Violet & Pearl – Siblings December 2018

It was totally intentional that we chose to give Violet and Pearl a small age gap. Even though we knew having two-under-two would be incredibly hard work, but we wanted to have siblings that would be close in age so that one day we hope they’ll be not only sisters but best friends too. I’m sure they’ll bicker and quarrel like all siblings do but hopefully when it comes down to it, they’ll be very close and have each others love and support for life. That’s the plan anyway! With only 17 months between them and although it seems like they are so different at the moment, I’m sure the age gap will feel less and less as time goes by.

So, this is my first post of many documenting the journey of Violet and Pearl as siblings as part of The Siblings Project. I’ll hopefully be joining in with the project monthly to document their journey together, how they are getting along and interacting and a space to document all the sweet, funny and special moments for our girls – I can’t wait to watch them grow up together!

When Pearl came along Violet was pretty jealous – she pinched her during their first meet at the hospital (it never pans out to be the picture perfect moment does it!) then tried to throw a dog ball at her head during her first couple of weeks so we thought we would be in for a bumpy ride. After all, it must have been a bit shock for someone so little! But Violet was so good – within a couple of weeks she had settled into her new routine as a big sister and I’m sure now she can’t remember a time Pearl wasn’t around.During the first 3 months of Pearl’s life Violet became obsessed with dolls and babies and would copy everything I did with Pearl – walking around everywhere with a baby, washing her babies head, changing her nappy, feeding her with a bottle of milk. It was so sweet to see her watching how we cared for Pearl and copying. She is such a caring soul.

A s Pearl turned 4 months she has become so much more aware of her surroundings and more interactive. I think this has been a big turning point for Violet and she’s realised Pearl is different to her baby dolls, she is no longer a baby but growing into a little person who Violet now wants to play with – all the time! Since Pearl has been grasping at toys, Violet’s started to offer her things to hold onto, showing her toys, books, bells, rattles (sometimes a bit too enthusiastically). Violet takes Pearl by the hand to dance and thinks she is great during crafting time to decorate with stickers, bits of tissue paper and pipe cleaners too.

Violet has her jealous moments about Pearl and the difficulty lies when I’m doing an activity with Violet and Pearl cries which detracts my attention from Violet. This is a sure fire way to end the activity promptly and have a screaming fit instead. If I see this coming I try and get Violet to help me deal with Pearl, by saying ‘Violet can you hold Pearl’s bottle’ or getting her to bring nappies/wipes – this seems to help her feel a bit more included but it doesn’t always pan out that way.

Even though Violet is jealous of her sister, she’s also incredibly proud of her.  I didn’t realise this until I took Pearl into Violet’s nursery where she run straight to greet Pearl, not me! She then pointed at her sister, showing her to all her friends, who were all crowding along the car seat – she was holding them back as if to say ‘this is MY sister’. You could see she was loving being a proud big sister and showing Pearl off to her little friends, stroking her face and waving ‘hiya’ over and over.

I really enjoyed writing this post about the sisters journey so far – looking forward to documenting their journey over the following months and years to come!