The sibling gift making that happens before a birthday is so very dear to me. It's such fun to watch them dream up what they could make each other, the way they plan it out with such excitement and enthusiasm, and oh - the attempts at keeping it all a surprise (which usually entails a lot of REALLY LOUD whispering next to the birthday person). The gift-making and presentation is full of super proud-parenting moments that you remember, tuck away, and pull out when needed in the less-than beautiful moments of sibling life.
Calvin worked on this tote bag for her, making a picture on both sides of the bag with scraps of felt. I love the careful and thoughtful choices of color and design - a bird on there, of course. He started with handstitching the pieces down, but quickly - like his mama - grew tired of that and opted for the machine (he's totally rocking the machine these days). Which is why he tells everyone that this was not, in fact, handmade, but machine made. Right. She loves her bag, of course. She fills it with shoes.
Ezra's gift to Adelaide was a song he 'wrote' and played (foot stomps and all) on his fiddle just before she had her cake. I know. I melted. I really and truly melted from it all. She adored her song - she literally sat smiling with her hands clasped and ready to clap. Ack! In the days before the party, in addition to practicing his song, he told me he also wanted to 'make a pillow for her that looks like the way her birthday fiddle song sounds." Right. Okay. Ezra's always good for a curve ball, puzzler like that. BUT! We came up with this: a doll pillow he stitched - curduroy on one side and linen on the other. On the linen, he wrote (with a fabric marker) the "words" to her fiddle song. He added a button and trim, because, well, who doesn't want to play with buttons and trim?
I know without a doubt that I will completely forget about the xylophone that we got for her second birthday. Or any of the other little gifts we purchased or fretted over. But oh - these extra special, oozing-with-love gifts from her brothers are sure to be remembered by every one of us as the best gifts of all. They always are.
