Siblings

What is it about Siblings? There is no one you feel more connected to and at the same time there is no one who can drive you up the wall more.
I am quite a bit younger then my brothers. The oldest of my brothers was not living at home anymore by the time I was born and when my parents had to move when I was 3 my other brothers decided to stay where they were at. The youngest was 18 so my Mother felt like there really wasn't anything she could do. We did not live close together so we did not see them very often. We actually lived in different countries so we would go years with out seeing each other. When they did visit they would tease me relentlessly and I would drive everyone nuts whining that I wasn't allowed to go with them when they would go out. Of course now I know that they would go to bars and such and bringing a small child would not really work out so well. We loved and of course still do, each other very much but we also would drive  each other insane. Now I realize we probably also drove my parents insane as well.
I now have two Children of my own. They are also kind of far apart in years but not as far as I and my brothers. They are 9 years apart. Also we have the gender difference. One Boy and one girl. There is no doubt in my mind that they love each other. No one else can make them light up or crack up like they can. However most of the time they are fighting. Usually brought on by my son who is older teasing my daughter. No amount of telling them to stop or even physically separating helps. Inevitably one finds another and the fighting starts all over again. It is simply the most annoying thing in the world. In the morning they are fighting, in the after noon they are fighting in the evening....you get the idea. I don't know if it is worse because one is a hormonal pre-teen and the other is 3 or what but they just don't stop.
The really funny thing is no one else has each others backs like the do. When my son get's in trouble and we raise our voices at him my daughter will come along and tell us we are rude and we shouldn't yell at her brother. My son and a neighbor hood kid were play wrestling in the front yard and my  daughter came up yelled at the other boy and punched him. My son is constantly listening to my daughter tell about all the bad things that happened at school. She is three so it is usually some one took a toy or wouldn't play with her.He hears her out gives her loads of sympathy and then gives her advice. Oh and boy oh boy you better not hurt my daughter because my son will get very mad. I think he would be capable of actually hurting someone if he saw them hurting her.
When I get to witness these moments it warms my heart and I feel like I am doing something wright. However most of the times I am witnessing the teasing and fighting. These moments make me want to cry and say "What am I doing wrong"
I do realize that they probably do not fight anymore then any other siblings do but it is so frustrating. After all most siblings are a lot closer in age. Don't ask me why I feel that somehow that should make a difference. I just do. Even though my personal experience has shown me that this is not the case.
So I am going to keep on working on trying to get them to fight less. I saw a picture of something one of my fellow Pagan friends has at her house. It is a little container with dirt and a sign that reads negativity grave yard. I am not sure how she is using it but I am going to make one and have my children go out and find lots of different rocks. When ever they feel frustrated or upset with each other I am going to have them take a stone and focus all that energy into the stone and then bury it in the negativity grave yard. If nothing else it will give them an active way of dealing with negative feelings. I will post at a later date how it works out.