It’s that time of the month again where I share some cutie pictures of m lovely little brother and sister having fun togther. I originally thought I would use a couple of pics from our recent holiday in Dorset but then I caught a moment of sibling loveliness I have to share. They were moving around so much that my even my lovely shiny new phone (after loving it when I reviewed it recently, I have got myself a Samsung Galaxy S6) couldn’t keep them in focus as I snapped away, but you get the idea.
They were sat on the sofa together a few days ago and I was right there to make sure LM didn’t fall off as she is a fidget pants. She adores her brother and just wants to clamber all over him, and play with whatever he has, but she is not gentle and ends up pulling his hair and squishing and scratching him. Monkey takes it pretty well really but does got annoyed with it too, so I moved her away.
Then immediately he starts shouting “can we do it again? can we do it again?” A little confused I asked what he wanted to do again and he replied with “climbing and pulling my hair.”
A little baffled I confirmed that he wanted his sister to climb over him again and pull his hair again. “yup.” So I left them to it and just loved watching the giggles and chuckles from both of them. Just a real moment of sibling love, one minute getting annoyed with each the next loving having a tonne of fun together.
Love these two loonies 🙂
Siblings July 2015
Another month has gone by so time for another siblings update 🙂 LM is getting bigger and more interactive by the day so her and Monkey are having more and more fun together. He loves ‘playing together’ and is generally very good even if she is having a bad morning which disturbs whatever activity he and I had planned.
It’s not all sweetness and light though as there is definitely some jealousy appearing in Monkey too. Nothing major or horrible but he is definitely a bit jealous of the attention his baby sister gets from us and relatives sometimes. Not surprising really as he has had everyone’s undivided attention for the last 3 years but now she is winning people over with her big eyes and sunny smiles!
Her biggest smiles are still reserved for her big brother though so here’s a few shots taken over the last month of our gorgeous pair having fun together.
I just feel so lucky to be their Mummy. It feels so soppy to say that but I look at them playing together, or just alongside each other and my heart melts. Then one of them starts whining or throws a wobbly and normal service resumes once more 😉
Making Music together – 8mths and 3yrs old
I love it when my two siblings play together. Most of the time they don’t, the play alongside each other or Monkey plays while LM watches adoringly or let’s face it, gets in the way! Pulling up train tracks to chew, pulling her big brother’s hair, crashing into him in the walker. Babies and toddlers are rarely on the same page when it comes to playing. But, just occasionally, they are. Usually because Monkey decides he wants in on whatever it is that LM is up to!
That is what happened recently. LM was in a bit of a grump and to give us a moments peace (?? probably not the best word as you will see) I set her up with a good old fashioned activity. Making “music” with cake tins, wooden spoons and some jangly spoons. She loved it, and as soon as Monkey saw/her what she was up to he just had to join in!
Such a simple easy activity, that took very little involvement from me, but kept them both happy for ages! Evn if it was seriously noisy!!
Shared Bathtime & Silliness, Siblings June 2015
With Little Miss getting older and more fun by the day her relationship with her big brother is really growing. She is now so stable when sitting up which has made a huge amount of difference – especially at bathtime! Sharing bathtime is just one of those childhood experiences isn’t it? Who doesn’t have photos of them with brothers and sisters sharing a bath? It is definitely something we were keen to start with our little siblings now that LM is reaching an age where they can have some fun together.
Sometimes they play seperately but LM just gazes at her brother in adoration the whole time.
She also loves splashing like mad (which gets both them and us soaking wet) and then looking to her brother for approval, which is just so cute!
I am looking forward to lots more bathtime fun with the two of them over the next few years!
There’s lots of other fun times now that LM is more and more engaging and is desperate to interact with her brother. Sometimes they play nicely and he will share his toys “Here you go” but other times he is less happy to share – which I think is pretty inevitable!
And just for silliness, I love this little sequence of photos. Sat together on the sofa, Monkey is trying to drink his milk but LM decides she wants it… as of course she wants whatever her big brother has. On this occasion he took it in good humour, but I am sure this will cause arguments in the future lol!
How have your siblings been getting on this month?
Siblings May 2015
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.
Siblings April 2015
It’s that time of the month again where we have a look at some shots of our cutie siblings and see how they are getting on with each other! Little Miss still worships her big brother and looks at him with pure adoration which melts my heart. As she is growing and getting more responsive, Monkey has started to pay a bit more attention to her, and there have been some gorgeous moments between them this last month.
One day when she was feeding, Monkey decided to come and sit with us and play on the tablet. Of course this was far too distracting for LM who wanted to see what her big brother was up to. Initially I was frustrated but they had such a lovely moment that the frustration didn’t last for long. The shots aren’t great as she is on my lap but you get the idea of what a cute moment it was!
A few days later, when LM was on the floor, Monkey had to lie down with her and give her a cuddle (so cute though it did look like he was crushing her slightly!).
She was astounded by the fact that Percy was flying through the air so he let her have a look at him.
Then he held her hand and said Oh I love Percy and (LM) and (Monkey). He said their real names of course but it was so cute and I love that he said he loves himself too 🙂
I love my children so much. We’ve had another tough month with poorliness and I hope we are coming out the other side now as I so enjoy seeing them happy and interacting with each other. It melts my heart every time!
