As I'm sure I've made clear, D- loves his sister to pieces. He frequently hugs and kisses her out of nowhere, though lately there's been a suspicious rise in his calling it to our attention, possibly to store up a bank of good-boy credit. More likely, I think he's drunk on the praise he gets when he's nice to her. He'll hug her and say, "Daddy... Daddy, look at us! I'm hugging her-- we're nice! We're so cute!"
However, he does use up some of his good-boy credit occasionally, such as the other day when he decided he wanted a break from the baby and took some books onto his bed. Naturally, M- followed him and started calling out, "Up, peez... up, peeeeez!" and trying to climb up onto the bed. Once she got most of the way up, he pushed her off. I imagine the look of fear and betrayal on her face was akin to the lady falling to her death in the movie Cliffhanger.
He also has less-shocking ways of tempering his overall worship of his sister. For example, last week, after building an elaborate Lincoln Log cabin in the middle of the floor (against my advice) at 10:30 in the morning on a weekday, he heard M- calling from her crib after naptime. His response, as opposed to his usual, "Her's awake... you wanna go get her? Can I go see her?", was, "Don't get her until Momma gets home. Okay?"
To clarify, he was willing to have his sister sit locked in a jail cell for 5 hours, missing meals and overflowing her diaper, just to protect his poorly-planned and totally unfortified toy house from her destructive impulses, which, in her defense, are just as finely-tuned as his.
Now that's love.
21 April 2008
Baby Hulk smash!
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8 comments:
Just so you know, it isn't just kids that do that. I've had that thought more than once about mine. The "maybe if I just sit here quietly and don't breathe too hard, she won't start crying wanting to get out of her crib" thoughts. I had those on more than one occasion. Of course, she had a bad case of colic that no amount of paragoric would kill, so, that could have had something to do with it. Maybe....
Emily
http://twodogsrunningsouth.blogspot.com/
Now that you mention it, I'll second that. Sometimes it's nice to just sit somewhere during nap time and have a moment to yourself. Maybe even write a blog post...
More naps for all!
Sisters do it to baby brothers, too. My 4 YO was playing with her dollhouse when the 10 MO came and pulled himself to a standing position next to her. She pushed him and he fell straight back and landed on his back. Lucky it was carpet and he didn't hit his head. The look of shock on his face was priceless! I had to scold her about why we don't push, especially babies!
I don't know how many ways I've had to explain the whole special-rules-for-baby thing (both as hitter and hittee), without letting him think that he is the victim of blatant favoritism.
Because as you know, he thinks she will be a baby forever, no matter what we say.
I use the baby as an excuse for a lot of things. "No can't get legos out the baby might eat one." Nevermind, I hate picking them up. "Sorry I can't play horse with you, I need to hold the baby." I regret using her as my scape goat because yesterday the two big kids asked if we could get a babysitter just for the baby. I guess that's better than suggesting we get rid of her all together, for that I'm a little proud.
It's sad that things like that constitute progress, but it's true they do. Obviously they've begrudgingly accepted her right to exist-- you should congratulate them and take them out for ice cream lol
I always have to fight the urge to use the baby as a shield-- it's so tempting, and she'd never know it
haha, I do that with the 14 year old. Please God let her sleep in until 1:00 when I'll be gone somewhere running errands lol.
Oh, I've been around 14-year-olds, and I can totally understand why you'd hide from them lol
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