Sisters!!!

So we are starting to witness the first evidence of sisterly love (and aggravation) between Emma and Carol. This is whole new territory for me. Yes, I do have a half-brother and half-sister, but they are 16 and 14 years older than me respectively, so I am basically an only child. (Although I have many memories of being held upside down over the in-ground couch by my feet by my older brother....) So having two children is totally new ground for me in so many ways. Daniel is the middle of three boys, so he's a little more familiar with the sibling relationships.

First, Emma is GREAT around Carol- she really loves her so much. Sometimes if I am sitting on the couch with Carol when Emma wakes up and walks in, Emma goes to Carol first, not me! And Carol LOVES her big sister- she always smiles and gets so excited to see her, even when Emma is squishing her, hugging her, kissing on her, trying to carry her around! But...sometimes the sister-sister relationship can hit a few snags...even now:

- A few weeks ago I got two of Emma's old baby toys out of storage for Carol to play with since she is sitting up by herself now. Good thing I got two and not just one because Emma just had to play with one, too. After a few minutes, Emma took Carol's toy away from her and started playing with it. Carol looked at her and then just started crying big boo-hoo tears! We gave Carol the toy back and she was immediately happy again!

- In the bathtub last week, both girls were getting their baths at the same time. Now Emma has this over-dramatic flair whenever she has even the slightest of boo-boos. She had a small, almost invisible scratch on her foot and you would have thought it was the end of the world when she got it wet. She cried and cried, even though she was holding it outside of the water and was dry again. As she is putting on this show, Carol is just watching her and then starts to giggle...and a little bit more...and then full out laugh while watching Emma just cry. Apparently she thought it was a little bit ridiculous, too!

- Yesterday, Emma told me "Mommy, I'm tired of having a sister." Well I hate to break it to you....

- If I am cleaning our bathroom/bedroom, I put Carol in the Johnny-Jump-Up. It's one of the few doorways that actually has molding on it that we can use in our house. Emma loves to use it as a swing. I'll pull it up high enough that Carol's feet aren't touching the ground and Emma will swing her on it. Carol just laughs and laughs! (It's an extra-wide door opening, don't worry!)

- Emma has gotten in the habit of getting a doll or two after we have put her in bed (sigh....) and places them on the floor with a small pillow. She then gets a blanket or two (or three or four....sigh again) and makes sure to cover them up to tuck them in. I've even gone in and her horse and Clifford that are longer than her are sometimes tucked in their own little floor pallet. Well, last night after both had fallen asleep, I went to check on them. Emma had two dolls on their pallets in the floor, all covered up. When I checked on Carol, I saw that Emma had climbed up the crib and covered her sister with a blanket, being careful not to cover up her head. She had tucked in her sweet sister, too!

I can't wait to see what the next years bring about!!!

This one is a little dark, but Emma wanted to feed Carol her bottle before school this morning: 

Reading in the bathtub!