Rantaholics

In the interest of entertaining my twin 4 year old niece and nephew, I had to resort to the drastic means to keep their attention. I'm quite certain during the weekend, I have successfully imprinted some really bad habits as part of their personality.

Not having children myself (other than being married to one), I don't always know the boundaries between acceptable or unacceptable behavior (especially after a drink or two).

1. Encouraging bad behavior in public places: as my nephew yellow and proceeded to pull his shirt over his head (revealing his chest) I giggled, which just encouraged him to repeat this action, even to our wait person. (she did have a good sense of humor about it)
2. Stick crayons in your mouth or nose. First it was the vampire look with a pair of crayola, then proceeded downhill, will nostril insertion. Both of them picked up on this skill quite quickly.
3. Lemon wedge stuck in your teeth: Not the healthiest maneuver (since most of you probably know the garnishes they put in your drinks are not the cleanest). Both of them smiled at fellow patrons with their lemon wedges and then proceeded to spit them out.
4. Scaring people: teaching them to hide and strategic places and then jumping out at the appropriate moment to yell "Boo!" I heard some delightful language come from my family and not to mention strangers.
5. Last and not least: I am apologizing in advance to any of you who are Obama supporters. This was not a slam to him as to my brother in law. My delightful niece and nephew have very, very liberal parents (I cannot begin to elaborate how liberal they are, but let's just say they wear tie-dye t shirts and hippie beads underneath their clothes). My father in law asks my nephew who he should vote for and in his proud little voice states: Barack Obama! We changed that tune pretty quick (knowing this would cause his father to become completely hysterical). "Obama sucks" my nephew repeated during a gathering of 15 adults. Everyone laughed (except my brother in law who was not around). Of course, this just encouraged this feisty young man to yell it again and again and again.
Both of them didn't know any bad language, but creatively improvised on "Obama sucks!"
"Obama lives in the toilet and LIKES it" and "Obama eats poop". During the rest of the weekend, both of them piped up with these comments, all of them eliciting laughter. (again, this reinforces the bad behavior).
The pinnacle of their rant was heard at the John Wayne airport, just before the twins boarded the plane. My sister in law phone us to say good bye when my nephew picked up the phone and in his loudest voice possible, yelled "Barack Obama sucks, he lives in the toilet and likes it". In most places, this would be interpreted as bad behavior, but they were in Orange County and most people just ignored. Or better yet laughed.

Yup. I am a bad influence. Now,waiting for the irate phone call from their father, an Obama devotee. It is highly likely I won't get to see them soon, but that is ok, it will give me some new skills to teach them when they visit again.