Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Reflections of a New Parent of Two, Part 2

The next in the series of initial observations I've made in my five weeks since becoming a parent of two under two:

3. Toddlers are fascinated with babies. Except maybe your own toddler.


You can barely keep others' delighted little hands from your baby's face, while your own kid will barely sit for a picture with him.

I can understand, though. From his viewpoint, this little loaf-of-bread-sized human has invaded your world and is taking up some of Mom and Dad's time and attention--Not to mention it's no fun; it only sits there staring and making noise. It doesn't even have WHEELS, for crying out loud. It makes sense that you might not be super excited about this whole 'baby brother' business right away.

Discouraging as it may seem at first, however, things do improve. Why, not long ago, Sonny yelled, "BABY!" and biffed Little Bro's sock monkey at to him... with more enthusiasm than we wanted, but it's a start.

Over the past month, I've seen Sonny warm up to his little brother, pointing out his feet or stalling bedtime by asking to say goodnight to him. He'll come over and pat him on the head while we encourage him. It's a wonderful thing... I think.


I'm confident they'll be great buds one day. In the meantime, I'll probably just keep an eye on things, lest my baby boy mysteriously somehow end up curbside in the recycling bin.

To be continued...

2 comments:

  1. I remember when Kevin came home and Victoria's first words to him was 'I don't want Kevin'. Shortly thereafter, after explaining to my 2 1/2 year old how babies have that 'soft spot' on their heads and to be gentle when stroking their hair, overprotective big sister would be the first to pipe up whenever guests would come and visit the new baby by saying, "don't touch the head..." She really wanted Kevin. Truely. Until she grabbed a pair of scissors and decided to give her brother a new coiffure...

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  2. Cute! And now they get along great... most of the time, anyway? :)
    That sounds a bit like me and my little brother. At first, I asked when we were bringing him back, but then I was as proud of him as anything.

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