Siblings – March 2021

This month’s photos were inspired by Sophie dressing up as Alice in Wonderland for World Book Day. I had so much fun playing around with Photoshop to send her down the rabbit hole into Wonderland; I couldn’t resist dressing Thomas up too and adding Jessica into the photos. The photos of Jessica were taken while out on a walk a few years ago; the girls had both dressed up in their dress-up clothes and were enjoying a little imaginative play. Jessica dressed as Little Red Riding Hood fits in nicely with Sophie as Alice and Thomas as Peter Pan.

 

 

I’ll never get photos of my three children together in reality. However, being able to create them in this way helps give me a little glimpse into life as it might have been. It’s harder to create the photos these days now that Sophie is older than Jessica ever was. It’s important for me though to include her in at least a couple of sibling photos each month. Thomas might never know his biggest sister in life but he does recognise her in photos. I want him to grow up knowing who Jessica is; how much she loved him before he was born and what a lovely big sister she was.

 

I often get little glimpses of Jessica in the way Sophie interacts with Thomas – in her gentleness with him, and in the love that they share. I love that they have such a strong bond with each other – just like my girls had. Of course, there are moments when they aren’t quite so lovely together! Thomas can be an annoying little brother at times as he does like to tickle Sophie or climb on her and thinks it’s a game when Sophie tells him to get off! There are also moments when Sophie wants to play with something that Thomas is playing with and he gets annoyed with her because he doesn’t want to share! Just the normal everyday ups and downs of sibling life.

 

 

Thomas (2 years 7 months)

• Loves playing with his Numberblocks-themed Mathlink cubes.
• Is enjoying getting out for walks with Mummy while Sophie is at school.
• Loves trying to join in when Mummy is playing the piano and singing along with what he is playing. It doesn’t tend to go very well with what Mummy is playing but it makes him happy.
• Is a bit of a pickle and has been getting into lots of mischief lately. The other week he worked out how to open the roller-shutter cupboard in the kitchen, emptied an entire bottle of groundnut oil all over himself and the floor then proceeded to walk through the house leaving oily footprints behind him to say hello to Daddy who was midway through a Teams meeting. That was fun to clear up!

 

Sophie (7 years 4 months)

• Is enjoying being back at school with her friends.
• Loves doing crafts and drawing pictures. She’s getting very good at doing crafts with minimal adult help now.
• Was really pleased that her drawing of ‘The Paper Dolls’ book cover won the Best Book Cover prize in her school for World Book Day.
• Made a beautiful card for Mummy for Mother’s Day and a craft stick ‘wand’ decorated with coloured wool. I love that she always writes cards from both her siblings too.

 

 

Jessica (forever 6 years 7 months)

• The little situs doll named ‘Jessica Charlotte’ that we donated towards for Tiny Tickers in memory of our beautiful big girl has now been sent to the Isle of Man to help sonographers with scanning babies’ hearts and improve early detection.
• Visited me in my dreams and was the age she would be now (9 years 6 months). She looked more grown up and when she hugged me in my dream, I noticed how much taller she was. Her head was just under my chin, which would make her a head taller than Sophie is now.
• Sophie chose ‘Jessica has a heart operation’ as her favourite book for her Girls’ Brigade Zoom session because “my mummy wrote it and it has my sister in it”. Meant a lot that she chose that particular book.