When the sweet turns sour

Aren't they just precious? Seriously! I love both these pictures. And SoMeTiMeS they represent the reality of these little people. And sometimes they don't.

For example, the other day I was visiting them and they were having a rare mid-winter Kansas chance to play outside. The babies were sleeping, so Christa and I were sitting outside also with the back door wide open (to hear the babies, lest you think we were dangerously incompetent - the front door was locked and the garage door was too, so don't worry).

Lexi made the most perfect mound of dirt, and planted a wonderfully straight and tall stick. Dead as a doornail, but that was irrelevant, as you will see. She moved on to the swingset, and next thing you know Mason is on the porch with us brandishing said stick like a weapon. Lexi catches sight of him, and of course a screaming tug of war ensues. Christa grabs the stick, puts it somewhere too high for either of them to reach, and orders them off the porch. Mason went quietly (shocking, honestly) and Lexi's older sister mouth started running ... "Mason now that tree will NEVER grow and it's all your fault that she took it away from us and it was MINE and you shouldn't have taken it and it's all your fault that Mom took it away ..." and on and on and on. Eventually Mason said, "Do you want me to push you on the swing?" Sweet, yes? "NO! You shouldn't have stoled my stick! It's all your fault ... blah blah blah." After about, oh, 3 or 4 more minutes of her haranguing and his trying to appease her I finally went in, but it was quite a display of their separate personalities, and also just the generalized differences of birth order! More than that, it was really really funny!!