Big Sister Sydney

Like every child who has a little brother, Sydney sometimes gets annoyed with Sam. She wants everything in her room to be off-limits to him (oh, except for those times when she doesn't, and she is secretly delighted that he likes to play babies with her, and loves the Barbie Dreamhouse).
Sometimes, though, her maternal instinct is amazing. Last night, I needed to run out so Mike put the kids to bed. As he was laying in Sam's bed, waiting for the two of them to finish brushing teeth and join him for bedtime books, he got annoyed with Sydney for taking so long. After threatening to take a book away if she did not hurry (this is a huge punishment in our house), she came in with tears in her eyes and said, "But daddy, I had to brush Sam's teeth first!" That just warms my heart. I hope 30 years from now, I can picture her helping him brush his teeth as well as I can today. (OK, this might be a good time to point out to Michael that most 2 year-olds do not brush their own teeth, but I think he figured that out all by himself.)
Sydney and Sam have become very good friends, and I am so grateful. They play together all the time, and now that Sydney is learning how to put more complex Thomas train sets together, she is all the more Sam's hero. There are some days that I don't want them to grow up...