Amelia loves Ella

In my family we show affection by bugging people. Poking, teasing, even tossing things at people. When I graduated from high school, a friend came for the weekend. Dad threw M&Ms at her. I explained to her that if Dad throws something at you, it means he likes you. To be fair, this comes from Dad's side. We always got into huge wrapping paper fights at Christmas every year. And even Dad's aunt and uncles do this. It's normal for them to be running around at the reunion, having a big water fight. This is one way I've learned to show affection. And apparently my girls are learning this early.

Yesterday Ella was standing up watching tv. Amelia was sitting on the floor. While she's not exactly mobile yet, she can scoot forward on her butt. She was doing that yesterday. I was sitting in the same room but not paying a lot of attention when Amelia started giggling. Hysterically. I looked up to see her sitting right behind Ella, poking her in the butt with her toys. Ella moved away. Amelia moved closer and then starting tugging on Ella's pajamas, giggling and grinning the whole time. Ella screeched "STOP!" and moved away again. By this time I was giggling too. This cycle continued for a few minutes longer, until Ella finally moved far enough away that Amelia couldn't reach her. I'm still giggling thinking about it. Amelia is learning very early that antagonizing someone is a way the Atherton family shows affection. Amelia loves Ella. She also loves to annoy her.