Backseat chorus

I don't know what it is, but Asher so far does not enjoy his car seat. Audrey did not enjoy hers either, until she was a little older. In fact, she would throw such a fit as a baby that Eli and I would take turns reaching our arms to the back seat to rock Audrey's car seat until she was soothed a bit. Asher isn't quite as upset as Audrey was about being in the car, but still, I wonder how I got the two kids in the whole world who don't like car rides as infants?
Now that Audrey is just about 2 months shy of being 3 years old (omgoodness!), she quite enjoys car rides, though she often tells us that she'd rather be the one driving. Her interest in Asher is mostly when his presence affects her. So if her friends are paying attention to him, instead of her, then she will pay attention to him as well. There are a few occasions when she is sweet to him for not particular reason at all, but for the most part, she is rather indifferent. That is, until he starts crying in the car.

Audrey is a chatterbox and Asher's crying quite often interrupts whatever Audrey was saying, which to her, is not acceptable. Her solution used to be to try to talk over him so that we could still hear what she was saying. When that didn't work, she tried to reason with him. That failed as well, so then she would tell us that he needed his paci so he would stop crying. (As if we didn't know, lol.) This too, has not delivered results. Her new idea is to sing him a song. Audrey's song goes like this, "My name's Audrey and your name's Asher" repeated several times in a row. The best part is, sometimes it works! When it does, we tell Audrey that she's a great big sister and that her brother loves her. I hope she hears me, but she goes right back to talking so quickly that sometimes, I am not sure she does.

Eli and I encourage Audrey's attempts to comfort Asher because that's what families are supposed to do, right? I want them both to learn that loving each other includes a myriad of different things, like comforting. I am willing to take the enormous amount of noise in our tiny car any day, any time, if it teaches our children how to care for one another. Not only am I willing to listen to it, but I actually enjoy it and sometimes find myself laughing at the crazy backseat chorus of crying and singing. I love watching the bond form between them and I hope and pray it lasts. I want to encourage Audrey's generally indifferent attitude toward her brother to become one of love and endearment. And I want Asher to know how awesome his big sister is. I want them to make the most of their childhood years together, and I want to give them the tools to do that, even if all I want to hear at that moment is my favorite song on the radio.

I pray that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship for my kids.