Last August I wrote a post about siblings. When Dominic was growing inside me I worried about Scarlett, about how she would react to her brother, whether we would be one of those families with the stories about the older sibling hiding their baby siblings, grabbing at straws for attention. I worried that she would start having uncontrollable emotional outbursts. I worried about jealousy, about making time, about sleeping patterns, about needs not being met. I worried that they wouldn't like each other. But the second that the two of them met each other and I saw the smile beaming from Scarlett's face I knew that we would be okay, that Scarlett would love her brother almost more than I would.
They had an immediate connection. Scarlett was the first one to make him smile and the only one that can make him laugh. I could spend hours watching Scarlett in my rear view mirror making faces and sticking out her tongue while little hiccups of laughter ring from the rear facing seat behind me.
Scarlett puts up with her brother pulling her hair, and Dominic smiles through Scarlett being in his face 24/7. Yet, the rivalry for attention is a battle constantly fought. The new brother smell has long past worn off and been replaced with the stench of "I want attention now". Scarlett loves her brother but has recently been needing a lot more mothering. Between moving into an RV, moving into my parents house and spending the last two weekends stuck in a brand new home with no toys and parents who are painting ALL DAY they are both surviving. But just barely. Tensions between the two are thick, Dominic is loosing sleep from cutting teeth and trying to nap through the incessant background noise of a wall sander and Scarlett is confused by all of the moving and constant babysitting rotations. Both kids have been such troopers through this whole moving process and deserve some pretty giant pats on the back.
But what has been really heart warming is watching these two separate personalities grow closer through this process. They have both taken the chaos and loved each other even deeper. Scarlett really truly LOVES Dominic and has grown in her big sister role. This is the one part of her life in the past two months that has been unchanging and she has clung to her sister status and embraced it fully. She has a servants heart and would give anything to make her brother smile. Again I just look at them and smile, feeling blessed beyond words. These two tiny people, growing, laughing, sharing. Together. What was I worried about?
