Babies

We've become a tad baby crazy at this house. With good reason, of course, and much of the "craze" stems from my efforts to help prepare Luke for The Major Change arriving in just a few months. And so far, he seems to be taking that very well.

We talk about Baby Sister a lot - pray for her, point out that she's growing in Mommy's tummy, and use her as motivation for Luke to "be a big boy" (and do what I asked, NOW!!).  (Just kidding.) (Sorta.)

I'm a little nervous that we may have gone a bit overboard with the whole Baby-Sister-in-Mommy's-Tummy bit - will he be able to handle the transition when he finds out she's a real human, and not just some new part of Mommy? I must admit that I myself had some trouble with that transition after Luke was born...

But it's pretty darn precious to see Luke pat my belly and sweetly whisper, "Baby Sister..." A few times, I've encouraged him to sing a song to her, and he always launches into, "A, B, C, D..."; she may be the first baby to be born already knowing her alphabet! Seems only appropriate, I suppose.

Another thing I've done (notice, the following wasn't a group effort on the part of the parents in this household) was to buy a little baby doll for Luke to "practice" with. I thought it might be fun for him to see how to hold a baby - and I'm hoping that he'll enjoy having his own baby to care for when Mommy has to care for Baby Sister. Granted, he's a boy - so I didn't expect quite the attachment that I remember having to my baby dolls, or that we see in his female counterparts.

It bothers Luke that Baby's eyes don't close.
Now I see what he means....

But I've been surprised: as soon as I gave him the doll, he held it so gently and tenderly, patting it like he'd seen other mommies patting their babies, and quietly studying every little thing about her. He loves to point out her eyes and ears, count her fingers, and hold her while we read before naptime. This morning, he even wanted her to be a part of our potty experience (so much so that the baby doll spent more time on the potty than Luke did...).

Of course, for all the sweet attention that baby doll gets, she also gets her share of being tossed to the ground and ignored. At one point, Luke inadvertently banged her head on the table, and when I pointed it out, he immediately became all concern: "Baby bumped her head!!" (I even had to give her a magical healing Mommy kiss.) But I've also caught him experimenting with how much "pain" she can take... (what if I poke at her eyes? what happens if I bang her head on this chair?) Let's just hope this whole "practice" effort doesn't backfire on us...