Their beginning to team up

• Natalie is slowly realizing that Hallie can be her little puppet.  And Hallie LOVES it.  They play together a lot now.  They will disappear in to Natalie's room for 30 minutes before we hear any fussing.  Last night was hilarious.  After about 5 minutes in to playtime we hear Natalie holler "MIIIIIIIINE!!!".  Daddy was poised to jump in to action.  But then the darndest thing happened.  Hallie laughed.  That's right, Natalie hollered and Hallie laughed.  So Natalie hollers again "MIIIIIINE!"  I am sure this time Hallie will not like it and realize it isn't a game, but again she laughs.  Then I heard a second little snicker.  Natalie was laughing now too.  So back there they sat for probably 30-45 seconds of Natalie hollering, Hallie laughing, then Natalie laughing at Hallie.  This began the night of playing.  Pretty soon they are running through the halls until we would hear a thud, usually Hallie hitting the floor.  They made their way out to the living room.  Natalie decided to jump off the tiles in front of the fireplace, only about 18 inches off the ground.  No sweat for her.  We asked her not to do it again because Hallie would think she could do it.  Too late.  There's Hallie perched on the ledge waiting to jump.  She starts bouncing (she can't get air yet) and saying "jump, jump".  Natalie walks over and helps her "jump" down by giving her a hug and pulling her off.  Hallie landed on Natalie and they both just cackled.  They did this probably 10 times before we diverted their attention.  Then they started holding hands running through the living room.  Being the good daddy I said "No running, Natalie".  I picked her because she was obviously leading this crazy version of tag/chase/ring around the rosy/whatever.  She grabbed Hallie's hand and said "let's walk Hallie".  They slowly, and I mean slooooowly, walked out of the living room holding hands. We knew something was up.  Had to be.  They just had this look like we are going to run as soon as we are out of sight. Sara was stifling a laugh on the couch, hand over mouth.  Yep, as soon as they were in the hall, they took off running to her room.  Thud.  Down goes Hallie.  Laughter ensues.  Run, thud, laugh.  Run, thud, laugh.  Run, CRASH. cry.  I go in to Natalie's room to find Hallie screaming.  A welt was forming above her eye.  Turns out they were playing a game where Natalie gives Hallie a little push and Hallie runs a few steps.  Natalie looks at me and says "I pushed her too hard".  Ya think?  So now Hallie has a big bruise above her right eye and learned that playing with big sister can be rough.  Fifteen minutes later she was back up and playing again with Natalie.  So she got her first injury from playtime with sister but also her first recovery and re-entering the fray.  And mom and dad got our first of many chances to fix a boo-boo for one caused by the playing with the other sister. :)