Seeing Double

L- Jilly, September 2011  R- Mattie, May 2014

"Dee"

As Mattie gets older, she and Jilly are becoming the best of friends.  When we hear Mattie wake up from a nap, Jilly always runs in first and climbs in the crib to play with Mattie til I get there.  Jilly loves to play hide-and-seek and Mattie knows exactly what "Where's Jilly?" means, and is actually pretty good at finding her sister (Jilly isn't a very quiet hider.)  And when they find each other the giggles are out of control.  The girls' car seats are right next to each other and since Mattie faces backward they look right at each other.  They're constantly sharing snacks, holding hands, and laughing as we drive around.  (Naturally, they also fight a lot, but I wouldn't expect any less from sisters.)  One of my very favorite things about their relationship is Jilly's nickname for Mattie.  For a few months now Jilly has been calling her "Dee Doh" and lately she's shortened it to "Dee."  I have no clue where she came up with this kooky name, but it looks like it's around to stay- she hardly ever calls Mattie by her real name.  And, it seriously cracks me up.

side by side

From the moment Mattie was born people have told me that she and Jilly look exactly alike.  I thought so too, until gradually Mattie has become such her own little person to me.  Mattie has lots of dark, dark hair while Jilly just had a little bit of fuzz that she quickly lost, and Jilly's face is rounder.  But, looking at these pictures, no one could doubt that they are sisters.  Jilly is on the left and Mattie on the right.

{coming home from the hospital- same car seat, same outfit (see how the outfit is hanging off J's feet and fits M perfectly?)}

{this one also proves that my sleeping habits haven't changed much- super messy hair and right arm up by my head}

sisters, sisters

Later on the night Mattie was born Bryan's mom picked up Jilly from our friends' house and brought her to meet her baby sister.  When they arrived Mattie was in the nursery having her bath.  Jilly loved watching all the babies through the window, but was even more excited when she could see her sister for the first time.

Jillian stayed with Bryan's parents the rest of the time we were in the hospital and had a wonderful time.  But she was thrilled when it was finally time to take Baby Mattie home. 

To say that Jillian loves Mattie is a huge understatement.  She always wants to be as close as humanly possible to Mattie, which sometimes means that she ends up on top of her baby sister.  Jilly especially loves it when we put Mattie in bed with her.  

Jillian is a great helper- she's the very best diaper retriever and paci finder.  Jilly loves to help give Mattie a bath; she's always in charge of putting lotion on Mattie's feet when the bath is done.  She also likes to pick out Mattie's clothes, but has been very disappointed that her sister doesn't wear dresses every day. 

Jilly got a build-a-bear and Bryan realized that the Aurora dress for the bear would fit Mattie perfectly.  You can imagine Jilly's excitement at having a dress up buddy.  

 

I love, love, love that these sisters are going to be bff's.

more on Jilly's dress here, Mattie's dress from this tutorial