Fighting Words

When this whole pandemic began, I had great fears that all of us being at home continually would end in homicide, if not multiple homicides.  I imagined one scene after another on a  continual loop of the scene below...

Maybe a few weeks ago (or perhaps a few months, I've really lost all sense of time), Lotta and Zibbi were fighting in the kitchen.  Here's a sample of what it sounded like, "You said SIX thirty."  "No, I said, SEVEN thirty..." "NO you SAID SIX thirty."  "NO I actually said SEVEN thirty".  At this point, the verbal argument erupted into violence.  Lotta explained that she'd looked at the alarm clock and thought she saw 6:30, then she heard Zibbi confirm this.  Zibbi explained that she'd looked at the clock and saw that it said 7:30, and then told Lotta.  As they explained this to me, the verbal and physical assault between them was reignited.  I suggested that BOTH these things could be true--Zibbi could have SAID one thing AND Lotta could have HEARD a different thing.  Of course, this did not fly and the yelling continued.  I suggested maybe we NOT talk about it anymore because we would never agree.  Lotta agreed, but not before she ended with, "BUT she DID say 6:30."  Overall, an extremely unsatisfying ending.

I have been quite surprised at how the girls most certainly fight, but then they quickly make up, because right now, without playdates or school or sleepovers, they are all they have.  Even Benja has spent time making up "not dangerous" games (one of the main goals during a pandemic is avoiding ER visits) which often involve one participant being blindfolded (?!?!) All three of them spend time daily playing Mine Craft, creating worlds together.  I think in retrospect, the three of them will look back on this time as most certainly challenging, but also a time when they all came together.