You can do everything to treat your kids the same:
mete out identical portions of treats;
match toy and game acquisition with unerring accuracy;
balance the rotation of who goes first and who gets what;
and on and on, the reality is, despite your best intentions, history may paint a different story.

There they are, note the matching care seats, the pigtails (Briar’s braided and Avery’s loose as per their preferences). Briar is playing with a spangly princess necklace and Avery has got her potato. Her super fun, can’t-live-without-it-must-take-it-with-me-from-Deb’s-potato.

You think I’m kidding, but look at the grip she’s got on that thing.

And this? Here she is telling me in no uncertain terms that, no, she does not want to eat her potato for dinner, nor does she want me to intrude on her spud cuddle.

Later at Target, as Briar fawned over-the-top Snow White dress and ring she’d picked as her reward, I put my foot down. Avery was clutching a Swiffer Sweeper refill pack to her face saying, “My present. My present!”

“Oh, honey, you are my present. That’s not your present, you are getting a toy!”

And so it is that tonight she’ll sleep betwixt Pooh and the potato.