Incredibly sweet, but crossing the line into creepy

Sibling relationships are always an interesting thing. As a parent you hope your children will have a good close relationship. Than's relationship to his sister is already a special one, and a bit strange.

Ryan and I always knew we wanted a second child. We hoped we would have another, but never knew if life or more specifically my health would cooperate. So it was something we never mentioned or discussed with Than. I didn't want him all excited for a sibling that might never happen. So imagine my surprise when suddenly he starts telling everyone he is going to be a big brother, that he was going to have a little sister. At the time I didn't think there was a chance I was pregnant, in fact I was supposed to start a round of fertility drugs soon to try to jump start my system into cooperating. I was trying to get him to stop telling people this, when I realized that he was right. I was in fact pregnant and it almost exactly timed out to when he started telling people. So already a little in the creepy category.

Now a key part of this was that he was adamant from the get go that he was going to have a little sister. Then early on (I was only about 8 weeks pregnant) Than turned to me one day and informed me, "My baby sister's name is Sonia." When I seemed confused he very slowly, very clearly, and very emphatically repeated, "My baby sister's name is Sonia." I tried several times to tell him that it could be a girl but it could be a boy, we didn't know yet. To which his response always was "it could be, but its not." He always said it with such utter confidence and conviction that we never even considered boys names. To add to the oddness of the whole thing we have never figured out where he got the name. He's never met a child name Sonia, its not a common name, and we can't trace it back to any book, movie or tv show he's even seen. Even his preschool teacher is completely stumped on this one. But he was obviously right.

Clearly their connection is a strong one. He adores his sister. I love to watch the way they react to each other. They both just light up when they see each other.

Than is so incredibly helpful. He delights in the big brother role. He loves getting things like diapers for you. Enjoys picking out which outfit she's going to wear (though his choices are sometimes "interesting"), and is so proud when he gets to help feed or change her. Which I've got say has made adding a second child to the mix so much easier than it could have been.

Thankfully we've had no jealousy issues. He may not be thrilled if we can't do something or get him something right away because we are busy with Sonia, he never gets upset about it. He is also incredibly protective of her. If she makes the slightest noise or cries even the tiniest bit he runs to her to check on her or comes running to demand you come in and take care of her.

I'm mostly writing this so one day when they are older and ready to strangle each other over something trivial that I can point to this and say, "See, you mean more to each other than anyone else can ever understand, and have right from the beginning."












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