Brother Sister Love

I can only hope this stage of their lives will pass sooner rather than later, but I'm a little doubtful. John David and Julia love each other and sometimes I can clearly see it as they play together or ride peacefully in the car. BUT, most of the time, they act like (what I would assume) most brothers and sisters act like.

John David constantly does annoying boy things - scary faces, monster voices, teasing, chasing, tormenting, blah, blah, blah.

Julia constantly acts like a little squealy, four year old girl. John David can just look at her and she starts shrieking. (In her defense, he rarely just looks at her. He almost always does something or at least looks at her in a scary way.)

I've had a hard time finding the right way to handle all of the behavior. Boys will be boys and girls will be girls after all, right? More times than not, it's just good natured fun anyway. Like tonight.

Lately, Julia always says she has a song to sing to me at bedtime. Even though I'm always needing to tend to something (or someone) else, I try to always listen to at least one song. (Sometimes there are 3 or 4 songs she has composed.) The songs usually have the same theme - flowers, rainbows, sunshine, friends, cupcakes, and toys. Oh, to be a little girl again. Sigh.

Anyway, tonight was no exception - Julia had a song she wanted to sing to me. She began singing (and I began practicing patience since Joshua was crying for me),

"The flowers are red, the sky is blue. The sunshine is yellow, and the grass is green. The rainbow is so colorful and all the clouds are white......" (You get the picture.)

Julia was singing all of this from her bottom bunk. When John David caught on to the theme of her song, he hung his head way over from the top bunk until he was upside down beside her. That's when he began his own rendition of her song:

"The flowers are BLACK, the sky is BLACK. The sunshine is BLACK, and the grass is BLACK. The rainbow is so BLACK and GRAY!!!!! And all the clouds are BLACK......"

And of course it was all in a scary, monster voice. But then, I wouldn't expect anything less from this particular big brother.....