September 28
This morning as I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast while Inuyasha was sitting on the floor with the kids who had him playing with their toys with him.
"I'm going to go smash this evil demon," Inuyasha said in a high voice as he played with the dolls.
"No Uncle Inuyasha, you're supposed to be a fairy," Midori said. "Fairies don't fight demons."
"Then what am I supposed to do instead?" he asked.
"You have to fly over and give us fairy dust and flowers," Mieko replied.
"Alright, but I still think fighting a demon is cooler."
I finished up in the kitchen and then went over to sit on the couch behind them. Soon Midori and Mieko got tired of playing fairies and came over to join me. Inuyasha sat on the floor next to us with Shinichi in his lap.
"When are mommy and daddy coming back?" Midori asked.
"They've been gone for a long time," Mieko said.
The kids were much more perceptive than we thought. Inuyasha and I exchanged a panicked look as both of us tried to think of what to tell them.
"They'll be back soon," Inuyasha said. "They just, um, have some things to take care of."
"I miss them," Midori said sadly.
All of a sudden Shinichi started to cry.
"Shh, don't cry Shinichi," Inuyasha said as he started to rock him.
"I miss mommy and daddy too," Mieko said tearfully.
Pretty soon all three of them were crying. We were at a loss for what to do. Now I knew how Inuyasha felt when I randomly started crying.
"Come on you guys, don't cry," Inuyasha said.
"Mommy and daddy won't be gone much longer," I said in a comforting voice as I hugged the girls. "They miss you a lot too. I know they wouldn't want to come home and see you all crying."
"That's right," Inuyasha said, going along with it. "Don't you know they like to see you laughing and smiling? You don't want them to be sad when they get home right?"
"No," Shinichi replied through his tears.
"Exactly, so let's all put smiles on our faces."
"How about you think of something fun you want to do with them when they get home?" I said, hoping that would cheer them up. Lucky for me, it seemed to do the job.
"I want to braid mommy's hair," Midori said. "She says I'm really good at it."
"I'm sure she would love that," I said.
"Piggyback ride!" Shinichi said with excitement.
"Daddy gives the best piggyback rides," Mieko agreed.
"What do you want to want with them, Mieko?"
"I want mommy and daddy to sing songs."
"And they're going to do all of that when they get home," Inuyasha said. "You've just got to be patient."
We took the kids out for another walk today. Since Inuyasha came with us this time, he put them on his back and ran through the trees with them which they found thrilling. It made me nervous and my heart pounded out of my chest as I watched them but of course Inuyasha never dropped them.
We were back home that afternoon and shortly after lunch, Midori and Mieko started arguing.
"That one's mine!" Mieko said, pointing to one of the toys that Midori had.
"But I wanna play with it!"
"You can't!"
"Girls, remember sharing is caring," I said from where I was sweeping the kitchen floor.
Unfortunately, they continued to argue and it did wonders for the headache I already had. Eventually they were arguing and Shinichi was crying and the whole thing turned into chaos.
"If you don't stop arguing, you're going to timeout," I tried. It didn't help. I started to wonder how Miroku and Sango could live this way.
Inuyasha bent down in front of them. "Alright, you two need to stop."
"No!" Midori said as she pushed her sister.
"Stop!" Mieko said as she hit her back.
Finally, me and Inuyasha separated them. "Hey, we don't hit in this house," I said firmly.
"You're going to timeout," Inuyasha said.
"I don't want to," Midori said as she started crying.
"You should have thought about that before."
"You can't send us to time out," Mieko said.
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" I asked.
"Because you're not our mommy and daddy."
Geez, kids are sassy. "They've given us permission to. Now go sit in the corner over there."
"You too, Midori," Inuyasha said to her. "Go."
The girls reluctantly went to their respective corners with tears running down their faces. I felt bad for punishing them but we couldn't let them do whatever they wanted.
By now Shinichi had stopped crying. I picked him up and started to carry him to the other room. "It's your nap time."
When I got back Inuyasha and I flopped down onto the couch and sighed. At least we could get 10 minutes of quiet while the twins were in timeout.
"Girls, you can come out of timeout now," Inuyasha said to them after the time passed.
They came out of their corners and went back to the middle of the room.
"What do you say to each other?" I asked.
"I'm sorry," they said at the same time.
"Good, now how about you play nicely and share?" Inuyasha said.
Luckily the rest of the day passed without incident. In fact, when it got dark out, we sat outside tonight and looked up at the stars until it was their bedtime.