Close like siblings

I have 2 elder brothers. When I was growing up, I would have given up my entire Barbie Doll collection and then some just so that I could have a sister. Someone who would be a co-conspirator rather than someone who teased me mercilessly. That never came into fruition. Thankfully, God did hear my child like prayers and granted me people who were like sisters. I had my now sister-in-law then big brother's girlfriend. She was great because she was the quintessential, cool elder sister who taught me about clothes and make-up and vetted my English (she was an English major then) and always passed me skin care and make-up freebies.

The other person who helped make up for the lack of a sister was a cousin on my mom's side. She is my Mom's youngest sister's daughter who is about 6 months older than I am. She was as good as an only child since her little sister only came along when we were about 12 years old. Anyway, because we were more or less the same age and our mothers were very close, we hung out together, a lot. And she was my co-conspirator. We talked about everything and nothing on the phone for hours. We called and hung up on dozens of boys, giggling and be very pleased with ourselves after that. We plotted and schemed and often drove my grandma nuts. We went on some vacations together. We took long train rides and cycled the East Coast Park from end to end. We stayed at one another's house during the school holidays and studied together during the term.

Till now, I am still very close to my two 'sisters'. All three of us are mothers and we have more in common now than we ever did. At the same time, we spend less time together because we have so much else to do. But some of our kids are the same age and when I look at them, I hope that they grow up as close as I did with their mothers. Someone said we couldn't force kids to like one another and play together. I guess we can't. Especially when the kids in question are hard-headed and stubborn like all 3 of mine. But I guess if they hung out together and did enough stuff together, they would then share enough common ground.

Evan and Jordan are about 9 months younger than Becca, my sister-in-law's youngest girl. Incidentally, the day we found out we were expecting the twins was the day Becca was born. So the connection began right from the start. They see each other every Sunday, baring illnesses and exams. I'm not sure how much they like one another right now but they now know how to acknowledge one another's presence and they do play together in the loosest of definitions.



Here is Becca trying to defend her right to blow out her birthday candles and my kids just blatantly ignoring the fact that we're hissing for them to let Becca blow out the candles as it is indeed her birthday. At the same time, Becca's long suffering brother face palms himself and buries his face in the couch trying to disassociate himself with all that was going on. All this, while not funny to them is heartwarming for us to watch.

I hope to be able to keep this video till they are old enough to laugh about it.

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