Sibling Love (and War)

Every month Lucas is getting bigger, more independent and, to Elise, more fun. It is an absolute joy to watch the two of them playing together, something they do more and more often these days. Their favorite joint activity (for the moment) is Dance Party. Yes, almost every night our living room magically transforms into a discotheque and our kids laugh and laugh as they boogie down together. Both kids absolutely love to dance (see previous post) and there is nothing more enjoyable than watching them get down.

They also love to play hide and seek, as well as any chasing/tag game. Of course Lucas still doesn't really get the concept of real hide and seek, so it's more like hide your face behind something (glorified peek-a-boo) but both of the kids think that it's hilarious. Often times, it is just simply running from room to room following each other which proves to be the most fun for them because they run and giggle and fall down and get up for more giggling and running and falling.

Of course it's not all sunshine and rainbows between these two and that is also becoming more apparent. Lucas is less and less interested in just going with the flow of whatever Elise is doing - which creates lots of drama when Elise is trying to drag him in the direction he doesn't want to go or force him to do something he doesn't want to do. And unfortunately this is a nearly constant occurrence, as she tends to be rather bossy (perhaps a better way to put is managerial?). On the flip side, Elise is also less and less interested in Lucas playing certain things with her (like Little People or My Little Ponies) because he usually just wants to throw things while she likes things to be very orderly.

The scariest thing about this is that Lucas, at 15 months, is already recognizing how much it upsets Elise when he messes up her perfectly set up toys and finds it hilarious to get a rise out of her (and it always gets a dramatic reaction). He very deliberately wanders over to where she is playing, and then stares right at her with a smirk on his face as he messes up her system. I have a feeling that this is only going to get worse as they both get older and perfect the art of annoying one another.

Last weekend, Elise and I went out of town for a few days, leaving the boys at home. When Marty and Lucas met us at the train station upon our return, the pure joy and excitement both children showed at seeing one another again was just awesome. No matter how much they annoy one another, hopefully they will always love and miss each other more.