The past few weeks have been full of celebrations for our siblings as we celebrated Ethan’s seventh birthday. I wondered how Little E would react this year to Ethan having presents to open but she was fine. I must admit I did get her a little gift to open and she also had her very own balloon. She also really enjoyed Ethan’s soft play party and wore both herself and Darren out running around everywhere.
The birthday celebrations ended with a trip to Logoland Windsor this weekend which is where I captured this months siblings photos.
With Little E being that much older and taller she was able to experience more rides this time. We did stick to the tamer rides which meant we got to enjoy everything as a family of four.
After having a few calmer months with Ethan’s big brother antics the past few weeks has seen Ethan start his annoying behaviors again. He is snatching items off of Little E which causes her great upset. Ethan loves the reaction he gets when he does this and she is still to young to understand. We are having days of this constant battle and as Ethan doesn’t understand the concept of the naughty step we haven’t found anything that stops it. Little E can also have her moments where she can annoy her big brother. I really hope that in time this battle will be something they can work out between themselves.
Ethan has also made a game of shutting them both in the downstairs toilet. Little E thinks this is great fun! We on the other hand find it very annoying so have to work out ways to stop this game in its tracks. Locking the bathroom door from the outside doesn’t help as Ethan worked out this trick years ago.
In their sibling relationship Little E has taken a main role in showing Ethan the ropes in certain situations. It has helped his development greatly at times but this month Ethan was able to help Little E overcome a hurdle in her next developmental milestone. When we decided it was time for Little E to move into a toddler bed Ethan was there to show her that the duvet wasn’t something to be scared of. It was lovely to see Ethan take this role in their relationship for a very quick moment in time.
At the moment we are in a place in their relationship where they are developmentally very similar. They have the same interests and enjoy the same things. We feel their communication is on par with each other but Little E clearly has more words and understanding than her brother. On the good days they are building a great bond with each other but it won’t be long before Little E is over taking Ethan developmentally. I’m hoping that with her age a greater understanding of her brother and how his mind works will also appear. I really hope that this will keep their sibling bond strong.
