Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (and Onesies, and Dresses...)

I have a sister who's two years younger than I am, which means that every time she bemoans how "old" she's getting and how she's "almost thirty," I have to resist the urge to bop her upside her gorgeous head. Other than that, though, our relationship as adults is pretty conflict-free. Our relationship as kids...that's another story. I bossed her around; she copied me. I tattled on her; she messed with my stuff. We taped a line down the middle of the tiny bedroom we shared, and then fought over whether one of us could cross it to leave the room or get into the closet. Our mom once forced us to hold hands for an entire day, thinking we'd learn to get along through submersion therapy. It didn't work.

She and I are still two very different people. Her skin is tattooed and pierced; mine's slathered in SPF 70. She drives--wait, drove (R.I.P. Mustang Sally!)--sports cars; I drive sedans. She makes friends and tries new things easily; I prefer to stick to who and what I know. We are, however, eternally bonded by the horrific hairstyles Mom inflicted upon us as children, and that shared trauma has allowed us to develop a loving relationship despite our differences. (Kidding, Mom!) (Kind of.)

Now that Bear and I have two girls of our own, I wonder what their relationship will be like as they grow up together. For now, though, it's going better than I could ever have hoped. Keira seems to have accepted, virtually without complaint, that requests for chocolate milk may be met with a 10-minute wait if I'm nursing the baby, and that the words, "Quiet voice--Ellie's sleeping!" are a recurring part of every day. She declares several times a day, "I love my little Ellian-oh!" and gives her (usually) gentle hugs and kisses all the time. It melts me.

Our new morning routine is for me to bring Elliana into our bed to nurse when she wakes up, and then Keira comes plodding in with Blankie in tow not long afterward. Here they are, snuggled up together:


Keira adores feeding Ellie, and takes the job very seriously:

Here's a video of her in action--she's actually really good at it, which sometimes allows Bear and me to relax and eat our dinner while Keira feeds Ellie. What a concept!


Most of the time, she willingly shares her toys (and rediscovers an interest in previously-abandoned ones once we bust them out for Ellie):

Now that Ellie sits up well independently, we've started giving them baths together. They have a BLAST:

Is it always this idyllic? Of course not. Last night, I stacked up some blocks in front of Ellie, and Keira came over and kicked them down...and in doing so, kicked Ellie square in the face. Ellie pulls Keira's hair and tries to chew on Blankie without permission (which is, surprisingly, sometimes granted!). I feel like I tell Keira, "Not right now, I'm [insert baby-related task here]" a billion times some days, and figure one of these days, she's bound to get annoyed. But overall, they're off to a great start, and as Ellie grows into the clothes, toys, and stages that Keira has outgrown, it's fun to see their similarities and differences already emerging.

One thing the girls definitely have in common is that my sister loves them like they're her own, and they both love her right back...as do I!