Pushing buttons and Underwear

She's touching me!
He looked at me!
She took my toy.
He ate my gum!
She's wearing my shirt.
She choked the dog!
She called me a baby.

Because it's summertime, my kids are spending quite a bit of time together. We all are spending almost every moment together, in fact. The kids' conversations these days remind me of my brother and I when we were kids. He loved to see if he could get me to lose my temper. I don't think he ever failed.
He knew what to say and do to drive me up the wall. The thing that he loved to do more than anything was to pretend to open the top drawer of my dresser. This drawer contained my underwear and to a 6 or 7 year old girl, especially a super modest, neurotic girl, that was absolute torture. He didn't have to even go in my room, all he had to do was make me think he was thinking about opening that drawer and I would go ballistic.
One time, when I was about 4 or 5, my older sister had a check-up at the pediatrician's office and I had to go along. While we were waiting I asked my dad to take me to the the bathroom. When I was finished I told him I needed some help getting my pants up. He reached down to pull my pants up but they wouldn't budge. He pulled up a pair of panties. Then another pair. And another. He pulled up 5 pairs of underwear before he came to my pants. He asked me why I was wearing so many pairs of underwear. I told him that way the doctor couldn't see me naked.
Luckily, none of my kids are quite as strange as I was (or should I say am?). But they do know how to make each other crazy. After the first few weeks of summer I instituted our daily quiet time. It lasts one hour and no one is allowed to talk or make requests during that time. I try to make it happen every day when they all have had enough of each other, fighting, noise, or when they're just plain tired. They actually seem to like it, or at least accept it and the Momma loves it! This is one summertime tradition that may see a comeback next year!