The Bub in the Belly

You know that magical moment when two siblings start behaving like siblings? I don't mean when they start fighting, of course! I mean when they start thinking of each other when they are apart, or when they save some of their yummy snacks to pass on to each other later, or when they really do want to hold hands with each other while walking to the park, or when they protect each other and stand up for each other. I mean that magical moment when they show a connection to each other.

We've been having a lot of that magic with our two munchkins these past few months. It's incredibly heartwarming.


Ryan and babydoll can play quite well together now. In fact, Ryan includes her in his play quite regularly. Sometimes he makes up a game for them to play together. Sometimes he instructs her on how to construct something or how to play with something.

He can be quite particular so it's pretty funny when he gives specific instructions and babydoll, not knowing what he means, just grins and chuckles at him because she's just pleased that he's giving her his attention.


Babydoll absolutely adores her big brother. She loves it when Ryan takes notice of her and sometimes when she's having a tantrum, only a hug from him will calm her down. She wants to do everything he does and she's a quick copy - she only has to witness Ryan doing something once, and she can execute the same thing perfectly.


Here they were playing with some walnuts that Margaret had bought for us a long time ago. They swished the walnuts around, lifted the cardboard box up on one side to get the walnuts rolling, checked to see how many walnuts they could hold in one hand, so on and so on. It was lots of fun for them, although their excitement is missing from the last few photos - Ryan was distracted by something behind me.


I guess, when you have more than one child, you hope that they will be able to lean on one another in the future, that they will always have someone that they can count on to share their ups and downs, and that they will never feel lonely. You hope that they will enjoy each other's company, so that every family gathering is a joyous occasion that they will look forward to. It's a vision of the faraway future and there's a lot more to struggle through but, looking at the two of them right now, I think we've got a chance of getting there.


In these photos, Ryan is wearing a T-shirt made by me, using the Raglan Recess Tee pattern by See Kate Sew. I made it for his birthday about two months back. Babydoll styled herself - she is wearing her brother's pajama top over her romper, and she also pulled on a pair of harem pants which I made for her (I posted about it in this post).