Big Brother, Little Sister

We've told Christian that he's special because he gets to be a little brother and a big brother.  For four years he was the baby of the family, and when Eliana came along things changed for him in so many ways.  He's done really well, and is a very loving brother.  He loves, loves, loves to make her laugh and excels at it. 

Today I happened to catch the two of them in several sweet sibling moments and couldn't resist the photo opportunities. 

Eliana always seems to want what is on Christian's plate; it could be the same thing on my plate or even on her tray, but she only wants it from his plate.  This happened twice with a veggie dog (I gave her very little pieces of it-do you think I'm going to deny this child food when she eats about three different kinds?), and with an egg/sausage casserole, which she wouldn't touch when I gave her some on her tray with a fork.  So, this afternoon, she climbed up into Christian's chair and took over his crusts. 

"I'm not too sure, but I think I'll try it..."

"Crunchy..."

"You can have that back." 

"Well, I'll try it again..."

"Not too bad for crust."  "She can have it!"

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Later in the day, Eliana had climbed into another chair (she does that a lot these days) and was looking at a book at a little table set up in the kids' room.  Christian sat down with her and began talking about the book and reading it to her (his reading, by the way, is improving every day; he is so excited to read new books all by himself, and to others as well).  This was precious to see.

I took the above picture on the wrong setting, but loved the expressions so much that I made it black and white and hung on to it.  I think it's sweeter than a sugar-coated caramel apple. 

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Eliana pretty much thinks that he is hilarious whatever he is doing, and loves to watch him.  They were playing with the ball popper tonight, and Christian thought it was so funny to watch her get her hair blown by the air that comes out of the top.  Then they were busy experimenting with different objects to see if they, too, would pop out of the top.  They were having so much fun!

Then Christian decided to take the thing apart; he might be an engineer...

Their final "game" was doctor.  Christian was checking out Eliana's reflexes.  I don't know how her knee bone was, but her funny bone got tickled for sure.

What a sweet pair.  Sigh.