Obsessions

Every kid is obsessed with something, right?  Maybe obsessed is a strong word, but I think it fits at my house right now.  My little people don't have just one obsession though, they have several!!  There are of course the security items that they each cling to . . . For Brooklyn these are her two "blankie pals" and sometimes her zebra pillow pet, Gage has his two blankies (and also his turtle pillow pet and his stuffed frog, but the blankies are priority, number one), Westin needs his monkey pillow pet and occasionally his small monkey stuffed animal, and Kynlee has to have her horse and her bunny with the butterfly pillow pet once in a while.  But these are not the obsessions I refer to.  These are the items they cling to to calm down or go to sleep.  They all know which item belongs to which sibling and typically return the item to it's rightful owner if they find it astray (or occasionally they steal the beloved item and run as a form a of sibling torture). 

I refer to the obsessions that I find more entertaining, such as:

SHOES!!!  They love shoes: dress up shoes, mommy's shoes, daddy's shoes, Jackson's shoes . . . ANY SHOES.  They all know which pairs of shoes belong to them and they do NOT share shoes.  You better not accidentally put Kynlee's flip flops on Brooklyn because it will cause an epic battle.  This is true for all of them, though.  However, not only are they all obsessed with wearing shoes, they are now obsessed with me wearing shoes.  Kynlee is the worst about this, but Brooklyn and Gage will do it too.  They bring my shoes to me if they find them and MAKE me put them on.  They won't give up until I do!  If they find their own shoes, they bring them to me and make me put those on them and if later they manage to come across another pair of their shoes, they will make me change their shoes.  The bottom line is, if you don't what to change shoes all day, KEEP THEM HIDDEN.  However, even this is not working as well as it used to because they know that their shoes are kept in a shoe hanger on the inside of the closet door and they will go to the closet and bang on it until you get the shoes out.   So much for out of sight, out of mind!  I have never seen four children who love shoes so much!

BEING WRAPPED UP!  Seriously . . . I'm talking about blankets, towels, anything really that they can wrap up in.  They want me to put the towel/blanket over the top of their head and around their bodies like little robes and they walk around this way.  If is starts to slip off, they will run to me to put it back on!  Sometimes the girls will get wrapped up and then lay down on the playroom floor.  I'm not really sure why they do this.  It all started because of bath time.  They really started to enjoy getting wrapped in the towel after baths, so now they want to do it all the time.  It's not quite as bad as the shoe obsession, but once it starts, it lasts all day!

BOOKS!  Now this one is not so unusual and I'm totally on board on with it except . . .when four toddlers want you to read four different books RIGHT NOW and they each want to sit directly in the middle of your lap and they fight to the death over this coveted spot, it can get a little hairy!!  I love to read to them, but sometimes I get a little overwhelmed and just have to walk away for a minute!

CLOTHES!  My kids LOVE to get dressed.  They will bring me clothes to put on them, and then bring me more clothes to put on top of those sometimes!  Kynlee has started insisting on wearing whatever SHE picks out.  Jackson does this too, but he's a little older.  Kynlee spent almost 48 hours in last year's bathing suit earlier this week because I couldn't get her to take it off, then two days later it was a sparkly shirt that she wouldn't part with!  Brooklyn loves to layer, as does Gage and sometimes Kynlee.  Westin doesn't really layer, but he does like to get dressed.  I thought toddlers were supposed to be difficult to dress (and sometimes mine are, but mostly they LOVE it!)

SOMERSAULTS!  This one is recent.  Jackson was doing somersaults in the living room the other day and everyone tried to copy him.  Now you never know when you might walk into a room and see 5 kids with their heads on the ground looking between their legs trying to somersault.  Jackson usually starts it because he thinks it's funny.  Sometimes he helps them finish their flips, because he's such a good big brother.  Gage can do "modified" somersault (he lands slightly to the side instead of going all the way over), but everyone else just waits for help.  It's pretty funny.

Oh the fun the we have around here!!  Anyone else have kids with fun obsessions?!