to sleep on her own. Laci wouldn't have it.

"Mom! Mia crying!" she informed me.

Yes, she is crying. Yes, I will get up. But stay here. Please. Don't move.

I got up with Mia, nursed her, and she settled back down to sleep for another hour or so. And Laci waited for me patiently and when I returned, she too, went back to sleep.

It warms my heart when Laci gets all protective and nurturing to her little sister. It doesn't happen often, so I am sure to acknowledge and commend her, "You're such an awesome big sister!" Then she smiles big and is oh, so proud of herself for a moment.

However, just to let the record show the whole truth, this is how Mia and Laci interactions usually go.

1. Mia finds something fun to do while Laci is off doing her own thing.

2. Laci realizes Mia has found something fun.
3. Laci tries to push Mia out of the way in such a manner that she thinks I will not notice.

4. Mia resists, so Laci takes more force in removing her from the activity.
5. Momma must step in and play referee. Although, if I'm being completely honest, I usually wait until someone is crying before I step in and usually that someone is Mia. Sorry baby girl.  Also, I don't always take pictures of the force...just sometimes.

So, yep, referee is my title most of the time these days. If I turn my head for a minute to do anything, Mia usually starts crying, and Laci is doing her best to look innocent. Which, by the way, she is terrible at. Nothing says guilty like a child with big avoiding eyes and a crying little sister.

Case in point, I sat down to write while Mia was looking at her favorite book (I interrupt myself right now to say how great it is that Mia has a favorite book and that she will willingly sit and look at it for twenty minutes all by herself), and Laci was methodically moving one book at a time from the shelf to a bin too high for Mia to reach. Peaceful playing for them = time to write for me.

Except, less than five minutes in, Mia starts crying. I turn around to see Laci laying on top of Mia's book. Really? It wasn't enough to remove every other book from Mia's reach? It shouldn't surprise me, I know. I have little sisters. I know how these things work. And I also know there isn't much hope of ever giving up the title of referee since my mom still plays ref to my sisters and I once in a while. Although, at this point, we are beyond laying on top of each other's stuff.

Most of the time.