Big Sisters

They say there is nothing like your first child--the newness and the awe and the first time parenting. This is all true, I'd say. Conversely, there must be nothing like the experience of being the first born--all that attention and love and coddling. I, however, have a special place in my heart for Ignatius as my second born. I too was born second in line with a sister 2 years my elder. And while I can't remember any of it, I am sure my first months were very similar to what Nate is going through. We did our best to prepare Adrienne for baby #2's arrival. We had her patting my belly and holding her dolls like babies. We had several books here that we read to Adrienne about being a big sister and how great it is have a younger sibling. Either we did an exceptional job preparing her or she is just a natural, because, I swear, she has got this whole big sister thing down. She happily greets Nate whenever she walks into the room, she smothers him with hugs and kisses, she watches out for him and tries to notify us if he is hot or hungry or sad, she attempts to engage him in playing and shares (some of) her toys. She has also learned all sorts of big sister tactics that I assumed would take years to figure out. For example, she has already learned to pass un-deserved blame to Nate. Ask her who smells like poopoo and the old "I don't know" has been replaced with "Nate did it". She has also perfected the "flop" when in touching distance of Nate by dramatically falls backwards, claiming that Nate "Pushed" her (And we don't even watch NBA here, folks!). She also usurped all of Nate's Christmas presents. When we remind her that (insert whatever present here) was Nate's, she proclaims tyrannically, "No, its ME's!" Either that or she initiates a trade agreement which involves a much-lessor toy of Adrienne's and the assumption that Nate's non-response is actually a 'Yes' to the exchange. She has also observed what he likes and dislikes...Oh, yes, and can use this to really push his buttons! Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have spent more time preparing Nate for what life would be like with a big sister instead of the other way around.

Hang in there, kiddo. Big sisters are actually pretty awesome!