Littles

I've been going through pictures from yesteryear.  And I can't remember what triggered it today ... but I got to thinking ... I don't have any pictures of David holding baby Julia.

Well that just couldn't be true so I had to go look.  I pretty much remember most of the photo sessions I've done (largely because one or two of them are printed and floating somewhere around my house). And a lot of times there's a picture that I didn't like at the time, that I'll go back and realize was actually really great at capturing that moment.  Their faces change so quickly.  I find - especially with D - that his infancy pictures I was always trying to get a big wide smile.  Well he just didn't do that.  I thought for the longest time that he wasn't smiling at me.  That he wasn't as happy a baby as G was.  But then I look back at baby pictures and there it is, his sly smile at 4 weeks old.

His personality is different, not his happiness level.

Anyway.  So I went back and looked.

And I didn't take one.  Not one with the good camera of him holding his sister.

I have vague memory (or maybe just justification at this point) of him not wanting to hold her.  She wiggled and cried and it upset him.  And he was / is an emotional 2yo.  He was the most disturbed by her crying and upsettedness.

I have a memory of trying to get a replicated picture of him with her (like I had of G with him) and him refusing.

Anyway.  That's what I'm telling myself as I am disappointed that I don't have a quality picture of him holding her when she was small.

But I do know it happened.  Because he's an affectionate guy and when he felt like it, he did want to hold her.  I just never happened to catch it with the big camera.

But I did find iPhone pictures of them.  And I've appropriately tagged them.

My littles have a different relationship than my bigs or G with J.  J has kind of hero worship, he can help me do stuff, kind of relationship with G.  D and G are best friends,

But D and J ... they are different.  They play together.  Sort of.  She demands toys and he gives in.  She wrecks his stuff and he sighs, and moves on to something else.  He has patience with her which is kind of astounding.

On a good day, obviously.  On bad days he just avoids her and pretends she doesn't exist.

And he makes her laugh.  I'll try to get it on camera someday.  But like yesterday in the bath tub he was playing with her and something about it tickled her funny bone and he just kept doing it and she was in stitches.

This was this morning.  She loves blowing raspberries on people.  She thinks it's hilarious.

Ugh.  My house.  How many socks can you count in this picture?  I will be glad for summer and it's sock free days.  If I have to tell one more child to pick up their socks I may lose all hope of mental stability.

I wish I had a "good" picture of D holding her.  With a pretty background.  But I'll settle for having captured those moments at all.

These two have a bonus year together, because of D's birthday and school cut-off dates.  I hope they grow to be very good friends and buddies.

I have the same hope for J's relationship with G, obviously.  I just know that due to their age difference their relationship will be different.  As it already is.

Coming soon.  Brothers. ;)