Siblings

I am an only child. My idea of siblings came from idolizing my cousins when we were all playing together and watching TV shows like Little House in the Prairie and Full House. I thought for sure that if I had a little sister I would have taken care of her just like DJ did with Michelle and we would have had matching outfits {complete with awesome hair bows}and tea parties together. This reality quickly was dashed when Gene and I were married and became a blended family and both J and S would play the "She's touching me"..."No, I'm Not"; "Shes looking at me"...."No, I'm Not" game {you know this game too???} But that was short lived and now these two are like two peas in a pod. Seriously, they are each-others best friends.

Fourth of July 2004...what cuties!

Showing off their matching blue Niagara Falls Jackets! 

 Well, I sometimes wonder if N had the same dream like thoughts about siblings as I did. You see, N came into our family being an only child. He does not have any siblings but what he did have was 20 and then later 50+ children twenty four hours a day, seven days a week surrounding him in the orphanages.  He knew how to interact with others but he had no idea how to be a sibling. Life in an orphanage had taught N to rely on himself and to fight for his needs to be met.I don't know if he wanted to have brothers and sisters or what his idea of them was. {Maybe he too wanted a sister like DJ too}

(This should have been our first sign) 

What that did mean though is that he came to our home ready to fight for anything and everything. He did not understand what sharing was. Because he had not had any toys he wanted everything. He is really into fairness and equality. Our youngest daughter K is seven years younger than the older two. She too had not really had to share all that much and was use to having all the toys to herself as she has gotten older. This made life very hard in the beginning. N's natural instinct was to grab anything he wanted because he may never get the chance again. That meant, even if it was a bubble gum wrapper, he wanted it and he wanted it then. If someone got in his way, so sorry for them. We had lots of tears and frustration on both the Little's parts as far as sharing and taking turns. But slowly, we are making strides. We role played and prompted over and over and used the same statements time and time again to help the kids adjust. We used timers and practiced constantly. If they threw a fit, we would re-do and try it again. This was not with out tears and yelling {many times on my part} but, we started to see a change.

Our first short and sweet few minutes of dreamlike introduction...

 Are we there yet, looking like a modern Little House on the Prairie? Absolutely not- we still have arguments and are using that consequences jar I told you about in the last post- thank you Courtney!  But, we are getting there. Now N and K can play outside together with out me having to intervene and regulate. They can build a tower of Lego's together and are even starting to read books together! In fact, they get along so well sometimes they have started pulling one-overs on us. I foresee some mischievous years ahead!  

{Insert amazing sibling pictures I have taken the past 4 months that

 disappeared with my phone-alas, these will have to do... }