Turf wars

Elly gave up her naps at almost the exact time that Kes started crawling, which has made for an interesting development in their sibling relationship - turf wars. Nah, it's not really that bad. Overall they do OK sorting it out... well, I should say overall Elly does OK sorting it out, since Kes is too little to do any of the negotiation. But the only really bad moments have been when they are both overtired, and even then, by bad I mean that they are both crying. The vast majority of the time the entire exchange consists of one of them taking the toy away from the other, the hurt party raising a fuss, and then some sort of peacemaking.

Impressively, Elly does the peacemaking about half the time (usually when she's done the taking) and I only have to make suggestions to her (turn-taking, doing it together, using something different) about half the time (usually if Kes did the taking). What's fantastic is the lack of aggression in these interchanges. Elly wails if Kes takes something from her, or takes it right back, but doesn't push or hit her about it. And they have only been unable to reach a resolution twice (at which point I put the toy off-limits to both of them).

It's truly amazing how little rivalry they have so far. Even these exchanges are similar to how she'd react to any other crawling toy thief. They like to play together. Kes crawls after Elly when she leaves a room, and Elly often tells me to bring Kes with us if we are going in a different room, or says "Mama, I want my Kessa!" And both get upset if the other one is really crying (since birth Kes has been able to tell Elly's sad and pain cries from her tantrums). It's so fun to see. I know there will always be sibling conflicts, but I couldn't have asked for a better sister relationship for them so far.