Sibling Love.

I was five when my brother was born, we have a similar age gap to that of Lilian and Ember and I can remember thinking a sibling was the best thing ever.

While I would have loved a sister, it wasn't of great concern to 5 year old me that there would be a boy in the house. You can dress baby boys up too and pretend they're your dolly. I wasn't going to discriminate.

I can't really remember my feelings towards my newborn brother but I do remember March of that year being super snowy and my grandad having to clear the path outside of my grandparents house with a shovel. I also remember absolutely loving having a six month old brother because that was the perfect age for pretending he was my toy.

I went on to have three more siblings, all girls, but I guess the novelty had worn off at that point because by then I was seven years old and most probably had the shitty pre-teen attitude to match and was way more interested in pogs or whatever else seven year olds were into that year (glitter jelly sandals probs). Anyway, I love them all equally and dearly but I will always have that special 'first sibling' bond with my brother, he was the best dolly EVER.

Giving Lil a brother or sister was always going to be nerve wracking. She's a very head strong, bossy sass bag and I did wonder how she'd cope with not being the centre of my world. But she has taken to Ember wonderfully and vice versa. I really didn't expect to see such a bond between them so early on but straight away something magical happened. At first I could only see the love Lilian has for her sister but now Ember is awake for the majority of the day (nap lover she is not) she looks for her when she's at school and once she's home, beams with so much love. 

This evening, I ran myself a bath. Ember was in her bouncer and Lil was on the floor 'doing' my hair (read: ripping it out). If Lil wasn't looking at her, paying her attention of any kind, she got humpy and started shouting. But as soon as Lil started talking to her she was all smiles. I climbed into the bath wondering when the day would come I'd get to bathe in peace (sometime around my 40th birthday I reckon) and left the girls to their devices. Lil proceeded to take down my make up bag and tell Ember all about its contents (this comes from watching too many 'Inside Out' make up tutorials on YouTube) and it was the most wonderful thing to watch. The love in Ember's eyes, how gentle her big sister was being... There was no shoving a mascara wand in her face, just pure gentleness (and one or two ruined lipsticks because you don't need to be gentle with those). It's definitely at the top of my 'heart-bursting moments' list.

I know there'll be times when they both forget how to be gentle and will be screaming at one another because "she STOLE my lego" or "she used the last of MY mascara" but for now I'm going to enjoy this love between them and dream of a peaceful bath time.