Every morning Madison climbs into this old chair that lost it’s slipcover to a baby disaster and is now leaking fluff and she reads a book. Her favorite book is this one, Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy, but Tickle Tickle (by Helen Oxenbury) is a close second.

She does this because this is what her brother does. Sometimes if he beats her to this chair, (which is rare because she gets up as soon as the sun does and he tends to sleep until at least 8am) she’ll climb up, too, and crowd him out with her big, board books. If she’s lucky, he’ll give in and read to her.

For awhile, I was hanging over Noah and barking at him every time he was less than kind to the baby.

“Stop pushing her! She didn’t mean to hit you — she’s just a baby! Give her that toy back!” But then one day I watched them grappling over something (probably she seized the chance to steal one of his forbidden robots) and saw him — yes, less than gentle but holding in his strength and saw her standing with her feet apart, mouth open roaring and realized that she didn’t need my help.

I guess I had it in my head that Noah looked like a short grown-up to her but as I see her go toe to toe with him, I understand that she knows he’s a kid and she can handle it. But also that conflict is part of their deal.

I have a younger brother and an older sister. I know from siblinghood but the age range between these two threw me. I was expecting Noah to be more mature and her to be more helpless. Now that I’m out of the way more, it turns out that it’s easier for them to get along, too.

These are some of the games they play.

Godzilla vs. King Kong

Noah is Godzilla and Madison is King Kong. Noah builds a block city and then unleashes the baby. Sometimes he takes digital shots of their destruction so that afterwards he can tell me the whole story start to finish.

Bodyslam Disaster

Noah lies comfortably on the floor reading a book. Madison trundles over and flops on him. She repeats until she gets the desired reaction — namely a brother who will wrestle with her.

Escape with Brother’s Toys

Madison stares at Noah until he notices that she’s about to grab something important to him — a book, a toy, his food. Once she has his attention she races off. He goes screaming after her. Repeat until mommy’s head explodes.

This is a good age range. It has a lot of advantages and few disadvantages. True, sometimes I feel schizophrenic trying to care for two distinct generations but I would say that the good outweighs the bad. Here’s my list of good:

–No worries that Madison is hogging all of the laptime leaving Noah bereft;

–Handy son to help carry baby paraphernalia;

–Handy son to fetch and carry diapers, wipes, bottles, etc.;

–Large child finds small child adorable, adding to his tolerance.

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