Jared & Ellie

It has been a joy to watch Jared and Ellie’s brother/sister relationship. Despite only being four and two years old, they often look out for each other and show concern about the well being of the other. Here are some recent examples:

A couple weeks ago Ellie went down and grabbed a few rolls left over from dinner and brought them upstairs (against the rules but Ellie seems to get away with these kinds of things). She had one roll in her mouth and handed one to me and another was quickly taken by Brynn. She realized she only had one left and when Kaitlyn tried to take it she said “no, Jed roll”. She wanted to make sure her buddy Jared was taken care of. Only after convincing her that Jared was already asleep in the other room did she finally relent and give up the last roll.

The other day Jared was quietly playing with legos before school. Ellie started breaking his lego towers, guns, and swords, which made him frustrated. Jared tried to hold Ellie back and she started to hit him. Jared got a smile on his face and leaned his body away to lessen the blow from her petite punches. Then he said with a chuckle, “its ok Ellie if you want to break my legos”.

A few nights ago we were attempting to read scriptures together as a family. Instead of a little squabbling we are accustomed to among the kids—this evening we struggled to read over Jared’s giggling due to Ellie hugging and kissing him.

Yesterday Sarah and the kids came home from Jared’s soccer kickoff meeting just after I arrived home from work. Jared was the first in the house and was wearing a brand new bright red soccer sock on one leg. He rushed to me and very excitedly pointed out his new sock and rattled off some things about his soccer coach, team, and uniform. Soon the other kids came in with Ellie bringing up the rear. She was decked out in Jared’s brand new soccer shirt, shorts, and Jared’s other bright red sock. Ellie had both hands holding up the shorts and she showed as much excitement as Jared did. In fact she got to talking and showing me her outfit and forgot to keep holding up the shorts, which fell to the floor two or three times in mid sentence. I love that Jared was Christ-like and selfless and let Ellie enjoy this moment as much or more than he did. Rather than see her actions as taking away something from him, he shared in the excitement with her.

Of course Jared has lot of opportunities to practice being selfless with his little sister. Almost every night she prefers to wear “Jed’s jamis” rather than her own pajamas. She has some very nice looking pink pajamas that make her look so cute—but she prefers to wear dark blue shark pajamas or deep red Mr. Incredible pajamas or even his green frog pajamas. Some nights not only is she selecting which of Jared’s pajamas she will be wearing but also setting out which ones Jared will be wearing as well.

Another example of Jared’s selflessness happened the other day. In preparation for school Sarah bought Jared some new socks. He started running around the house breaking them in and testing out his speed. Almost immediately Ellie appeared wearing some oversized brand new socks too.