Sisters.

Growing up, my little sister and I fought...a lot. It wasn't ever very physical (my mom did NOT allow hitting), but we bickered like professionals.

Terra and I are 18 months apart. Once I had Elisabeth and realized that I would have been 9 months old when my mom got pregnant with Terra, I asked her in an incredulous tone, "Mom! What were you thinking having us so close in age?! I wasn't even one year old when you got pregnant!! Why did you just enjoy that fabulousness that is me a while longer before bestowing a sibling on me?!"

My mom just smiled and said, "I wanted you two close together so you could play together and be friends."

While my moms intentions were honorable, she couldn't have born two more completely different people if she tried. Where I was talkative, outgoing and loud, Terra was soft-spoken, shy and timid. School was quite easy for me and I loved everything about it, while Terra struggled with a learning disability no one would catch until she started college. Our friends were different, our interests polar opposites. We clashed constantly.

We fought about everything--sharing clothes, sharing toys, whether or not it was okay to talk to me in our room when I was trying to sleep (it wasn't), whose turn it was to choose a tv show, who would get shot-gun in the car. We bickered so much and so often, we didn't even know we were fighting. It became our way of communicating. Most of it was lighthearted and not meant to hurt. When the words did hurt, we'd try our hardest to make the other one laugh so we'd know we were ok with each other. Cause if one of us went to mom in tears (by the way, Terra's a total cry baby) then the other one (me, cause I am not a crier) would be in trouble.

My dad, being the youngest of 1 girl and 3 boys, did not understand this bickering. He and his brothers physically fought it out or just ignored. He couldn't tell the difference between our playful fighting and actual fighting. I remember numerous occasions when our dad would tell us to stop fighting and both Terra and I would look at each other with raised eyebrows; we hadn't been fighting, just talking.

I love my sister though. And even though we don't talk on a daily basis, (which totally drives my mom crazy) when we do talk, it's like no time has passed since our last conversation. We're still very different people, but my sister has a lot of qualities that I admire. She's loyal, she has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know, and she is the clumsiest person to walk the face of the planet and can laugh at herself and doesn't care if I laugh at her too. She also understands me better than I like to admit most of the time. However, she's also knows exactly how to irritate me to no end. Still.

I've been thinking a lot about how Terra and I were growing up lately because I am raising two very different girls.

And they have been fighting like two caged animals the past couple of weeks. Part of it is that Elisabeth is on fall break, so there's a lot of time together. But, most of it is that Julia is fighting for her spot on the sibling ladder.

If Elisabeth gets something, you'd better darn-tootin' have something very similar for Julia in your other hand. She's been bossy and aggressive and (quite frankly) annoying towards Elisabeth. Elisabeth, bless her heart, has been her usual sweet self about it and has been taking Julia's moods with a grain of salt. That's not to say there aren't times when Elisabeth isn't the one who instigates the arguments, because she totally does. I am thankful every day that they are 5 and a half years apart and not 18 months (mom!).

The thing is, though, Julia adores Elisabeth. She wants to be with her and play with her and be just like her. Elisabeth's been calling Julia her copycat because Julia mimics her constantly.

But the bickering? Oh, my. I'm sure I'm being punished for all the fighting I did with Terra. I'm sure that this is fate's way of making me feel sorry for my mom and want to call her and say, "Why didn't you sell us? Why didn't you pawn us off on unknowing family members?!".

So, I'm trying to keep it together. I'm trying not to just yell at them to shut-up for the love of that is good and holy in the world. I'm trying to give them the tools to work out their problems and to curb the tattle-telling because I can not handle that at all. Terra was notorious for her tattling. (My sister's nickname by our entire extended family? Tattle-Tale-Terra. There was even a song. I'm not kidding.)

I'm also trying to stop accidentally calling them Terra when they are getting on my nerves. But, seriously, I slip and call them that all the time.