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.