It's Real

My kids have been fighting all morning.

Daughter wants to play with Son's legos, including the sacred Star Wars Lego sets.  This is unacceptable, so Son starts chasing her through the house.  Daughter hides in a closet and opens a door just as he runs by, gently bonking him in the head.  In retaliation, he attacks her treasured 3' long pink mylar dolphin balloon, which has been hovering in our kitchen for a week now, it's air gradually seeping out so the dolphin appears to be floating just above the kitchen counters.  Daughter jumps on the dolphin, protecting it with her body and soon the two children are rolling around on the floor wrestling, laughing, shouting and doing their best to pop the poor dolphin balloon with the weight of their two bodies mashed together.

Like most adoptive moms, I worried in the beginning that my children wouldn't have the real sibling bond that I shared with my sister and brother.

They fight.  They play.  They compare victories and mourn their own slights,  whether one gets a bigger cookie or the other gets invited to a play date.  The most heartwarming yet maddening part?  When I am sternly correcting one for being naughty, the other jumps in to defend the guilty party.  I love that...sorta.

It's a real sibling relationship, alright.  It's so very real.