Tough Love. Poor Baby
To say that Bea is obsessed with her baby sister is an understatement. She throws huge tantrums when she sees Clementine and doesn't get to smother her with her affections(usually more like torture). I am learning, however, that Clementine can take more squeezing and smacking than I expected. Most of the time she doesn't even cry at all. The whole time Bea is around her she says, over and over again, "baby, baby, baby baby, hi baby, my baby, baby, baby, baby, etc", giggling and kissing and patting and poking and squeezing and dancing and screaming out for joy at every moment.
More kisses outside
I constantly have to remind her to be gentle and she does, for the most part. She really enjoys putting the bottle or pacifier in her mouth and she piles blankets on top of her, trying to be a big help. Once while I had set Clementine down in the baby bath hammock, Bea got the boppy pillow and put it around her head so Bea had to peak through to see her face. She said, "hi baby!" over and over again while laughing hysterically. It was pretty cute.
Bea, piling on the blankets and poking Clementine in the face
The thing I worry about most is Bea trying to pick her up. I seriously can't leave them alone for more than three seconds which means that they are constantly separated and now that Bea can climb into a pack-n-play, I don't know how to have the baby downstairs with us without Bea trying to attack her all the time. When I do take Bea away from the baby, she screams and kicks and flails her body around saying the same thing, "baby, baby, baby!!!!, aaaahhhhhh!!" I want the baby to be out more often so Bea gets over the novelty of her, but how? Any suggestions? Please help!
This is pure happiness on her face. See that painting in the background. Our friend's 7 year old painted it and we LOVE it.
2 comments:
I hear ya... At first I thought Colton was trying to hurt Eli so I kept him away all the time. Now I realize he just wants to play with him, so I try to let him touch the baby more, hoping he'll get it out of his system. He hasn't yet, though, and his playing is just as harmful, if not more so, than what he used to do! Oh well. Let me know if you have any bright ideas!
Yeah, this is a toughy. I've also had the same problem with Gabe and Alta. I've heard of some moms letting their kids be a little more rough with the baby than normal, but I didn't take that route. I thought that would just lead to rougher and rougher play. I've done the opposite. Tried as hard as possible to teach Gabe to be EXTRA gentle with Alta. So much so that it's like she's a little fragile piece of glass. She's definitely more resilent than that, but I think if he thinks she's that fragile, he'll be more careful. I LITERALLY saved Alta's life once when Gabe wrapped a thin thread around and around her neck when I wasn't looking for 2 seconds!!! Sooooo scary!!!
Staggering their naps helped me get some time b/c they were each OK on their own, just not together.
Now that Alta can crawl, it's been much better. She can crawl away from Gabe if he's hurting her, or crawl to me if she's worried he's going to hurt her. Right now (3 years/10 months) they are pretty good at playing together without my constant supervision.
Post a Comment