Tweenager sibling rivalry

Moments in time today when I was noticing how the kids are being aroung each other:

I am loading up the dryer yet again, when from the kitchen I hear the boy singing "Rotten jellyfish spewing out your nose and on the floor.", in a rapping sort of manner, accompanied by the Girl chanting "spew, spew, spew", while stomping out the beat. I shake my head but say nothing, because they are in the same room together, working together to take care of the lunch dishes, together, without fighting. I am gonna go with that.

Later, I am trying to talk to my friend H on the phone. I give the kids directions, head upstairs and just begin to talk when the kids start SLAMMING DOORS AND SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS. I hang up to do triage, then call her back 15 minutes later. We say 2 words and her daughter interupts her, needing math guidance.

A couple of hours later, the kids are supposed to be in their own rooms doing school work, and I hear giggles coming from the Girl's room. When he hears me in the hall, the Boy crawls through the connecting closet from the Girl's room to his room.

They love each other so very much, but are really struggling to get along with each other right now. The ups and downs of siblings in puberty at the same time.

It is amazing to me how much they are fighting right now. These two kids have always been extremely close, but right now it is all I can do to leave them in a room alone together. I have to admit, I never read any of the sibling rivalry books, because my two were so close, people used to mistake them for twins on a regular basis. They loved this, and enjoyed fooling grownups. One time, someone asked me how old my twins were. Again, not if they were, but how old. I didn't skip a beat, just pointed to the kids and said, "That one's 6, the other is 9." The look on this woman's face, tee hee. The kids giggling because she thought the Boy was a girl, and that they were they same age. Priceless.

Anyhow, puberty isn't helping thier relationship at all. But, from the above tidbits, it is good to be able to see that they do love each other, and have enjoyed each other's company. We just won't talk about the fact that they weren't studying, okay?

TTFN,
LB