Just a few days after Sam and I returned from Nova Scotia, Tracey, Carter and Anabel took their (longer) turn, enjoying 10 awesome days out there. With our staggered vacation schedule, the kids spent just 3 days in 21 together. We've come nowhere near that kind of separation since their births. Now Sam’s such an in-the-moment child that he made it most of the way through the full week in child care before saying anything about it. Then, two days before their return, he mentioned that he really wanted to show Carter and Anabel his alien craft, pausing just a second before adding “I miss my cousins.”
What struck me as especially sweet was that Sam factored Anabel in as an equal. Just like that, it seems, she’s stepped over a nearly imperceptible line. No longer an add-on baby cousin whose more an extension of Tracey than a real playmate, she’s become someone Sam can converse with about little three-eyed aliens named Ripper who are floating in a specimen jar filled with green water on the kitchen windowsill.
Of course, it’s been happening by degrees. As soon as she was barely capable of speech and stair climbing, Anabel was making her cheery way up to the boys’ rooms in the wake of their thundering excitement calling, “Don’t worry boys! I’m coming!” Back then, they barely registered her arrival, and any attention paid came in the form of steering her away from their pirate forts and towards something she might be happy taking downstairs with her. Alone. “ANA-BEL, NO!” we’d sometimes hear, just prior to a door being slammed and a rejected little girl bursting into tears. It’s tough being the baby sister, especially when it’s two against one.
But in the last couple of months, Anabel has become more sure on her feet and more articulate: she’s playing ball and hide-and-seek, and she can follow the pirate plot enough to act out some of Sam’s favourite books. “Let’s go to Sleepy Island!” is a common refrain right now as she angles in on the sailing adventure. It helps that she and Sam have had several solo playdates while Carter is out with his dad. The two of them get along like a house on fire, Anabel thrilled with Sam’s undivided attention and enthusiastic willingness to keep the game fun for her. So smitten with him is she that she’s been known to say that “Sammy is my best friend ebber-ebber-ebber!” We dubbed the happy pair "Sam-a-bel" on Sunday.
Add in summer playstructures and splash pads, where Anabel is just about as comfortable as the boys are, and the age gap between them is becoming less noticeable as the season wears on. These days, it's not so much "the boys and Anabel" as it is "the kids." At this pace, she'll be calling the shots next summer and Sam'n'Carter won't mind at all. Though there is some talk of a "No girls allowed" sign on the treehouse.
What struck me as especially sweet was that Sam factored Anabel in as an equal. Just like that, it seems, she’s stepped over a nearly imperceptible line. No longer an add-on baby cousin whose more an extension of Tracey than a real playmate, she’s become someone Sam can converse with about little three-eyed aliens named Ripper who are floating in a specimen jar filled with green water on the kitchen windowsill.
Of course, it’s been happening by degrees. As soon as she was barely capable of speech and stair climbing, Anabel was making her cheery way up to the boys’ rooms in the wake of their thundering excitement calling, “Don’t worry boys! I’m coming!” Back then, they barely registered her arrival, and any attention paid came in the form of steering her away from their pirate forts and towards something she might be happy taking downstairs with her. Alone. “ANA-BEL, NO!” we’d sometimes hear, just prior to a door being slammed and a rejected little girl bursting into tears. It’s tough being the baby sister, especially when it’s two against one.
But in the last couple of months, Anabel has become more sure on her feet and more articulate: she’s playing ball and hide-and-seek, and she can follow the pirate plot enough to act out some of Sam’s favourite books. “Let’s go to Sleepy Island!” is a common refrain right now as she angles in on the sailing adventure. It helps that she and Sam have had several solo playdates while Carter is out with his dad. The two of them get along like a house on fire, Anabel thrilled with Sam’s undivided attention and enthusiastic willingness to keep the game fun for her. So smitten with him is she that she’s been known to say that “Sammy is my best friend ebber-ebber-ebber!” We dubbed the happy pair "Sam-a-bel" on Sunday.
Add in summer playstructures and splash pads, where Anabel is just about as comfortable as the boys are, and the age gap between them is becoming less noticeable as the season wears on. These days, it's not so much "the boys and Anabel" as it is "the kids." At this pace, she'll be calling the shots next summer and Sam'n'Carter won't mind at all. Though there is some talk of a "No girls allowed" sign on the treehouse.
Hmmm. We'll see about that.
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