Siblings

These two cannot get enough of each other.  I have 3 older stepbrothers, but they didn't join our family until I was around 10 years old.  So I don't really know what it is like to have an older brother-younger sister relationship. 

From watching these two, I think it must be pretty special.

Sienna's first word (before even "Mama" or "Dada") was "Brae."   The first word that comes out of her mouth when she wakes up each morning is "Brae," as she's looking around the house for him. 

When she spots him, her face lights up like a Christmas tree.  And his does, too.  Then they race (or in her case, crawl) toward each other, laughing and embracing. 

It absolutely melts my heart. 

They hold hands in the car.  When he leaves the room, she cries.  When she's taking a bath, he has to take one too, even if he's already taken one.  He feeds her.  He sings to her before bed.  She carries the clothes he's worn that day around with her. 

Quite frankly, it's a sibling love affair. 

And they don't share a single gene between them.  Because, well, it just doesn't matter to them. 

***

A couple cute Brae stories:

1) Brae has been in a Spanish immersion daycare/school since he was 13 weeks old.  He's now over 3.5 years old.  The boy speaks Spanish.  My skin-is-whiter-than-snow boy speaks Spanish.  We went to the park this weekend, and he saw a younger boy playing by himself.  He overheard him speaking Spanish to his mother.  Brae approached him near the teeter totter and said, "Esta caliente, no?," pointing to the teeter totter seat (It's hot, isn't it?).  The boy nodded, and then looked to his mother, her mouth gaped open.  I was so proud.

2) Brae is obsessed with basketball.  Yup, still.  He's not content with our 8-foot basketball hoop in the driveway.  He wants to go to the regulation-level basketball hoop down the street.  He'll be there, pj's and barefoot, until the sun sets or until Dad drags him back into the house, kicking and screaming.  This weekend, I took him to his basketball camp (normally Tygh takes him).  As I sat on the bleachers, another mom came up to me and sat next to me.  "You may not know this," she says, "but your son is quite advanced with basketball."  No kidding.