The reason why we had wanted a second child was so that Shannon could have a companion when she grew up. When we got pregnant, everyone was telling me, 'oh, I'm sure you are hoping for a boy, then it would be nice, one boy and one girl, a complete family.'
Though I had started out the pregnancy thinking that way as well, I soon realised that it actually didn't matter one bit, and that perhaps another girl would be better. We wanted the two siblings to grow up close, and from my own unhappy experience, I felt that having a boy and a girl would make it tough to them to be truly close in the future.
So when little Lauren came, it was with a hope that our two girls would learn to cherish each other as sisters, and love one another.
Watching Lauren and Shannon grow up together has been a heartwarming journey. Shannon, having been blessed with a mild and generous nature, welcomed her sister with a full heart, and gets along with her remarkable well. She accommodates our constant requests to let her sister 'do this, do that' and the poor girl always gets scolded unjustly when the two of them get too rowdy.
She lets lauren play with all of her worldly possessions with little jealousy, save for the few times that her spirited baby sister snatches her toy from her hand.
She coaxes Lauren to stop crying when the little one wails in the car, and tries to distract her in a lilting voice, 'oh, you're crying? Don't cry, jie jie's here, see outside, car car?' And when she gets gummy bears and chocolates from Gong Gong, she never fails to remember her little sister, 'mei mei too? One for Mei Mei also?'
I'm glad and amazed that the giving goes both ways as well. Though Lauren is only reaching one and a half, her consideration for her Jie Jie is amazing. The first time it happened was at the coin operated car rides, when I hitched Lauren up to sit in one, and she went, ' Eh Eh Eh' pointing at her Jie Jie, and then at the empty seat next to her.
We watched Lauren the next time. She was in the kitchen perched on with my mom's arm, fiddling with the packet drinks when she spied the apple juice. After doing her usual, 'Eh Eh Eh' and pointing at the apple juice, and getting one, she pointed again and again, demanding another. And when my mom obliged by passing another to her, she then struggled to get down. We were mysteried, when she tottered out of the kitchen and made a beeline for shannon in the living room. And then she pushed the apple juice into her startled sister's hands, turned and tottered back into the kitchen with a grin.
Likewise, she is always on hand to drag Jie Jie's clothes to Shannon after she herself has changed, and push Jie Jie to wear her socks and shoes when we are getting ready to leave the house.
And last week, while waiting for Shannon to finish her enrichment classes in school, I watched in amusement as Lauren searched for her Jie Jie's pink shoes, amongst all the others on their shoe shelves, picked up the correct ones, and plunked it at Shannon's feet.
