Teaching sharing: family vacation with 6 kids under 4 years old

We had such a blessed family vacation! Almost two weeks of cousin bliss. Our siblings came from south & east coasts and with their kiddos, the house was burgeoning with cries of joy and despair.

Oh you know those sounds.

“It’s MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“You HAVE to share with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“No, NO, NOO!!!!!!”

Punctuated by SuperBoy’s newly minted fresh attitude (I’m 4 going on 14) and SweetPea’s strident possessiveness of all things that she may have seen, or touched, in her lifetime, the little cousins were so sweetly abominable to each other. My saintly nieces, 3 and 7 months, were snatched from, screamed at, tormented, and stepped on.

They valiantly tried to give as good as they got, though the little 7 month old just looked perplexed as did our adorable Godson and nephew, 12 months. Those two, and BabyLoves, were out of the running for loudest child ever.

My fav? When V, 3, would fancy a toy, and then SuperBoy & SweetPea would literally chase her into the ground to get it back. It was like she was the huntee and they the hunters–painful, painful to watch. Yet we did, we moms. We sat back with the bambinos nursing and pretended we couldn’t hear most of it. They were learning to share with some intervention, mostly narration, and a few time outs.

It’s never long enough, we never can get enough time or conversation in, and I loved every single minute our time at the Lodge, the hanging around the house, the all of it. My heart is never so full as when our house is brimming with squalling squeaking family.

A super specially adorable moment? Baby dance party to Scythian’s newest album, you want to order it now–close family friends and SweetPea’s Godpapa in the mix there. These two pooped out half way.