Back in England, our next-door neighbor have one son who is similar age to our children (10 months older)  and we often had him around or taking/going places – I always joked I have triplets (some people believed me as all three look completely different). Last week my Czech friend and her son taken ill and to save her husband driving back and forth (they live on outskirt of Colombo, so in bad traffic sometimes up to 1.5 hours one way) I suggested I would have her daughter Nela (again similar age, one year younger) to stay in our place.  She shared Emi’s bedroom as there are two single beds, I put them all three in a taxi in the morning and she can sleep 50 mins more each morning. Instead of 4 meals I plated 5, instead of two lunch boxes, I made three. They all get on really well and she just fits in nicely – I call them my triplets, like in England. We even went to the hairdresser and shopping together on Saturday! Emi doesn’t provoke her brother in Nela’s presence and Misa seems to be somehow mature around Nela, dinner table is lively with lots of laughing and giggling, mornings are surprisingly calm.

Kids can imagine having older sibling like that, but a baby brother of sister – absolutely not!

Rennie