Sibs

I've been intrigued to see how Toby and Dara would take to our move. So far they seem to be doing really well - as I've noted Toby is doing really well at school, as is Dara. His accent has changed a lot less than I expected, but there are days when Dara sounds like a little Indian girl - it's really fun. The move has also brought them closer together (they were already really close) as they're having to rely on each other more, and for the first month we were here they shared a room, which worked out surprisingly well.

A couple of nights ago we tried an experiment - Emma was going out to the pub with some of her friends, while I had a call with work in Minneapolis. These were both scheduled to start at 8, which is bedtime for the kids, so we spoke with them to see if they could handle bedtime by themselves. They promised us that they would be fine, so at 7:30 we started the bedtime routine, and we were pleasantly surprised that when it was story time they sent us away so that Toby could read Dara's stories. They both went into Toby's room while Emma went out and I went up to the office. It wasn't clear how it would turn out, but once my call was done I went downstairs to check on them - Dara had gone through to her room and was fast asleep in her bed, and Toby was reading in his bed. They both slept really well and the next day were just as pleased as we were at how they did. It's not something we plan on doing too much, but it's great to know that they can handle this when it's needed.