Siblings Are Good*

It's good to have a sibling. Julie does not have one, but has long suspected that it is good to have a sibling precisely because she does not, and always wished she did. It's true that they seem to be exasperating now and again, but it is also true that they seem to be pretty fabulous more often than not.

Joe seems to be taken with his little sister. Who else would scream with him and at him before drifting off to sleep? We here at Joe and Clara Jane think we can all agree that's a pretty small group. And then there's this hilarious game: telling Clara, "No, I say it!" which prompts her to repeat, "No, I say it!", which prompts Joe to repeat the same, and so on, ad infinitum, or until one or the other is laughing too hard to continue saying anything at all.

Clara, for her part, is clearly taken with her big brother. She is usually rousted form the bath before Joe, who then lingers for a bit, so she arrives for bedtime stories on the couch in advance of him. Last night, she sought out her Bright Baby First Words book, which opens with a picture of a girl "like Clara," and a boy, "like Joe." Clara pulled it down off the shelf, opened right to that page, and said "Clara and Joe, Clara and Joe, Clara and Joe." Joe took rather a long time getting into his pajamas last night, and eventually, Birdie broke down in tears until Julie hit upon a jumble of words that Clara understood and thus found soothing: Joe is coming. Clara and Julie repeated "Joe is coming" like a mantra to see us through the difficult and fraught minutes until Joe appeared in his pajamas.

Clara and Joe, Joe and Clara.

[Post-post addition: Here is something else that a sibling will do: climb out of bed and pick up a small bear your sister has tossed on the floor twice, and which your mother had said she would not be picking up off of the floor again and which, moreover, your mother has said will not be joining your sister in slumberland tomorrow night given that there are already seven furry friends in her crib and thus barely any room for her, and that goes for you, too, apparently, since you've added Kitty to your menagerie tonight, and your undressing Kitty was what caused Clara to take off her socks and not be able to get them back on, in addition to wanting (another) "bear."]

*Incidentally, today is National Sibling Day. Did you know, Fans?