There is a lot of big changes going on here at the moment, both at home and on the blog, but one thing I really want to maintain is my monthly updates on our two siblings. I love seeing their relationship grow and change as they themselves grow and change and this is just such a lovely way to record that for the future.

LM adores Monkey  and wants to be near him all the time. At the moment one of the way she shows her love (to anyone) is by grabbing faces and heads, so she is constantly trying to grab Monkey’s hair, ears, feet, anything she can get her hand on. In the bath last night she got so excited that they were sharing the bath together that she ran over, grabbed his ears and fell on his head! She thought it was hilarious and he was less than impressed.

Monkey gets so annoyed shouting “get off” and “keep away from me” and I have to explain why he can’t push her away and why he has to be a bit gentle. He’s also playing up quite a bit at the moment in general which I think is jealousy. LM is growing and getting more active and interesting, meaning she is taking more of our attention. She is coming on leaps and bounds and is walking more and more so obviously we are giving her a lot of praise too. As a result we have noticed Monkey seeking attention by being more defiant and pushing our buttons. Which makes life very difficult at times. He is also regressing a little and wants help to eat and dress and put his shoes on and it is difficult to choose between just going with it for an easy(ish) life, or trying to make him do what we know he is capable of doing.

He loves his little sister too though. Just this morning when he came downstairs, I was in the kitchen and LM in the new room. I called out a good morning but he saw his sister, immediately shouted “let’s go see LM” ran into the new room and gave his sister a cuddle.  So cute!  He loves making her laugh, especially at bathy time and now she is toddling about a bit he keeps saying what a “big girl” she is. He hates when she cries and tells her to be quiet but also at times pulls faces and baby talks to her as he knows it makes her smile.

So I guess it is a pretty normal sibling relationship, driving each other crazy but loving each other fiercely too. Here are some lovely shots of the gorgeous pair plaing together from over the last month.

LM is growing more and more alert as the months go by, and her adoration for her big brother grows daily too, which is lovely… but frustrating at times as she gets so distracted by him at feeding times, twisting and turning to see him then grinning at him! (Apologies for the quality of some of these shots, the camera on my phone is terrible and they are often quick shots to capture the moment!)

Monkey is the only one who makes LM properly laugh. She will grace Daddy and I with lovely smiles and the odd chuckle, but it is Monkey who really makes her laugh, either by being silly on purpose to entertain her, or by just being himself. She adores visiting him in the bath and on this occasion was laughing so hard at Monkey playing with his squirty toys!

As she is getting more alert we got out a lot of the old baby toys, which she loves, and we are entering a new phase for Monkey as of course he wants to play with whatever she is playing with. At the moment it doesn’t make huge amounts of difference to her as long as she has something to play with, but I suppose it is probably a sign of things to come.

LM also had her first outing sitting in the big buggy and her big brother enjoyed “showing” her how to play with the car toy we popped on for her to play with. Even though he hasn’t sat in the buggy in about 6 mths, he now wants to sit in it again, obviously because she is sitting in it. Oh the joys!

Monkey is really aware of how much LM is changing too and though he still refers to her as “he” (no matter how much we try and say “she”) he is amazed by what she is up to. “Look, he’s eating!” “Look, he’s happy!” “Look it’s his foot!” Which is very sweet 🙂

There is no doubt LM adores her big brother, and he loves her too, he melted my heart yesterday when he came up to her in the buggy and said “Oh I love you so much.” I know he is copying what I say to both of them but it is adorable. He freely gives her kisses and cuddles too and I try to catch them but often he is moving so fast that all I get is a shot of her and a blur of brown hair :).

I also just love seeing them like this, both chilling on the bed in the spare room,which is sort of our pre-bathy hangout where Monkey watches some storybots on the computer and LM either lies cooing and giggling, or here is sat playing with some toys.

I’m not really sure why but this photo really tugs on my heartstrings. Just a brother and sister sitting together but not really together.

I’ve been struggling a bit lately, balancing the needs of both of them with everything else, but I know it is worth it. I know that things will get easier and that my “reward” for all this hard work will be watching these two gorgeous kiddies grow.