Clothing Wars

This morning I was in the bathroom, trying to cut the finger and toe nails on the squirmy mass of limbs also known as The Twins.  Elizabeth came in and in a huff sat down on the floor.  I had asked Emma and Elizabeth to get dressed, and listened to squabbling coming from their room, so I was not surprised to see Elizabeth.  However, she was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear.

"Elizabeth, where are your shorts?"

The eyes of the poor, abused sister looked at me and she said, "Emma won't let me wear them."

Seriously?  Emma is taking this bossy older sister thing way too seriously.  So I yelled for Emma to come, and she came clomping over to us, wearing her "high heel" shoes she got for her 8th birthday.  (She loves those things.)  "Why won't you let Elizabeth wear her shorts?"

"They are MY shorts.  She can't wear MY shorts."

Elizabeth protested, "They were in MY drawer!"

I've been known to put clothing away in the wrong place, so I asked Emma to go get the shorts in question.  She brought them back, and I recognized them as being Elizabeth's and said as much.

Emma was outraged.  "No, they are MINE.  I wore them last!" 

So I told her to check the tag, and lo and behold, they said size 6.  "Emma, they are Elizabeth's shorts.  If someday you'd like to borrow them, you need to ask Elizabeth."

"But they fit ME."  Emma was not going to give up without a fight.

"Yes, I bet they do.  But you have a drawer filled with shorts that fit you that don't say size 6.  You can wear those.  Elizabeth gets to wear the size 6 shorts."

"Fine."  Emma threw the shorts at Elizabeth (Thankfully they didn't connect.  I can be appreciative that Emma inherited my lack of hand-eye coordination.) and stomped away.

I am in serious trouble.  I have two girls who really are the same size and two others who are very close in size.  The teenage years ought to be one long screaming match a joy.

As of now, the twins wear anything between 2T and 4T, Elizabeth can wear 4T-6 shorts, and Emma can wear shorts sizes 5-8 (especially if those size 5s were capris- they make good knee length ones now).  There is a lot of overlap. 

Serious, serious trouble I am in.