The Scott Family Blog: Sisterly love

The girls have been so sweet lately. The last few days they've both napped pretty well and so they wake up about the same time. This has also happened in the morning. Usually Amelia wakes up a little before Ella and she'll play for a little bit before she gets upset. Then Ella will wake up and start talking to her and Amelia calms down. The next thing I know, they're making each other giggle from their cribs. So sweet.

One day Amelia woke up much earlier than Ella. When Ella woke up and I got her out of bed, she pointed to Amelia's crib and said, "Ayiya." (She likes to remind me to get Amelia up too.) So I explained that Amelia wasn't in her crib and she had been up for a while but we still walked over and looked into the empty crib. Then I picked Ella up and we started down the stairs. The whole way down, Ella was calling, "Ayiya! Where are you? Ayiya!" When we got to the bottom and she saw Amelia sitting on the floor, she pointed and said, "Look! Ayiya!" In the couple days since that incident, Ella now says, "Amia."

Ella also shares with Amelia now. I think originally part of the reason was that she had figured out that if she gives Amelia toys, Amelia doesn't try to take her toys. Very clever. She discovered this is also true with food so she usually gives Amelia part of what she's eating or her sippy cup so Amelia doesn't take the entire plate. Most of the time we try to keep this a bit safer by giving Amelia a handful of Cheerios when we give Ella a snack. They're soft enough she can gum them and she absolutely loves that she gets "real" food like Ella. We also bought her a transition bottle that has a soft sippy cup nipple so she can have her own sippy cup too. She likes to fling Cheerios across the coffee table at Amelia and say, "Here you go."

Yet another day Amelia toppled over and hit her head on the floor. This happens a lot since she's cruising and trying to stand on her own. Most of the time she's fine, just a little upset. On this particular day, she fell and started to cry. As I was getting up and asking, "Are you okay?" Ella turned around and shrieked, "Awe you awight?! Awe you awight?!" She was so concerned. The whole thing was very sweet.

Back when Amelia was born, Ella ignored her. We'd try to take pictures of Amelia sitting between Ella's legs leaning back against her and Ella would try to shove her away. I knew this would get better in time and was relieved she was not trying to hurt Amelia. Eventually she would acknowledge Amelia and started giving her "kisses" before bed when we asked her to. Then Amelia started moving around on her own and Ella would climb onto the couch to avoid Amelia and her toy-stealing ways. In the last week or so they've started to play together at times and Ella seems to actually like Amelia and isn't just tolerating her. Since they're only 17 months apart, we hoped they would eventually become friends. I know they will still fight, but it's nice to see that bond starting to form.