Sibling Love

Lately I have been absolutely LOVING watching Braden and Gracie interact.  The relationship they have is so different than what I thought it would be at this point.  Braden's imagination is in full swing these days and he allows Gracie to join right in.  With the help of his imagination, they have turned his closet into a "house", they ride on their rocking horses like Woody and Buzz, they have a complete fleet of garbage trucks and "garbage" to take care of, they launch matchbox cars down the cliff (the stairs), they race up and down the hallways in mini road races.  All of this is done with a fast and wild three year old and his crab-crawling one year old sister.  Two kids at completely different mobility and development stages but Braden's speed and ability and Gracie's slower and more robotic pace don't hold them back when they are together.  I love it.  Braden encourages his sister and Gracie clearly admires everything he does.

Gracie's imagination and "playing" feels so different to me than B's was at 15 months.  She pushes matchbox cars, garbage trucks, and other toys around in the same way that her brother does (just while crawling, compared to his running).  I look at the things she does and think about how cool it is that she can do things literally because she has watched Braden do them.  Without knowing it, he's teaching her how to play!

When I was pregnant with Gracie I was so worried about how we were changing B's life.  I worried that he was going to be angry that we took away his "only child" badge and added another kid to the mix.  Now I can only see how much better his life is now that he has a permanent playmate.  And Gracie's little world revolves around her big brother and how much he adds to her every waking moment.

Today while B was at school it crossed my mind how much Gracie misses her big brother when he's not around.  We ran around doing errands and the entire time she complained.  She literally "yelled" at me for ever second that she was in her carseat while her brother was not next to her.  The minute we picked him up from school she was a different baby.  When they are in the car together I love looking in the rearview mirror and seeing Gracie's little neck craned around the edge of her seat to see what her big bro is doing.  More often that not we are dancing and singing to some song that B has requested (today's ride home "Nothing But a Good Time" was on repeat) and Gracie chimes right in.  This doesn't happen when she's alone with me.  She LOVES copying whatever her brother is doing - me on the other hand am boring to copy apparently because I promise you my nutty singing and dancing continues with one, two or no children in the car :o)

I feel blessed to be able to see this relationship blossoming.  I know there will be more and more fights (because they already are in full force at times - Gracie's a biter, Braden's a stiff bodied scream at the top of his lungs kind of guy) but for now when they are somehow communicating in their sibling way I am in awe of their adorableness and cannot get enough of it!