It’s late on Friday night, we’ve just finished putting together a last-minute order that is needed by tomorrow and I realised I didn’t have a blog written or much of a plan. So as I sat here, I started to think back on the past few months. It’s been a kind of hectic few months. Life is generally fairly busy in our household but add some floods and some COVID cases around us, it meant the kids were home more than they normally would be. While it did mean things were busier, messier, and much noisier at home. It also meant we had more time to watch our kids together. And as I sit back and think about this, I realise how far they have come.

When Lincoln found out he was going to be a big brother 3 or so years ago, one of the things he was most excited about was being able to play with his new siblings. I remember going to the shops with him multiple times and he would always want to buy toys for the new babies and I would have to explain that the hard iron man toys would not be suitable for them right away. When the babies were born, Alexander was in the NICU and Special Care Unit for 5 weeks and Hope was there for 10 weeks. It meant he didn’t get to see them much during that time so the anticipation for playtime just built up.

When I bought Alexander and then Hope home for the first time, Lincoln couldn’t wait to give them cuddles and play with them. As we all know, it can be difficult to play with a newborn baby but that didn’t stop him. No matter how little the twins could do, Lincoln always wanted to do what he could to join in. When the twins were laying under their activity centres, he would join them and encourage them to kick or hit the toys and he’d press buttons to get the music to play. When Alexander started sitting, Lincoln would roll the ball and encourage him to roll it back. And as the twins have grown and developed, Lincoln has been right there beside them excited to be able to do more and more with them. Sometimes I watch Lincoln and Alexander play and just sit back and smile. They come up with their own characters and games. They’ll run around being pirates or power rangers, they catch pokemon together or pretend they’re spies. and it really is just a joy to watch (well, it is until the fighting starts).

I may be biased but when it comes to being a big brother, I think Lincoln is one of the best. It’s been a little different for him with Hope though. Alexander has been up and running around with Lincoln for more than a year now, but Hope has obviously developed slower. It’s meant that Lincoln has had to adjust how he plays with her. He has to think about what he can do with her and I am so proud of what he does. He knows that she is unable to run after him, so he’ll get down on the floor and crawl with her, and race with her. He knows she can’t talk with him but she loves songs so he’ll sit with her and sing songs with her while they do the actions together. He’ll hide and play peek a boo, build blocks and blow bubbles with her. He’s always trying to make her laugh. He has learned that Hope needs a little extra assistance with things, he knows that her muscles are not as strong as Alexander’s and what I love is that this doesn’t mean that he hasn’t stopped wanting to play with her. He has continued doing what he can when he can. And even more than that, he wants to help Hope learn and he wants to help her grow stronger.

We are spending time every day at the moment trying to get Hope on her feet walking. Over the past week, Lincoln has jumped in to help. He will sit opposite me and encourage Hope to walk over to him. Then when she’s near him, he’ll encourage her to walk back to me. It’s just such a beautiful thing to watch him with her. Hope will go sit on his lap, and Lincoln just thinks it’s the best thing ever, even though he says she’s squishing him. The love that they have for one another is just amazing. Hope can’t express it verbally, but that makes no difference to Lincoln. He knows.

There’s probably a lot more I could say about the love and the bond between all the kids, but perhaps I’ll write a little more on that another time.