Big Brother

"Hello, Bay-bay! Hello!"

Watching Max morph into a Big Brother has been another amazing experience. He almost always refers to Sarah as "My baby sister" or "Bay-bay" or "My baby". For the most part, he has transitioned remarkably well. There have been few signs of jealousy or anger at her arrival. Instead he seems excited to include her in our activities and almost always asks, "Is my baby sister coming too?" Sometimes he handles her crying fits better than Mommy and Daddy. Max says she is making the sound for the letter "a" and will echo it back to her. A few occasions of difficulty mar his perfect record, usually involving demands that have to be met instantly or a three year old tantrum will follow. But strangely his behavior had improved before Sarah's arrival and has continued on a positive trend. He takes his new role very seriously!

Big Brother highlights:

Daddy took Sarah to the third floor to play with her big brother. As soon as Max saw her he raced to retrieve the playmat and set it up beside her. "Look, look baby! I'll make it squeak for you!" He held out the elephant to show it to Sarah. When she began to cry he said, "Don't cry, baby, I can do it again!"

Max is a big helper with moving the Moses basket throughout the downstairs and arranging it where he wants Sarah to be. He insists that she sits in the basket beside his chair at meal time so he can look down at her. At least he is not trying to feed her from the table. Yet.

Before she was born we discussed how Sarah would eat. Max was very concerned that she was going to drink "his milk" from the refrigerator. After seeing her nurse a few times Max asked, "Where does the milk come from?" After listening to the explanation again he said, "Oh, I thought it came from your arm."

Max was sitting on the bed beside Sarah as she nursed one morning. A loud burp preceded a stream of spit up as she stared at Max. He clutched his pelt in horror and said, "It didn't get on Pelt, did it Mommy? Pelt's ok?"

Max is fascinated by watching Sarah have her diaper changed ("I want to come too!"), seeing her sleeping ("When will she open her eyes again?") and the breast pump ("Are you going to do your machine, Mommy?"). He helps give her a bath and asks to hold her on the couch.

After hearing for weeks that we had to wait until Sarah had her shots to go places, Max was astounded to learn that we were going to take her to the library recently. "Has she had her shots yet, Mommy? Is it safe?"

The most important indicator of Max's true feelings for his little sister are represented by his generosity with his most prized possession. Max introduced Sarah to Pelt on her first night home and offers to let her hold Pelt on a regular basis. He will take it to her if she is crying and will sometimes put Pelt beside her in the bassinet to "watch" while he is downstairs. He can't wait to help her choose her own lovey!

Max likes to shower his little sister with kisses and each night he asks to kiss his baby sister's head before he goes to sleep.