Sibling Nonrivalry

This endearing little comment was overheard while Princess was holding Baby Brother and feeding him a bottle:

Baby Brother: (prize winning grin; milk dribbles down his chin)
Princess: Baby Brother, you make our family precious. Precious and disgusting.

This one statement, in a nutshell, is how Princess feels about her baby brother.




Early on in their sibling relationship, and still sometimes to this day, Princess will get inches from Baby's face and scream, "STOP CRYING!," (you can imagine how well that goes over). She has also dropped him on the floor recently (it was an accident, she assured us). To hear Princess call Baby disgusting is Princess being 100% honest. This boy world is so foreign to her, but I want to tell her, just wait until he gets older—not only will he be more disgusting, but he will have the ability to fight back when she screams in his face. So, on the one hand, they've had their struggles. But on the other hand, she is tickled pink when she makes him smile and laugh and has admitted to me, "Baby Brother's so cute, mom!" So, I hope that Princess feels like Baby is more precious than he is disgusting.




And likewise, if Baby Brother could talk, he’d probably say the same thing about Princess: “I love her, but boy, can she scare and upset me.” Baby Brother loves his big sister, even though he does unintentionally antagonize her with his crying, accidentally pulling her hair, or having stinky diapers. When she comes home from preschool, he looks in her direction and smiles when she gets in his face and says "hi little buddy!" He watches her when she plays and adores the times she plays with him. Even when Princess does things to Baby Brother that I don't think he would like, (such as the aforementioned screaming in his face, or pulling on his arms to the extent I fear they will come out of the sockets), sometimes he surprises us and smiles and even laughs at Princess's antics. When Princess gets up close and personal, and oftentimes loud, with Baby Brother, he just smiles his happy boy smile like he's figured her out: that she can sometimes come on a little strong, and he loves her all the more for it.

It's so fun to watch these little people I've created interact with each other. I want them to love each other and take care of each other. I think they do. So far, so good, in this like/dislike relationship. It’s sometimes hard to tell which one is prevailing, from Princess's point of view, like or dislike, but I think for now, it’s a good sign that even though Baby Brother can be disgusting by Princess's standards, I'm glad that she has discovered that he is precious too.