Switching Things Up

My two daughters may look like one another but, they could not be more different.  Talia, my oldest, is always doing exactly what she is supposed to.  She is a great listener and is always ready to please.  Julia, my youngest, on the other hand, has a mind of her own.  She does things as she pleases and comes across quite lazy.  Julia is always trying to find a way to get Talia to do her dirty work.  Talia, with much complaining, usually succumbs to Julia’s orders.  Not sure if they are trying to mess with me or just changing, but, they have mixed things up a bit, thus, making me realize that I may not know my children as well as I thought I did.

Two very strange things happened this weekend in the Cotter household.  First…  I noticed my lovely Talia.  She recently had a hair cut.  Her hair looked great.  Saturday, I gave my angel baby a bath.  Wouldn’t you know it, as I was brushing her hair, I noticed something just a bit out of sorts.  She had bangs.  She has not had bangs in 3 years.  So, the question was, where did they come from.  At first, I thought maybe she was growing new hair and I didn’t realize it.  Then, I came back to reality and realized they were clearly cut.  My next thought was that my mother cut bangs and told Talia not to tell me.  I asked Talia if her grandmother did that to her and she responded with a stern no!  I prodded and prodded, trying to get her to rat out my mom and she continued to tell me that she was not the culprit.  So, I asked again… “Talia, what happened to your bangs?”  She caved.  ”Mom,” she said, “I cut them.”  I couldn’t believe it!  I asked her why and her response was even more amusing.  ”Well,” she said, “remember that chewy gooey yummy rainbow treat you gave me?  Well, it was really gooey and it got stuck in my hair, so I cut it out.”  Well, the chewy gooey thing she was referring to was her first fruit roll up.  I asked Talia to please never ever cut her own hair again.  She agreed that she never would.  As I checked out her bangs, I realized that she actually did quite a good job.  I could not help but compliment her by saying, “even though mommy never wants you to do that again, you did a pretty good job.”  Talia’s response… “Obviously mom, I was looking in the mirror and being really careful.”

Now to Julia.  Julia, my daughter who refuses to lift a finger in the house.  She pretends to clean while she secretly plays.   She complains every time you ask her to do anything.  Her typical response, “uh, I always have to do everything for everyone!”  Unbelievable as she rarely does anything for anyone, including herself.  This weekend was a little different.  I asked the girls to pick up their room.  To my amazement, Julia was moving around like a kid in fast motion.  My little peanut might as well have had roller skates on as she cruised through her bedroom and even the rest of the house cleaning away.  She even put a pretty dress on her play table and decorated it…  I commended her and told her how proud I was that she was working so hard.  Julia’s response, “thanks mom!  I decided to start being good.”  Enough said.