"You're S-s-mart!"

Ah... sibling love.  Isn't it beautiful?

From the moment Mater met Dorothy at the hospital, he has absolutely adored her.  I'll admit that when I was pregnant I wasn't sure how Mater would handle being a big brother.  I thought he would be very jealous, which would make everything more difficult for me to deal with.  The reason I thought he would be jealous of a baby brother or sister is because when my parent's or I would hold one of his cousins, he would get jealous and "need" to be held too, for all of five seconds.  

But, the little lady was born, and he has never been jealous of her, as far as I can tell.  I don't know if it's just his nature or if it has more to do with the fact that when we got home from the hospital with her, nothing changed with the relationship we had with him.  I still got on the floor and played with him, we still talked, we still read books, and I still smothered him in hugs and kisses.  (Of course, going back to PPD, I unfortunately cared more about Mater when we got home from the hospital than I did baby girl.)

The first time he held her, he held her for 15+ minutes, and the only reason he stopped was because it was time for him to let somebody else hold her.  When we got home from the hospital, he liked to help a lot (still does) with his baby sister.  He liked to hold and feed her.  He would watch me change her diaper, get a diaper for her, put bottles in the sink, etc. (this later fostered into him helping me with everything around the house).

Reading to baby sister

Now, he likes to read to and play tractors, trucks, and dinosaurs with his sister.  Just yesterday, he was sharing his BIG combine, present from Santa, with her.  He constantly hugs and kisses her.  He expresses what my sister and I call "angry love," which is hugging and kissing someone that you love SO MUCH that you shake when you do it.  My mom tells Mater how smart he is, so now he tells his sister while giving her a angry love kiss, "You're s-s-MART!"to for my

While I never have liked the thought of having kids less than 3 years apart in age, I have found some positive things about it; I've had to in order for me to heal.  One of those positive things is how close they are.