Stubborn little sisters- a walk down memory lane

I was looking through some old pictures on my computer tonight while I was waiting on the girls to fall asleep, and I came across these old classics.  I had forgotten about this series of pictures, and it is hilarious!  This is when we lived in France in 2003.  Abbey had just turned 4 and Maddie had just turned 2.  Here you see Abbey happy as can be with her new Barbie kitchen set that she got from Annie and Da in a special birthday package.  Now you need to understand, that form the get go, AJ was the classic oldest child.  Organized in all her play, meticulous about arranging and setting things up just so.  You can see that she has a great set up here for Barbie.  The little kitchen table is even set. 

Now make no mistake, it is no coincidence that she has positioned herself in the corner of her room hiding behind the bed in order to play with her new treasure.  You see, little sister Maddie is not so meticulous in her play and would just love to get her chubby little two year old hands on Abbey's new toy.  As I watched what happened next, I decided not to intervene but just see how things played out.  Let the pictures speak for themselves...

Uh oh- here comes trouble.  Maddie has discovered that something that looks pretty fun is going on and she wants in on the action, and as you can see Abbey is not about to let her mess up the set up that she has very carefully arranged.

Maddie's not giving up quite so easily, but then again, neither is Abbey...

Maddie backs up to observe from afar and think about her next approach.  Really who can blame her, the tea set in the big blue box is just not nearly as appealing.

So she apparently decided on a more aggressive approach for the second go round.

Uh oh, looks like Abbey is getting a little put out...

 

And the winner is....

Ok, I'm a big sister too, and I know these photos don't exactly show the best parenting techniques, but sometimes you have to sacrifice discipline for a great photo op!  (and for those of you who may be overly sympathetic with big sis- don't worry too much, she was ready to move on to something else)