Sisters

I don’t have a sister. Sisters-in-law aren’t the same. I’ve got three of those. I love them each in different ways but they’re still not my SISTERS, you know?

I can already see the sisterly bond forming between Helen and Alice and it makes me all wistful every time I get a glimpse. They have something that I’ve never had the chance to experience. Then again, I’ve got two older brothers — something they’re not lucky enough to have. So I guess we all win, huh?

Today, Helen wanted to take a nap in Alice’s room. Fine, but Alice’s naps always begin with a chorus of screaming as she protests this interruption to her business. Alice’s naps are also on the short side — just over an hour. Helen is a light sleeper during the daytime, so I knew that these issues would present a problem. However, Helen took a 3.5 hour nap yesterday. So I figured that if she doesn’t get much of a nap today, it’s not really that big of a deal.

So. I went and got Helen’s Blue’s Clues sleeping bag and her CD player and brought them into Alice’s room. Helen wanted the sleeping bag in the room and laid out, but she didn’t want to get IN the sleeping bag. She’s cuddled up under a fleece blanket, just to the side of the crib.

The first try failed — Helen came out to get me because Alice was crying. “Can you get her to sleep?” Helen had tried to appease Alice by throwing things into the crib: shoes, toys, blankets, clothes, whatever she could reach. I pulled Alice out and nursed her and rocked her (until Alice bit me, which is the latest thing that she has discovered — OUCH), and then put her back into the crib. Rather than leave again, I stayed in the room in the rocking chair, covered Helen with the blanket, and kept telling Alice to “Shhhh.” And I had to tell Helen that if she got up one more time the slumber party was over and she had to go back to her room for her nap.

When I left, Alice was still standing up in her crib, crying, but she was slowing down. And Helen was still snuggled down under the cloud blanket on the floor.

Now it’s quiet. Two sisters, sleeping side by side, for the first of many times, I’m sure.

Hair pulling and screaming is in our future, I know. But for the moment, I just love that my two little angels like each other so much. I wish them that.