the best of friends

Elias and Isla are quickly becoming the best of friends! Although Elias has always been great in his interactions with Isla now that she is mobile he is finding that she is a fun playmate. They love to play with their toys together, but Elias still has some trouble sharing.Elias' new favorite thing to do with his "sister baby" is to share his bath! Elias always makes sure they each have a rubber duckie to play with.

At nearly 9 months old Isla can now sit stably enough to take a bath with her brother. They both love this special time together and conspire to cry and throw fits when it is time to be finished. Every time I tell Elias it is time to take a bath he adamantly informs me that "Isla wants to come too!" He is so adamant, in fact, he even went so far as to carry her from the living room into the bathroom when he thought I was going to put him in alone.
Elias loves his role as a big brother and takes it very seriously. He wants to help me do everything for the baby which includes washing her hair, giving her a bottle, and feeding her baby food. If I am busy and Isla is fussing all I have to do is ask Elias to go take care of his sister and he gladly runs to her and consoles her by saying, "It's okay, Aya! Peanut, stop crying. It's too louder. Hi baby! Hi baby! Hi baby!" If she continues he will be sure to run to me and say, "Mommy, Aya wants you" and he will pester me until I pick her up.

Elias also has a habit of waking us up in the morning by coming into our room and telling us that "my sister baby" and sometimes "my brother" is awake. He then says "you get up. Go get Aya. Aya awake. You get up right now." It is really sweet how much he cares about Isla. Often when we are packing up to go somewhere Elias lets us know that "Aya wants to come too." If we are watching t.v. at night he will just randomly ask "Where's Aya?" Since she goes to bed a couple hours before him the answer is usually "sleeping." Most of the time he believes us but every now and then he has to go into her room to check and make sure she is really in her crib.These two really have a great time together. They get a kick out of making one another laugh and nap time has become somewhat of a challenge because Isla will stand up in her crib and "talk" to Elias. He will then get out of bed and go over to her crib to talk to her, throw toys in for her, and play with her. It's really cute but frustrating after an hour or so. I have learned I cannot put them both in their room awake and expect anything but loads of giggles and playing.

Best Friends!