The whole concept of “sibling battles” is a new one for me.  After all, I was an only child and so there wasn’t anyone to scuffle with except my cranky cats.  Even after the husband and I took the plunge and had kiddo number two, there still wasn’t much in the way of sibling contests.  With a four year age difference, my son has always treated his little sister more like a deluxe pet, rather than a rival.   But that is all beginning to change now that the little sister ain’t so little any more.  Now that she is three, the battle lines are being drawn as she starts to flex her tiny muscles and tries to test her wits against her mighty older brother.  And if yesterday’s discussion in the back seat of the car on the way to swimming class is any indication, her father and I may be in for quite a ride: 

Dominic:  Mom, if you could choose to be any animal what would you be?

Me:  I think I would like to be a dolphin. 

Dominic:  [Thinking]. I would be a fox – a red fox – because they remind me of peppermint patty except they are red. (Side note:  Peppermint Patty is his black cat who looks nothing like a fox)

Genevieve (unsolicited):  I would be a bat - a big, black, spooky bat and I would eat you up, Dominic!

Dominic:  No Genevieve.  Bats can’t eat foxes up.  I would eat YOU up because foxes are bigger than bats and we have sharp teeth.  You would taste like a chicken to me.

Genevieve:  I would fly away high up in the sky and then you couldn’t eat me.  Nanni, Nanni, Phoo, Phoo.

Dominic:  Yes I could eat you.  Foxes can jump. I would jump up in the air and tear you apart.

Genevieve:  (Pause).  Then I will be an elephant and squish you instead.

[Giggles and shrieks by both kids]

At this point, I check my watch and wonder if it’s too early in the day to start drinking…