Sibling Rivalry

Duke informed me last night the wretched beast has reared it's head in our household. I am afraid I now need to make more deliberate, careful remarks to the girls, for fear they are keeping tally in their poor little heads. (Mommy said I'm good at this and you're good at that.) This is an apple of knowledge I was not ready for, and it is going to upset our little Eden, for sure.

Let me go back and point out some wonderful things about Francie, my precious four-year-old. Just like any firstborn, she constantly surprises us with things we can't believe she is grown enough to understand, accomplish or articulate. As soon as she could speak in full sentences, she was fully capable of empathy and awareness that you don't often see in one and a half year olds. Not long after that, my brother-in-law passed (I was pregnant at the time, also). The typical toddler would struggle in such a stressful and saddened environment, surely. But Francie was a spot of sunshine for everyone around us. I feel that her love and gentle sympathy really solidified into part of her psyche that summer. Without her I'm sure the hole in our hearts would not have healed as cleanly, as much as can be healed after losing someone so young and so close.

Francie is a very sensitive child, and has always been in tune to the world around her. She observes everything. She is an amazing artist, and although some of that is just god-given talent, I think some is from really watching everything that her eyes can see for four whole years. I describe her often as a daydreamer, but she is a special variety of daydreamer; she is so in-tune to the world, that she often has to just stop and think. You can look at her and see when she is taking it all in.

Last night she had one of these moments, and then turned to her Daddy, who was watching little sister do a puzzle. Jane is a speed-puzzler-- she puts them together as fast as she can so she can move to the next one. Jane was doing this and as Francie watched, she mentioned that yeah, the puzzle was only a hard one for two-year-olds, but NOT for big girls... Francie realized her sister had a unique talent. One she did not herself possess.

Oh Francie, I want to scoop you up in my arms and show you all the beauty and intelligence you DO possess!! because you are an amazing creature, a child with the innocence and heart you only see once in a blue moon! But as a young girl, abd a sensitive one at that, I fear your heart is going to be hurt, and you will not see the forest for the trees. Or perhaps you will, and you will paint it with the beauty that you express with such ease, you won't understand how amazing that talent actually is.

In defense of my second-born (Part 2)

Okay-- so to pick up where I left off...One thing I have gotten bad about these days is not going to bed, so I keep waking up with my finger on the touchpad of my laptop. I'm gonna click on some weird stuff one day...

Jane has had a rough go at it this year. And the year before this. And you know, it was kinda tough for her as a baby too-- She is quite a kid. Amazing. She started out with allergies (milk mostly, but everything else too). She also has frequent ear infections, and is on her third set of tubes. This last time, though, we took out the adenoids so we hope we have fixed that issue! She knocked her teeth up into her gums last summer also, so he had to have those pulled and replaced, and of course, since this is Jane, she broke those and will have to have it put back in. Uggh. Hey, break? Where you at? You mind cutting one for Jane?

She is many many things-- Drama Queen, Opinionated, Miss Prissy Pig Pen, Live Wire a total Firecracker. She is quite different from her sister. Francie is really easy-going and agreeable. She is usually described by people as a sweetheart, darling. As a young toddler, we fretted and worried and consulted all the manuals. The biggest problem her panic-prone parents had to worry about was the constant fluid in her ears one winter, leading to a set of tubes when she was learning to speak, and then a bad case of croup early one summer. But that was so easy, we had Jane. We could take anything, we thought. So when Jane came along everything was a big deal, and this time it wasn't just new-parent hypochondria, it was allergies, it was ear infections, RSV, torticollis, umm... what else? Teeth. Right. And what next? We will see.

But, it might seem difficult. No, maybe just trying. And it is. But everyone who has ever met Jane will tell you she is an amazing child! These two are quite a precocious pair. They are kind, helpful, beautiful, charming children. So despite the heartache we have had waiting in waiting rooms (the worst of all was her eye surgery the other day) we are happy. Tired, anxious, but really happy.

In defense of my second-born (Part 1)

Tomorrow is the day we've been waiting for!! Jane's last surgery (knock on wood). She is have surgery for strabismus and ambylopia, two eye conditions that lead to torticollis (head tilt) and one eye squints sometimes to compensate for her not having binocular vision like you and I have. Without being corrected, she would slowly lose sight in her less dominant eye. You want to know what we did 4 weeks ago? She had ear tubes and an adnoidectomy. Last October? Teeth pulled, new partial put in. Those teeth had been damaged when she fell in my shower.


Now it is actually the day of... I fell asleep typing this last night.
I will post more when I get home from surgery today.