All that love

Apart from blabbing too much about my delivery and how wonderful Carolina is, I'm most often asked how Elisa is coping with her new role as Big Sister. It's kind of expected that this will be a difficult transition for any kid, and yet I think there is a huge difference between a child of 18 months or 2 years getting a new sibling and an almost 3 year old getting one. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really think this is the perfect timing for us as a family to add a new member. Elisa is clearly able to process some of the big ideas about having a sister and taking care of a baby, and yet, she is also at that point that she needs a little comeuppance. I mean, let's be honest. In many ways, the "terrible twos" have given way to the "tyrannical threes" and we definitely have a girl who wants to insert her own choices and mandate how life will be. We're working every day on compromise and on making her feel like she has some control over our pre-approved choices, but really it's a crapshoot. Even pre-baby, there was never a good way to predict how Elisa would deal with our requests or changes to her normal routines--even if for the most part she was a pretty good kid. As the past week has shown us, with company around and a new sister in the house, sometimes the excitement and need for attention is too much. As often as there have been tender moments between sisters that would make your heart burst, there have also been regressions from a girl who wants to lay in her papa's lap to eat and crawl across the rug like a baby. Elisa has demanded to hold her sister and even carry her. She doesn't seem to understand yet that carrying a newborn is no small feat, but obliging her a little pillow time with her sister on her lap has worked wonders. Usually she is "done" with the baby in a matter of minutes, often after declaring how much she loves her baby. "I want to kiss her." "I need to hold her" she repeats daily. It's pretty sweet actually. And I suspect that with a little time and a baby who starts to interact more in a month or so, we'll see Elisa engage her sister more and really start to take on the role of caregiver. For now, she's happy to spy on her sleeping in the moses basket or get an up close view of her poopy diapers. She's already come through a week of huge changes and she handled my absence and the hospital visit with great aplomb. It was one of my favorite sights ever to see her face searching around the room for "the baby" when she first peeked in on me last Wednesday morning at the hospital. Seeing them meet and now seeing them together at home makes all the sense in the world to me. They were destined for this life together and I'm just lucky enough to share it with them.