Sibling Love

Everyday in my house is a day filled with sibling love (except those "few" times when Little Man swipes Big Sister's prized possessions, or when Big Sis thinks it's funny to hide The Bunny...THE prized possession in the house, yeah, and about every other hour...oh, but you get the point....).

In the last 2 days I've seen the sweetest of the sweet with these munchkins (which makes me hopeful they'll remain bff's until they're old and gray...here's hoping!). Yesterday was the big doc's appointment for Little Man - his 1 year checkup. Not a pretty picture. Pain. Pain. And more pain. In the form of gigantor needles. As gut-wrenching as it is to hold your baby when doctors intentionally do painful things to them, you still, as a parent, understand the greater good. We can go ahead and mark polio and all forms of hepatitis off the list of big bad monsters. But little people? Yeah, they don't see the greater good. So as I sat in a chair holding a screaming baby making every attempt I knew of to console, here comes Big Sister. She walks over, strokes his head over and over and sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. All crying ceased. He placed his thumb in his mouth and laid his head down to listen to his sister's sweet little comforting voice. She's got the touch. So much for my mommy powers.

This morning after breakfast, I got them both out of their high chairs with only one command: Go play. I wanted to eat my oatmeal in peace at the kitchen table and read my Bible. Since I didn't give any exact directions like, "Go play with specified toy A or B", they just stood around for a while and watched me. Finally, Big Sis gave the "Come on, Buster!" charge and off they went. Since our house is the size of a small apartment I can let them frolick the entire grounds without me being on their heels. It helps that I can hear them breathing in any room from any point in the house. (No need for monitors!). Off they went to play in Big Sister's room. After my "alone" time, I followed the sound of Sister's voice and found her sitting on the edge of her bed (in a teacher's posture) "reading" her devotional book to her baby brother (as he sat on Elmo soaking in every word...seriously, how does she do it...he won't sit still for me to even change his diaper!). She was pointing to pictures and telling brother that God wants him to always tell the truth (this was the lesson she learned last night after telling 2 lies in order to get out of bed). And although her brother can't say enough words to even constitute a lie, I'm sure he learned a lot in their morning devotional. He tends to listen to her. I think I may just use her as my puppet as he gets older. She's got a way. I guess it's that sibling connection I'm not allowed into. I can see our future conversation now: "Hey, sis, your brother just told a lie. Can you go give him the 'God wants you to tell the truth' talk? And can you throw in some consequences while you're at it?" "Sure, Mom, I'm on it......BUUUSSSSTTTTEEERRRR, get your hiney over here!"

Can't wait.