Sweet spirit

I'm starting to see a whole new side of my daughter, and it makes my heart happy. Halfway between the three-year-old toddler she was and the four-year-old girl she's becoming is a sweet spirited little kid that adores her baby brother and is deeply interested in everyone's well-being. We have our fair share of whining and squabbles over who had it first, but there's a loving, caring, nurturing instinct emerging in Abby that shows us glimpses of her heart throughout the day, and it's a beautiful thing.

Abby is quick to find a favorite toy for Caleb to cheer him up when he's upset. She involves him in the imaginary worlds she creates, inviting him along on plane rides to Spain and vacations to visit grandparents and insisting he not wear her sparkly things when they play dress up. If she sees Jacob has been left alone in his swing, she'll bring a blanket to tuck around him ("I'm comfortable-ing Jacob," she informs us) or snuggle up next to him and sing him a song to make him happy. (Angels We Have Heard on High and Rock-a-bye Baby are his favorites, she says.) She's first on the scene when someone in the house gets a boo-boo, and she makes the official call on whether it needs a band-aid or just a kiss to make it better. (Bleeding boo-boos get band-aids. All other boo-boos get a pat on the back and a promise that you'll be okay: "It's not bleeding, Caleb. You'll live.")

She frequently asks to hold Jacob, and is so careful with him when she does that for a second I could forget she's only three and a half years his senior. More often than not, though, she simply wants to be near him. She loves to sing to him, to rub his head (a guaranteed way to make him smile), and to read him all of her favorite books. Today she made it halfway through our Thomas the Tank Engine collection, retelling each story in her own way, before Jacob lost interest and started crying.

"He's squealing, Mommy," she told me with a concerned look on her face. "I think he wants me to hold him."

Three-and-a-half suits her well.