For most of their lives, TheMonk has been the strong, silent type while Swee’Pea has been the assertive, outgoing one (except when we encounter new people, but that’s a different post). Lately, Swee’Pea has taken her role as leader and taken it one step further – protector.

Recently, Swee’Pea has done an excellent job sharing. She does not like to see TheMonk unhappy and has willingly given up toys she is playing with in order to make her brother happy. She has also taken an interest in giving him kisses and hugs. TheMonk tolerates this – and even participates in the kisses if the mood strikes – and is taking his sister’s love in stride.

This weekend she took this concern for her brother even further. She has recently begun to use his name whenever she is talking about TheMonk. (For those of you who have read this blog in the past, you know his name is three syllables long, and it’s cute as hell to hear Swee’Pea call out his name.) Now, every morning TheMonk finishes his juice about half-way through breakfast. Swee’Pea, on the other hand, always takes her time to savor the juciness in her cup. Today, she wanted the same thing for TheMonk. After he announced he was “ALL DONE!” with his juice, and dutifully handed me his cup, Swee’Pea became concerned that TheMonk didn’t have any juice.

“More juice?” she asked me.

“You already have juice, Swee’Pea.” I responded.

“More juice, Monk?” she asked, with concern dripping from her voice.

“Okay.” I say. “Monk can have some more juice.”

TheMonk, pleasantly surprised by this new arrangement gladly accepted his very watered down second helping of juice.

After lunch, Swee’Pea, TheMonk and I all went shopping. We left the house with their new favorite toy – Mardi Gras beads. Purple for Swee’Pea and green for TheMonk. Throughout the day, Swee’Pea was always checking to make sure TheMonk had his “neckwace” or “gween bees.”

As it turned out, we did end up losing those green beads somewhere at our last stop. Most likely when we ran through the water fountain. As I put both Swee’Pea and TheMonk in their car seats for the drive home, Swee’Pea was quick to notice the beads we’re missing. “Monk’s bea’s? Monk’s neckwace? Oh, Nooooooo.” she said, with a sad tone to her voice.

“It’s okay, Swee’Pea. Monk doesn’t miss ‘em.” I said. “But we have his car.” I tell her as I hand TheMonk his favorite car. This satisfies Swee’Pea and we drive off with everything okay.

Swee’Pea made sure of that.