Sharing means caring

With the holiday season approaching, the girls have already received some gifts. I have purposely gotten Anna her own toys so that she will have something to play with that Lea cannot grab from her and say “mine!”. All the toys (ok most) were Lea’s first and she still feels that she owns then. She likes to grab from Anna and I am not too sure how to approach the situation. Most of the time I ask her to share, or get Anna another toy, occasionally I remind her that Anna had it first and to give it back to Anna. The real problem is that Anna doesn’t seem to mind having things taken from her, so after sternly (is that a word????) telling Lea to give the toy back to Anna, Anna drops it and finds something else to play with. Leaving me to wonder why I even bothered.

I have done some reading and what I have read indicates that before a child can learn to share, she needs to learn possession, so I guess that’s what we are working on right now. Of course she now loves Anna's new toys just as much as her own and because they are new, they both want to play with them all the time!

Ah, the challenges of raising two young girls so close in age!

I must admit though that once in a while they surprise me. I will look over to find them playing together, or more recently this:

Anna is on the verge of walking, and has actually taken a few steps on her own so we have been spending lots of time walking while holding her hands and just helping her along (I know, what am I thinking right!) and I guess Lea has seen us and decided that she would like to help too! Little does she know that once Anna is walking, she will be able to follow her everywhere! Right now Lea can still run away and hide! I'll try to get a video next time.