Tuesday 14 January 2014

Siblings: So Happy Together

When Stuart and I made (hopeful) plans for our family, we discussed aiming for a 4 year gap between children.

There were many reasons why:
  • having an older child to 'help' with the baby
  • 4+yrs were likely to mean less jealousy between siblings
  • It was hoped the older child would be at school when the younger one came (in reality, Millie came a year before Callum started school as he is a September baby).
  • less likely for sibling rivalry and fighting
and many more. I assumed the downside to the longer gap would be our children would be less likely to play together.

We were very lucky and feel blessed that mother nature (and maybe an angel or two) deemed us fit to grant us our wishes with two children born just 2 weeks short of 4 years apart.

As we hoped, the 4 year gap has proved perfect for us. The best thing is Callum is so caring with Millie. He really looks after her. If I need to pop to the kitchen to cook while they are playing in the lounge, he'll look after her. If I ask him to fetch something for her, he will. He 'reads' books to her. He talks to her so sweetly too.

However, I was wrong about Callum and Millie not playing together. Obviously, Millie at nearly 17 months doesn't fully understand playing with someone else yet but Callum will build her towers and 'help' her with her toys. Of course he often gets cross with her and doesn't want her playing with his toys on occasion but if I suggest to him he let her play with one of his power ranges, for example, while he plays with the others, he will.

I love watching how they interact with one another and taking opportunity to snap photos of them together. Which is why I couldn't wait to take part in the Siblings linky, being hosted by Lucy over at Dear Beautiful, and others who you can see on her blog. The idea is to capture a photo of your children together once a month and share it with everyone.

This is my two. I walked into the play room the other morning to see this scene - Callum was trying to help Millie with her hair clip.


I'm now looking forward to looking at everyone else's photos.



dear beautiful

3 comments:

  1. Oh he sounds like such a lovely caring big brother; it's a gorgeous picture of the two of them together!

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  2. Oh look at them, so cute together. It definitely seems like the 4 year age gap is working out perfectly for you. x

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