It is said that we have choices in everything we do. College or no college, marriage or no marriage, red dress or black one, eat chocolate and skip the workout, you get the gist.

Where am I going with this? Not a clue. Guess I just thought a first blog should be enlightening but this feels more like preaching and I'm not a preacher. So here's the conundrum...what the hell do I write about now?

Given that I'm sitting here sifting through the bazillions of tales stored in my head, you'd think the choice would be easy. Wrong! I don't want to dive into the parenting thing right away, tell some witty story one of my kids recently did. I mean I do eventually want to tell those stories (I've got some good ones) just not in this piece.

Granted, my 3yr old just threw a toy at my 6yr old and now they're yelling, crying, and throwing themselves around in hopes that the other one will get in trouble. Do I stomp loudly down the stairs to the playroom and separate them? Or do I continue to listen as they knock their tired, cold infested heads together and let them work it out themselves?

Ahhhhh..... there are those choices again.

Well crap, looks like it's going to be a parenting story after all. It's funny listening to them and how they desperately try to one-up the other in their frustration.

"You're a crybaby, a BIG BIG cryBABY!" 6yr old

"I'm leaving and never EVER playing with you again!" 6yr old

3yr old moves closer with another toy to throw.

I don't even need to be down there to see how this is playing out. My 6yr old daughter and nearly 4yr old son have the relationship of a dysfunctional, borderline abusively obsessed married couple! They can't stand each other yet they can't stand to be apart. Laughing out loud one minute and then reaching for the other's throat the next? My 8yr old son has a much more diplomatic relationship with his 6yr old sister and when I asked him why he thought this might be his reply was:

"You just have to realize that she is always right and then things are fine."

Clever little man! He had a choice and he has chosen to have an easier, simpler relationship with his sister. However unsustainable or even unfair, he has made his choice and his little brother has made his. Now don't get me wrong, my 6yr old daughter is a brilliant, sweet and very loving little girl. It's just that she is also...how should I say? A born leader!

Choices.....

Endnote: they are playing beautifully together right now and I didn't say a thing