Sister Love

I’m Jazz, Sol’s older sister by eight years. My mum asked me to write for her blog. Not sure if its because she’s run out of things to write about or whether writing this blog post for her was another bribe so that I could enjoy back-to-back sleepovers – LOL.

So here goes –  being Sol’s sister… if I’m being completely honest, I’ve never noticed much of a difference between me and my friends who also have annoying wreckless younger brothers. I mean at the end of the day, they pull hair and kick faces just the same right? Well of course with Sol, all of those things were slightly delayed (which worked out in my favor), and I did have a few extra months that I was able to bask in the fact that no one was calling me a stupid poo bum face 24/7, but I do think that just like any other sibling relationship, very, very, very deep down, Sol loves me. I believe that part of the reason I have never noticed a super obvious difference between Sol and other boys his age was because I’ve never really had a basis for comparison. And while part of this was because I’ve always hidden in my room while Sol had friends over so that I wouldn’t be called to clean up after him (which believe me is very annoying), another part is because I had wanted a sibling for so long that I didn’t really care who he was or what he was diagnosed with as long as I had someone to cuddle with and read books to and laugh about our parents with.

Like any other brother and sister, Sol and I have had our fair share of ups and downs, which usually ends up with him down on the ground because I’m incapable of letting anyone beat me at a fight or, in that case, pretty much anything. There are moments where he’ll come into my room reenacting scenes from movies and asking me to play along – like the time when he was three years old. He came into my room at 6 am, lay on top of me, and asked me if “I want to build a snowman”. Or the time we were having a family dinner, I can’t remember what we were discussing and Sol just chimes in with “Are we going talk about the elephant in the room?” and looks at us all very seriously. And then the time we were arguing over something (again I don’t remember what) and he says “You can’t tell me what to do! You don’t know me!” LOL – well, actually I do buddy. But there are also moments where I’ll get kisses for no reason, or he’ll come into my room late at night asking to sleep with me because he’s scared of “the monsters” in his room.

I still remember when Sol had gone for his MRI and Mom had sent us no less than a billion pictures of him with wires of every color sticking from his tiny coconut head, making him look like some odd alien with a big goofy smile staring at the camera. I didn’t even have to be in the room to know that my mom was probably cooing at him so she could take the perfect photo.

One of the things that I’ve always admired about Sol is that he never fails to get up and try again.  He’s less coordinated than the average 5-year-old but this has never stopped him from trying to flip off our couches or literally climb and bounce off the walls, but every time he falls, he gets back up. He’s always ready for trying new things and literally has NO FEAR. Believe me when I say he’s had his fair share of knocks on the head, cuts, and bruises, but not once has he let any of it stop him from trying again or trying something that he’s never done before.  I believe that even that in itself is something that many adults could do well to learn. Anyways, I could go on and on about how much Sol impresses me on the daily when he comes up with new lines and arguments on why he deserves new toys, or even just how good he is at always being himself, but I am going to say that despite everything, I do think that Sol is the very best brother I could ever ask for and I Iove him so much.

-Jazz (13)