Grace had her first day of first grade last week. Her second top tooth fell out just in time. After all, everyone knows that first graders should not have their two front teeth.
We also just passed the fourth anniversary of Josiah coming home to us, and the day after that, the first anniversary of Lily coming home to us. And as I sit here watching them, I think about how far we’ve come since that day last August.
The war between Josiah and Lily has come to a peaceable end. Of course, there are still battles–there always will be, but Josiah has not slammed the door in Lily’s face or done any kind of bodily harm to her for at least 8 months now. Now….Grace did tell me the other day that Josiah peed on the trampoline and then tried to get Lily to step in it….but we’ll just chalk that up to being a four-year-old boy instead of evil hatred. (But yes, he did get consequences all the same.)
It is now 9:00 am, and Josiah and Lily have been playing together for the past two hours and there has been no screaming. That would have never happened a year ago. They are both dressed in Spiderman costumes and playing with legos. Yesterday, they were both Jedi knights. It’s kind of funny, actually, since Lily is quite the girly-girl who loves her dolls and dishes. But since Josiah is her playmate most of the time, she has become quite adept with a light saber. And I just heard her mutter something about The Dark Side.
When he is not trying to make her step in pee, Josiah now takes his role as big brother quite seriously. It has been a long, long road of discipline and discussions to get him to this point, and just as much work to get Lily to stop screaming. It took months of telling them, “You are best friends!” before they finally starting acting like it.
I think the worst is over. Sigh of relief.
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