One Set of Rules

I try really, really hard not to have one set of rules for one of my girls and a different set for the other but sometimes it's really hard. It's going to be even harder when Baby #3 comes into the mix. It's not that I play favourites or willingly give one of them more or less scope for their actions but they are very different sometimes in terms of personality and intention.

Just now I was nibbling on a biscuit. Ahh, dry biscuits are my friends right now. This is the first pregnancy I have had morning sickness with and although it had faded for a while it seems to be back now. Natasha loves my biscuits while Angelica just pretends to love them to fit in with 'the in crowd'. I generally break a biscuit in half, then in half again and give each of them a quarter but today Natasha decided this was unacceptable and swiped a whole biscuit from the packet. It was done so innocently that I couldn't do anything except to laugh - and watch my potential snack be gobbled down by my youngest daughter.

When Angelica tried to steal a whole biscuit a few minutes later and got a telling-off I felt pretty guilty for it, but her actions were different to her sister's. She has a 17-month advance on Natasha and knows only too well what she's doing. She gives us a sly look as though to say, "Go on then - what are you going to do about THIS, huh?!" Plus, she doesn't even like the biscuits!

Natasha is approaching her second birthday and still has a lot to learn. She wasn't swiping the biscuit to be naughty, she just thought it was unfair that Mummy got the bigger snack when she's a growing girl. There is a certain naivety about Natasha that I love. Angelica was a lot more knowing, even as a baby. She does a lot of things deliberately to find out what the outcome will be while Natasha is pretty laid back and coasts through the day, discovering things more by accident than purpose.

It's like Natasha climbing on the bed and running across it just to get from A to B, not thinking about the consequences while Angelica will climb on the bed and watch us carefully, trying to prompt a reaction by copying what Natasha has done.

Angelica is starting to understand that she should know better and I can see she comprehends why she gets a telling off because she looks jolly guilty afterwards. Natasha will be reaching that point soon too, but for now I'm trying to make the most of her last little bit of innocence before she becomes a knowing young lady trying to push her parents the same way as her sister does.

I'm trying hard to show consistency. I know that it is the best way to be. But I can't help giving a giggle at the happy young lady sitting in the middle of a big pile of biscuit crumbs.