I have four children total, three girls and a boy, the youngest. Before you think that’s too much, just know I did split them into two batches. I didn’t have them all in a row like most moms. 

The first two are in their twenties, and the eldest has moved out already. The last two are six and four-and-a-half. 

They’re all nuts. We’re all nuts. It’s just a nutty house over here. 

I was a single parent with the first batch and it was tough, but I don’t remember it being this hard with the younger ones. It doesn’t help that they’re only 20 months apart. 

They’re practically twins! At least they look like it. They’re almost the same height (the younger one actually taller), and they switch from being partners in crime to mortal enemies in an instant. It’s so ridiculous sometimes. 

The other day, my youngest daughter started screaming, clearly upset over something. I was in the middle of a Zoom call. I quickly pulled my headphones off and turned my chair around to find out what was going on behind me. Crying, she told me that her brother just deleted everything off her phone!

I stopped and tried to process what she just said. She’s six and obviously does not own a cellphone. But I could tell she was pretty distraught about this phone thing, whatever it was, so I asked her where the phone was. 

She then pulled out a pink piece of construction paper she had cut up to look like a smartphone, about four inches high, two inches wide. It had colored drawings on both sides. One side had two circles near the bottom, colored in — one red, one green. A face was drawn above, with two green eyes, a red nose and mouth, and curls of red hair, mimicking a phone’s wallpaper. The other side of this contraption had a big green heart, another face drawn with green eyes and long eyelashes, and a V-shaped smile. 

It was quite impressive. 

I knew I wasn’t supposed to laugh or even praise her for her creativity. It was not the time. I was expected to get mad at her brother for wiping out all of her data. 

So I did. 

I scolded my son for something he couldn’t have possibly done. But he did grab the piece of paper, I mean the phone, and pressed the “buttons” to delete everything. And that set my daughter off!

This was just an extra level of adorable bullshit I have to deal with. I couldn’t believe it. There’s always something absurd that happens around these two on a regular basis. I love it!