Foster the love

Ahh, sibling love. Sounds so much better than sibling rivalry.

What can I say, there is a 4 year old and a 2 year old who are very different in their own ways and they're still figuring out the way of the world. Sometimes we have two little girls on our hands that don't want to play nice. But sometimes they play wonderfully together. Really, they do! They share and not only their fruit. They share toys, books, dress-up clothes, hair accessories and for two weeks now, they even share a room. What a road that has been!

They were both equally excited about this big change in their lives and love being in the same room. They're up late talking and giggling and up early (very early) talking and giggling. I'm sure it's going to take some time for them to realize that they need to sleep and what they have to say or giggle about can wait until morning. At least it can wait until 6 o'clock in the morning, I'm not asking for much. I went from having two really good sleepers to two little girls who would rather giggle and talk in the middle of the night. I know I should love that and I do. Sometimes.

I love that they want to spend even more time with one another than they already do. That's really what I've wanted for them since the beginning. Since that first time Sofia walked into our maternity room to meet her little sister, I've wanted for them to be good, if not best friends.

We want them to share a room to encourage the sharing, the closeness that we hope our daughters have inside them for one another. Our trial and error with the girls in this new sleeping arrangement has been interesting. So, Anthony and I are finding new ways to cope with the talking and giggling, the early-morning-risers and the sleepy girls at the breakfast table. Sometimes we check on them and remind them to go to sleep and sometimes we've let them talk a bit and then check on them. Sometimes we've had lazy mornings to deal with the sleepy issues and sometimes we just go full steam ahead. No one way seems to work over the others right now.

We're not giving up though. It's only been 2 weeks and we just have to make something work. These girls are too in love with the idea of being in the same room just about every minute of the day to not keep on trying. Even when they take toys out of the others' hands, scare them just for the fun of it or tattle tale, through all that they still love one another. Time-out moments and not sharing a favorite toy or book are just trivial in the world of siblings. They'll figure out that sharing really is just caring. And as their parents, we'll help them figure it out too.