It's mostly because I felt bad for Teyla. She's four years younger than Connor, and six years younger than Natalie. I didn't want her to be the dangling modifier of our family sentence, the leftover child who didn't have a built-in friend.
I felt bad that she wouldn't have a sibling close in age. I felt bad that she wouldn't be able to play games with the older kids or keep up with their antics or be invested in their day-to-day lives.
Turns out, I needn't have worried.
Maybe it's because she's Teyla, able to leap 20 developmental milestones in a single bound, but this two-year-old fully believes she's five. She not only keeps up with her older siblings, she often leads the pack.
She adores attention from Natalie, especially when Natalie reads to her. And she and Connor are identical twins separated by four years. They run around like wild banshees and go on safaris and shoot the bad guys and jump off the couch and irritate the heck out of each other.
(Often, when Teyla falls down, she'll shriek out, "No! No-no Connor!" Even though Connor is at school. Because clearly, he was involved if she's upset or in pain.)
Watching my kids learn to be sibling-friends makes those hard moments of parenting so worth it.
Oh so worth it.
(And for the record, I'm OK with being wrong about Teyla "needing" a sibling close in age. Because adding one more child to the mix only grows the friendship potential exponentially.)
Yes, and as they get older, that fourth will be needed for Teyla. She'll have someone to play little kid games with as the others are hitting their teens.
ReplyDeleteAnd really, the more kids, the more love there is to go around!
The top picture is my favorite!! All the pictures are so cute, too. You are giving them all a gift in having siblings, whether they get along or butt heads. They will become adults who have learned so much from those sibling relationships...again, whether they got along or butted heads. And no, I don't believe that proximity in age necessitates friendship, based on my own and other people I know's life experiences...but again, you never know...what you DO know is that there was a person missing from your family, and now, he is about to fill that spot, and then there won't be any more empty spots in your family. What a great feeling! ;-)
ReplyDeleteAwww, that is beyond sweet!
ReplyDeleteCute pictures ! Can't wait to meet the new little one!
ReplyDeleteI love the last two pictures. Natalie and Connor were so little! :)
ReplyDeleteOh those pictures are just so precious. You can see the fondness for each other in their faces.
ReplyDeleteAnd Teyla sounds just like Dani. Keeping up with the older kids--no matter what it takes!
this is so, so sweet. my three aren't that far apart in age, but still it surprised me how driven the littlest is to be part of the pack. just tonight I was cracking up watching him trying to rough-house with his big brothers. They really are peas in a pod.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're making me feel a little better about waiting a few more years before we decide whether we'll have a fourth. That even if we do, and that baby is 4 or 5 years younger than the youngest of my current three, that no one's ruling out the sibling-friendships that form despite age difference. So thank you for that. :)
elizabeth
Congratulations on your fourth!!!! I think kiddos are great and make life much more fun.
ReplyDeleteLindsey Petersen
Whatever. It's because you can't bear to experience the next 3 years without diapers. ;)
ReplyDeleteI am 2 years older than my brother. He expertly taught me how to climb trees, burp on command, and race matchbox cars, which are all still valuable skills if you consider I'm about to mother a boy. But then he broke the head off my favorite Barbie. So we had a few strained years until, say, college before we could truly make amends. Hee.
Seeing my kids love each other and be good friends to each other is one of the greatest joys of my life.
ReplyDeleteGrowing the friendship factor--definitely one of the blessings of 4 children! I love watching my boys (all 4 of them) grow into close friends and buddies, even (if not more so) as teenagers!
ReplyDelete