Brotherly love knows no bounds around here. Jack still thinks Will is the bee's knees. He is currently obsessed with holding his hand which would make even the most relaxed of parents totally paranoid, seeing as how we are in the midst of a particularly terrible flu season. But it's so unbelievably sweet that I can't put a kibosh on it. His other favorite activity is giving Baby Will "big hugs and smooches." Again, feel the heart palpitations. Like anything else in the parenting arena, you start out in absolutes and quickly slide down the slippery slope of trying to determine whether a previously verboten activity will lead to an immediate visit to the hospital. For example, we hauled the activity mat out of the attic to leave Will on when we are being inattentive parents (see post below regarding the failure of bouncy seat to handle such a task).
We originally told Jack that the mat was ONLY for Baby Will and that no part of Jack could touch it. At first, Jack was content to sit on the edge of the mat and slip in the occasional rub of the head.
Our acquiescence only made him bolder and soon Jack was lying down next to Will and giving him full body smotherings, er, hugs.
Not only that, Jack moves the animals for Will. The whole point is that the babies can kick and grab the animals and in the process learn all sorts of things. But given how much Jack wants to do on Will's behalf, it will be a miracle if Will ever lifts a bloody finger.
What I find remarkable is that Jack has yet to show us any real jealousy. I fully expected that when someone was holding Will, Jack would sidle up and try to take the baby's place in that person's lap. No. As it turns out, he cares only insomuch as he thinks he would be better suited to hold Baby Will than you.
He's not irritated when Will cries - he merely gives him a hug and announces proudly "Mommy, I make it all better."
He willingly shares his toys and food, which leads to slightly dangerous situations like Thomas the train balancing precariously on Will's nose or Jack putting a cheerio right on Will's lips. But I'm not about to tell him not to share with his baby brother because we all know that'll come back to bite me on the ass in about 9 months...
So we make compromises, with ourselves, with our children. Whatever it takes to maintain the peace.
this sounds remarkably like our house. glad to hear the future spouses are a) good brothers and sisters (jack and eva) and b) likely to be equally developmentally delayed (will and rhonie). xxx skl
ReplyDelete