I was hesitant as to what sisterhood would look like in the Frazier Frontier. I feared that Novella would be jealous of the lack of one on one attention that she had known of the last 24 months. Would she act out, would she be mean, would she not want anything to do with her new baby sister? Instead quite the opposite, almost an extreme opposite. Some days Novella loves her sister TOO much. Now before you say, is there such a thing as too much love? Let me explain myself a little bit…Novella is a new to two year old. She is just learning about love and affection in ways that she can grasp, and by golly, she has embraced LOVE with her new baby sister. As my mother in law recently said after watching some videos of the two of them, “Novella is a little momma”.

She wants to hold her all the time, is constantly giving her hugs and kisses, before Aveline could roll, Novella would roll her back and forth (now we have to remind her that sister can roll by herself and she doesn’t need to help her). We originally set up the crib in the same room with the thought of them sharing a room. Then we realized that if Novella were to wake up in the middle of the night (which she still often does), that she might accidentally smother her sister in her sleep by wanting to put blankets on her, or crawl in and fall asleep on her…like we said, she loves her sister so much that it can be careless and scary sometimes. She wants to do and help with everything. Just yesterday Ryan and I walked into the living room and Aveline was wrapped up like a burrito in her blanket, her face was uncovered, so she was okay, but Novella was so proud that she had “swaddled” her sister. You would think that all of this love and affection would upset Aveline, but it is quite the opposite once again. If she is crying and Novella gives her some of her special big sister attention, more often than not she will settle and coo. It truly is an amazing bond to watch grow and develop.

Now that Aveline is rolling, and lifting her head up and grabbing hold of things, Novella wants to give her toys and help her with them, they will lie on their bellies facing one another and just “talk” with one another. Novella runs up and gives Aveline hugs and kisses and tells her that she is her best friend. When she wakes up from a nap, she exclaims with excitement, “Avie awake!” if she is in her crib, Novella wants nothing more than to climb up on the bottom rung and look at her, and will ask me to lift her up to give her a kiss. My prayer for my girls is that this relationship and bond that is growing and developing never ceases and continues to grow and be strong. That they really will be best friends and have a closeness that no one can quite understand except for them. That they will grow up to know Christ and serve him together, that no sort of bitterness, resentment, or jealousy will ever come between them. That they will always know they can count on one another to LOVE one another TOO much!! I cannot wait to watch how the “story” of sisterhood will unfold between the two of them.