Warms My Heart

Every once in a while, your kids do something that makes you think, "maybe I'm not totally messing them up."  Last week, we had one of those moments.  Ella was sitting on the floor watching cartoons when Aidan got home from school.  He plopped down in the chair and entered his cartoon-induced stupor.  Ella crawled up beside him and said, "I missed you bubba.  Did you miss me?"  Aidan smiled and said, "yes."  Ella snuggled up to him and said, "I love you bubba."  I just about choked on the lump in my throat.  Usually, they are typical siblings...they know which buttons to push and they push them over and over, the only toys they want to play with are the ones the other one has...that kind of thing...so when they have a moment like this, it really warms my heart.  When I was pregnant with Ella, I feared they wouldn't be close, being 5 years apart in age and different genders.  But, they are thick as thieves most of the time, a fact I am most grateful for, except when they team up against me!  There is something indescribably precious about seeing two people you love so desperately loving each other.

Ella adores Aidan.  And Aidan pretends like he hates that...but I know he secretly loves it.  Sometimes during the day, at completely random times, Ella will say to me, "Aidan's my brother.  I love him." (sometimes she gets confused and says "sister"...Aidan says that's because his hair is getting so long). Whenever she does something that she thinks is particularly funny, she says, "I'm funny, just like Aidan."  Of course, she also calls him a "stinky boy."

 Aidan is a little too cool for all this mushiness, but sometimes when I catch him doing something nice for her, he'll shrug and say, "well, she is my sister."  I fear for Ella's dating possibilities, since she will have a large, over-protective big brother.  No one is allowed to say or do anything mean to Ella when Aidan's around.  More than once, I've over heard him saying, "hey, that's my sister!"  Aidan also takes it upon himself to make sure I am fair to Ella.  He almost came unglued when he mistakenly thought I wasn't going to allow Ella to go to a friend's birthday party.  Apparently, he reserves the sole right to drive his sister crazy.  No one else is allowed.  I am so glad they have each other (except when Aidan is annoying his sister in the back seat of the car and Ella is screaming, "NO!!" so shrilly that I worry the windows will shatter).  Even though they invest great amounts of time and energy into driving each other crazy, when they have a moment like the one last week, I know they will be such a blessing to each others' lives.  I pray that they will always be close.