Argh

Amelia adores her big brother. Big, puffy clouds of love. She happily spends entire days just following in his wake, trying to get near to him. When she gets close, she kisses, hugs and pats him all over. Not gently either. She has been known to leave marks behind with her pinchy little fingers and scratches with her pointy fingernails (and no, it doesn't matter how often I cut/file them. They are always pointy). And she squeals. A high pitched, headache inducing squeal of overwhelming happiness. This isn't the problem.

The problem is William plays and forgets that she is there. So, as she approaches, he elbows her in the face. Or drives a backhoe into her nose. Or tips over a tower of blocks upon her pretty head. Tears come fast, hot, furious. I rush in to assess the damage by scooping her up. Which results in tears of anger from our adorable Amelia. Not mad at her brother. No. She is mad that I have taken her away from her brother. Either he is put in time out when I feel like he knew what he was doing and did it anyway (he pushed her down) or I am simply examining her for injuries and reassuring William.

It doesn't matter if he has caused her pain just seconds before, all is immediately forgiven and all she wants is to be back at his side. Just after pushing Amelia down for what felt like the tenth time of the day, William was again in his room serving what felt like the tenth time out of the day. And for the tenth time, Amelia was crawling like a madwoman down the hallway to his room. To find her big brother. Because his door doesn't latch all the time. When she pushes on the door it will open sometimes and allows her to be back with her big brother.


It is tough on both sides. The adoration has to be tiring. William is just a three year old, impulsive boy. Sometimes a boy just needs to drive his truck or read his book without the grabby little sister waiting to tear out the pages of your favorite book or destroy the lego creation you worked so hard to build. And yet, all Amelia wants is a little love from her beloved older brother. I think the solution to this is going to be balance. Somehow. No one said this parent stuff was easy, did they?