Week 145- kissing strangers, WWF moves and learning to be a big sister...

I want to invent a piece of equipment that shouts out the warning, ‘DON’T TOUCH HIS HEAD,’ every time my daughter comes near my son. Because that would save me from repeating it about a hundred times an hour.

It’s an interesting dynamic, watching a relationship develop between siblings.

Well, it’s interesting watching how the older one reacts. The baby just has to lie there and hope that he doesn’t get squashed/ suffocated/ fed toys/sat on.

Now, I know it must be a total head-melter to be the centre of your parent’s world since birth and then suddenly, to be told: “Taa daaa, here’s a brand new human being to share your home and your parents attention with.”

But the real challenge must be the realisation that it’s not for a few days, which in the life of a two-year-old must feel like forever anyway, but that it’s permanent.

I think having a baby around was a bit of a novelty to start with.

My daughter would invite strangers in the queue of the Post Office to meet her new baby brother. She’d ask people sat on tables near us in cafes if they wanted to kiss him. Luckily no-one ever took her up on her invitation, especially as she’s totally indiscriminate when it comes to who she approaches; in fact her policy seems to be the weirder the better.

She’d been excited about his arrival from about month three of pregnancy; the childminder had been told by her about the imminent arrival before we’d even gone public (we received a sensitively written e-mail tentatively congratulating us).

But two months in, and I think she’s starting to get a tad bored. Or maybe not bored, but wanting things to hurry up a little bit. She’s been promised a brother who will play with her and so far all he’s done is lie around, smile a bit, sleep and feed.

As we were about to leave the house the other day, she suggested that it would be better if he stayed at home on his own to look after her plastic Peppa Pig guys as ‘he’ll only sleep and won’t have fun’. And the affectionate hugs are now getting a bit more like WWF moves.  

 

My younger sister used to drive me absolutely mental when we were little but now I speak to her every day and can’t imagine my life without her - from having a buddy on the never-ending camping trips every school holiday to having someone who can understand the complexities of your family in a way that no-one else in the world ever can.

A friend told me that giving my daughter a sibling was the best gift you can ever give.

I’ll just have to remind her of that when she’s trying to sit on his head for the millionth time.