Isaac and "Baby Sisser"

How does a month go by so fast? It's incredible. Well, this has really been a wonderful month: the addition of little Vi to our family has been an easy and joyful transition. I can't believe what an easy baby she has been, and I am just over the moon with how well Isaac has adjusted to our new family dynamic.

I was really - no, extremely - worried about how Isaac would react to having a new baby around, especially as this new little person would compete for Mom and Dad's attention, and would more than likely win 9 times out of 10. But he has been a champ, and has welcomed his baby sister with extreme enthusiasm.

Some fun little things to document about this budding little relationship between these two (sure to be best friends forever, right?):

Isaac loves to hold or "hug" Violet. We always make sure he is supervised :)

 Every time someone walks into a room with Violet, or if Isaac just sees her after not seeing her for a bit, Isaac rushes over exclaiming, "Baby! Cute! Cute baby!" etc. He often will exclaim over her toes as well, "Baby toes! Baby toes!" If she's not around, he always asks, "Where Baby Sisser go? Wha' Baby Sisser doing?"  He also loves to tell people who she is, pointing her out and saying, "Dat Bi-Let!"

You can tell Isaac can't wait for the day when Violet can actually play with him - he is constantly trying to give her a car to play with. The other day he placed one on her chest, and when I tried to move it so I could pick her up, he got quite upset and insisted, "No! Dat baby car!"

He also loves to take care of her - if she is fussy, we will sometimes ask him to sing for her, and he will sing some nonsense syllables until you beg him to stop. He knows real songs, but for some reason he'd rather make up his own. He also likes to read his books to her, which is fun because it tells us what he is absorbing from the books we read over and over. He also has a little of that Big Brother bossiness already. If she is nursing and she stops for a minute, Isaac will kind of push her head back toward me and say in a sort of scold-y way, "Nurse, nurse!"

Reading Trucktown books to Violet.

Isaac loves that he has a backseat buddy in the car. It used to be torture trying to get him to get into his car seat - tears, lots of tears. But now, I can tell Isaac, "Get up in your seat!" And he will calmly and obediently climb up into his carseat and wait for me to buckle him. It is so nice, as it means I can put Violet in the car and not have to worry about wrestling him into his seat.

Violet really has turned out to be quite the magic bullet, actually, where Isaac is concerned - for now, at least. (I'm sure the novelty will eventually wear off.) If I tell him Baby Sister wants him to do something, he is about 100% more likely to comply. I can tell him over and over to come into his bedroom so I can change his diaper, and he'll keep playing cars, conveniently not hearing me. But if I say, "Isaac, Baby Sister misses you. Come and see Baby Sister." He will come running in, and all I have to is tell him to lie down next to Baby Sister, and he will sit through a diaper change placidly and obediently, while making silly baby talk noises at his sister. It is the best.

I've noticed just in general that since Violet was born, Isaac has been more obedient, more responsive, and more communicative. Maybe it just happened that her birth coincided with the time when this would have happened naturally, or maybe the mantle of brotherly responsibility has fallen upon him, I don't know, but I am very grateful. He's still a two-year-old, obviously, and still difficult at times, but in so many ways he has become a little easier to work with in the last month.

This is Isaac's "smile" face.

It is definitely going to be fun to watch as their little friendship develops - I hope we can teach our children to love and serve one another. It seems like we have a good head start. :)