Fierce Independence

It is amazing how very quickly little personalities fight for independence and the elusiveness of "big'dom".

Catching the bus these days, we have Amber & Sarah insisting that we sit back in the bus shelter while they look out for the bus that has the appropriate number. We then have to board the bus either far behind them, or at a different door to them. Once on the bus, the two of them justle and jostle for position on a chair at the furthest end of the bus from us and engage themselves deep in conversation. They have created and perfected a language which sounds like fluent Czech that attracts strange looks and supressed smiles from all around them. One of their latest tricks is to sit at the back of the bus and to interact with the motorists behind them (especially if it is another bus). On the way home from our ski trip, the number 13 bus was following right behind us and the bus driver was so close on our tail at each stop that if there wasn't glass between them he could most certainly have touched their noses. He had a captive audience in Amber & Sarah as he pulled faces and put on and off imaginary glasses and hats and generally had A & S in stitches the whole way home - not to mention the rest of the bus that had noticed the antics of the 3 of them. When we got off at our stop we even got a special goodbye "toot" from bus Nr 13.

While travelling away, we have to give them both turns to pull the suitcase (even though it is nearly as big as they are). They grunt and groan over the bumps but will never admit that it is too heavy. Walking to the shops with the backpack, they make sure they also get a turn to carry it on their back (we have learned that it helps the load on the way home if they both carry their school bags to the shops and we fill them up with groceries on the return trip).

The very latest one now is that they want to go down the elevator by themselves and wait for us at the bottom of our building while we finish pfaffing to leave the house (find keys, wallets, bus tickets .....). There is a very well co-ordinated sequence of turns between who calls for the lift, pushes the open door button, pushes the appropriate floor button and hold the door open for us to all vacate (and lo and behold anyone who steps a foot out of line!!!)

In the not too distant future they will be catching aeroplanes without us (oh my gosh!!!).