Are you wigh dere?

The most frequent question I get now that I am a parent of two is "How's Jackson doing with the baby?" I was a bit worried about how he would respond. He had been demonstrating a tendency toward jealousy. Actually, more than a tendency. The first time he saw me holding another child, he burst into tears, ran over as fast as his chubby 18 month old legs could take him, and grabbed the face of the offending little friend, attempting to take her face off (imagine John Travolta doing an impression of Nicolas Cage saying that...obscure John Woo reference). As recent as 3-4 months ago, he came over to hit his little friend Alaina when I was giving her a hug because she was crying.

So we were a bit worried that he would be jealous of his new little sister. The whole time during the pregnancy we kept telling him that his little sister, his baby, was growing in mommy's tummy so that he could love her. And the day he saw her for the first time, he seemed to demonstrate a genuine affection.

So we're not so worried about him feeling jealous. As soon as he comes home from school, he asks for her first. I don't even get a hug any more. He puts on this falsetto voice and says "Hi baby. Are you wigh dere?" (which we think translates to "are you right there?", although we have no idea what he means by that...she's obviously right there).

But we still have to worry about how he interacts with her. You know how some people say things like "She's so cute I just want to eat her up" or "I just want to squeeze him to death"? Well that seems to be how affectionate Jackson is about his little sister. He hugs her REALLY hard and sometimes bites her. So he's not jealous, but he just can't control how to express his feelings.

I guess she's going to grow up to be one tough chick if she can defend herself from the affections of her big brother.

Clarice