It's obvious that Ellie has a special place in Angel's life. Her face lights up when she sees her big sister. They giggle and laugh at jokes that only they understand. Playtime is the most fun when they are together. Their happiest moments are when they're holding each other and rolling all over their cushion and pillow mountains and castles or splashing around in their baby pool or throwing their soft toys at each other, laughing, gurgling and more laughing.
The other night as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Ellie did the sweetest thing for her baby sister who was already asleep - she pulled out the sheets from the closet, picked out her favorite glow-in-the-dark sheet and covered AngelicA with it carefully. It was one of the many little things that Elle does for her sister each day but I couldn't help feeling all fuzzy about what she had just done - parting with one of her favorite things is a big deal for a 3 year old, right?
But with Elle, it's different. She behaves like she is the mommy around her little sister. She's the one who runs to Angel when she wakes up in the morning and shouts out a cheery "Good morning sunshine." She's the one who rushes to get the tissues to wipe Angel's nose when she has a cold, tries to read to her, wipes her tears when she cries and comforts Angel when she hurts herself. She feeds her, tries to bathe her and even helps to clean her up though we insist that some of the chores are exclusively mommy's or daddy's.
Elle and Angel are usually inseparable. Elle even tags along for Angel's physiotherapy sessions and visits to the doctors. It helps sometimes, the two end up playing and Angel hardly notices what the therapist or doctor is doing to her. Even the therapists agree that we get more done when the two girls are together.
There are times, though, when Angel's visits to the doctors or therapists don't go very well; like when we need to draw a blood sample for her routine blood tests, or when the physiotherapist makes her walk and she doesn't want to. Those are the times when Angel bursts into tears and her little body quivers as she sobs and it is at those moments that Elle's love for her sister becomes most apparent. Her eyes become wide with fear and I can see she is torn between consoling her sister and crying herself.
Elle doesn't know yet that Angel is a little different from her though once in a while she says that her sister looks like "summ'un else." I sometimes wonder how it will go - this whole business of telling her about Down Syndrome, I wonder how she will take it, what she will make of it.
I've been reading up on siblings of kids with Down Syndrome and I came across some interesting stories (find them here and here) and some useful articles (find them here and here) and a video at the end of this post all of which are quite encouraging. And I am hopeful that as Elle grows she will see she hasn't been shortchanged by fate; that life is beautiful, even with its warts. And that when you have the love of an Angel, you might need little else.
Thanks for reading,
JD
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