Siblings March 2015
LM is now 4 months old and for the most part she and Monkey sort of co-exist without really interacting much. For her part she still stares at him as much she can but he is a little whirlwind and ball of energy flying past, barely pausing to give her the occasional smile.
But there are the odd moments of magic which I try and capture. They are fleeting so the photos are not the best but it is nice to capture them nonetheless.
The moment where I sat them side by side on the sofa and one of her hands tickled him prompting a fit of giggles from him while she merely looked perplexed.
The moment where she was propped on the sofa and he ran over to take her hand and tell her she is his best friend (yes my heart melted!) and give her tummy a tickle.
The moment he decided he wanted the phone she was looking at, but (after a little conversation about sharing toys) decided she was allowed to play with his Percy train.
The times he wants to see what she is up to on her playmat and lies down alongside her.
The moment where he ‘helped’ her play with the toys on the jumperoo, and said “Well done” when she turned it herself.
The moment when we were sat taking family selfies on the bed, where he kissed her, cuddled her, told her she was his best friend…then started patting her on the head saying “it’s a drum!” (Massively cute moment that ended with Mummy in a fit of giggles!)
The last few weeks have been tricky with a lot of illness and chicken pox and I have struggled at times to meet both of their needs with the added complications of poorliness. But we have survived and I am grateful to have my lovely happy children back and I look forward to seeing them grow together, and catching more of these lovely moments :).
Siblings February
I am loving watching our two little’uns grow together, and joining in with the Siblings Linky really makes me stop and notice their relationship. At the end of January I wasn’t sure whether I would have much to join in with this month. Monkey seemed content to ignore his little sister for the most part and any display of affection was far too fleeting to capture. He loves her, he talks about her all the time and names the 4 of us and regularly talks about how we are a family. When naming characters he sees in books he always a finds a little one that can be called LM , but he didn’t seem that bothered with her.
Then he seemed to see that she is growing and changing. We have his old jumperoo down which fascinates him by itself (yes he has tried to get in it, no that is not happening :)!) and he loves it when she is in it. She isn’t overly excited by it yet I have to admit but he legs it over to her whenever she is in it, to show her all of the toys “look a sun, look a rainbow.” He insists on squeezing behind it, next to the wall and crouching down to her level where he sits grinning at her and stroking her, or rather tickling her “tickle, tickle!”
LM has been a little bemused although as always she loves watching her big brother. Then a couple of days ago I hear a shout from Monkey “look it’s happy, it’s happy!” as LM was giving him a huge grin. Bless him, need to work on “she” I think rather than “it” but he was so pleased to see her smiling at him!
So here are some cutie shots of Monkey and LM starting to have fun together! (And yes, Monkey had a haircut in between some of these shots :))
Siblings January
Sometimes, during the difficult days with a small baby it is easy to feel guilty about the effect their arrival has on their older sibling. Monkey doesn’t get as much time and attention anymore, he has been snapped at and had two pretty tired and at times grumpy parents to deal with. It feels mean the way his world has changed. Then you look at the way he looks at his baby sister, and the way she looks at him and you remember why you did it.
She follows him around the room with her eyes all the time and I wonder if she will always be so in awe of her big brother (I imagine not!).
He still thinks she is “so cute” and always wants to wake her up (I am less happy about this) even when I try and explain that if she is asleep it means he and I can play together! He likes giving her toys to play with (not that she is old enough to appreciate them) and the other day when she was in the bathy came in and starting “giving” her loads of toys to play with, saying “here you go, here you go” – it was very cute though I was slightly concerned she was going to get bonked on the head. He is happy to include her in his games too, we were having a “picnic” the other night and he gave her a biscuit, though we did have to remind him to be gentle as he shoved it in her face!
He also likes holding her hand, which is lovely, he keeps naming the four of us and calling us a happy family, making the four of us all old hands around the breakfast table 🙂
He even came and held her hand while I was feeding her the other day, melted my heart!
He can be a bit heavy-handed with her as I am sure any toddler can but I have not seen any real jealousy aimed at her. He sometimes get cross if he wants my attention while feeding her but it’s not too terrible and now we are doing better with her naps and sleep we are a bit less tired and grumpy and he is getting some more quality 1 on 1 time with us. Life has changed so much in the last 2 1/2 months since she was born, and their relationship is constantly eveolving. When I think about how much more it will change over the course of the year, well, I am just so excited to witness it :).
Siblings December
Monkey is really growing to not only accept, but love his baby sister. He includes her whenever he talks about things as a family. When making cakes with Daddy recently he said “One a Mummy, One a Daddy, One a me, One a LM (he uses his actual name for her, not LM but just to avoid confusion).
He has gone from not wanting to look at her or have anything to do with her, to looking at her, and now to actively trying to engage with her. He gives her little cuddles and kisses. He holds her hand. He strokes her head and her arms. In the morning if she is asleep upstairs he asks where she is and wants to wake her up. He pretended to be Dr to her and gave her some “medicine” probably because he sees we are always giving her medicine (infacol, gaviscon, colic calm).
