Our Little Beastie Blog: Siblings Living And Not

Everett and Imogen are at a ridiculously adorable stage. There's no over-selling it, they are the cutest. It seems every day they start doing something else to relate to each other. It's heart-melting and often hilarious too.

Rough and Tough Construction Play - Feb 2019

A few of the frequent activities at our house these days:

Everett asking Imogen for a hug
Imogen giving out hugs to everyone upon request
Both of them checking on each other when they cry (sometimes at our request, sometimes not)
Tackling and giggling
Having conversations with each other
Imogen getting out or putting away Everett's shoes for him
Everett decreeing what Imogen wants (Immy wants to walk!)
Mimicking
Imogen wanting to play with whatever Everett is into
Everett often doing a good job sharing
Imogen trying to do Everett's chores
Everett then insisting that she should get chore stickers too

Sometimes we feel like we're writing the same things over and over. Everett is becoming a little kid and comprehending at a much higher level, Imogen is learning tons of new things every day, and it feels wrong that Oberon isn't here.

When Oberon was at home in hospice care, we sometimes talked about the future. Through the tears we talked about how he was making us better parents, and that we were going to give him siblings. Now that our living children interact so much, it's hitting us hard that we've kept that promise. At least the siblings part.

We have no idea how our living children will relate to the one who died as they continue to grow up. Surely there will be times when they are frustrated and feel overshadowed, other times they will be sad and feeling that life isn't fair, and probably they will have phases of aloofness and irritation (if not worse).

Reading that paragraph, it could almost exactly apply to Everett and Imogen's relationship with each other. They will also go through a variety of sibling phases - frustration, feeling overshadowed, sadness, aloofness, irritation (if not worse). Our hope for them is the good phases outpace the bad, and they have a bond that continues throughout adulthood. Our hope for their relationship with Oberon is similar - that the good associations outpace the bad and that they develop an understanding of the preciousness of life and the endurance of family.

For now, we're loving every adorable moment between these two amazing kids, and missing every moment they won't get to share with their big brother, Oberon.