Big Brother

Elias has been working on some molars. For the most part, besides running around like a madman with his fingers in his mouth, he’s been pretty good about it. Going to sleep has been a bit more tough for him. It takes a bit of Tylenol. Still, there are times when he gets up in the middle of the night crying and just needs to be picked up. He nuzzles his head into my neck, and I hold him in the rocker, and his body goes limp in my arms.

There’s nothing like holding a sleeping baby. Knut and I have kinda an informal system when I take care of a newborn in the middle of the night, and he takes care of the older kids during the night. That way, when I’m getting up every few hours with a newborn, I can sleep straight through one of the older kids having a wet bed, a nightmare, or needing a drink of water. The older ones rarely get up at night, so he’s still doing pretty good as far as workload.

For the most part, I love getting up in the middle of the night to snuggle a baby. I know when I was first a mom, I was so eager to get my baby to sleep through the night. To an extent, I’m pretty sure all moms are eager for some uninterrupted sleep. We’re so eager to them to roll over, and crawl and walk, and even talk. It’s good and normal, I think, to desire to see them develop into the person they were designed to be, but I think with each kid, I have pushed them to these milestones less and less.

If they potty train at 18 months or 4 years old means about a hill of beans in the long run. When they walk, roll over, or sleep through the night means less to me now. I don’t worry because they will do it, and while they’re not doing whatever is the next thing to do, I can enjoy that stage of their babyhood. I don’t know exactly what I’m trying to say.

As I was holding Elias last night, it was way up high on my chest, with his little bum sitting on my big tummy, I was thinking of how life will be different with a new baby. When the new baby comes, Knut will be getting Elias’ midnight snuggles. I’ll be too tired from getting up at night with the new baby. Already, I hold him less during the day, and hold his hand as he’s walking in parking lots and such.

I guess I’m trying to say, I wonder how it’s going to be with a new baby in the house. Silje survived David coming, and David survived Elias coming. I’m sure Elias will survive. Not only that, I think having another sibling will be good for him. It will help develop his character, force him to grow up a bit. O…there we go. My baby will be growing up. He won’t be my baby anymore. Not in the “youngest” sense.

When talking with other moms who are adding their second and third child, and feeling nervous of how it will change their older child’s world, let me say, that anxious feeling is still there for the forth. Even with the full knowledge and experience you’ve had before of everything turning out fine, it’s still bittersweet.

This new little love will be arriving in about 2 months. I’m sure I’ll be overloaded on baby snuggles and midnight feedings. It’s just silly to say that I’ll miss getting up with Elias, as few and far between those times actually are. He’s not going anywhere, just like David and Silje didn’t go anywhere either. I still get to snuggle with each of them.

He’s almost 2 now. I know he’s not a baby anymore even without a new little one coming, but it seems to be so pronounced this way. Everyone notices that he’s getting bigger. We stopped by our favorite ski place the other day to get the kids measured for skis so we could keep our eyes out for the right size of used children’s skis for this winter. As we entered the building, our friend the owner said “Where’s your littlest one?” We pointed at Elias who was tottling all around the room. His eyes got big, and he said “No! This can’t be your little baby!” Yep, he’s getting so big that he’s not even recognized as a little baby anymore. He’s a little boy now.

He likes to do what the big kids are doing all the time. He talks a lot more now, but with his own set of words. For instance, food is “Ummm! Ummm!” and he acts like he’s chomping. Cars are still “Brrmmm Brrmmms” and water or milk has become “Mo Mo.” He still says “no” 100% of the time, which means that 50% of them actually mean “yes.” If you ask him if he wants more, and he says no, and you don’t give him more, he’ll get very upset.

He loves to point out pictures of “Bo” (boats) or “Bi” (bikes). One of my favorites is when he points out a bird and gets an enormous smile on his face and then says in a very high pitched voice “Teet teet! Teet teet!” He “moos” when he sees a cow, and says “woof woof” and then pants when he sees Lena. When she bothers him, he takes out his stern finger and shakes it at her saying “Doe Doe!” which reminds me of Gus from Cinderella.

He says “Haaa ooooo” when he gets a hold of one of our phones, and loves to wave “bye bye” to people. Don’t even get me started on his obsession with wearing shoes all the time. He’ll bring me his “oos” and “ocks” whenever he wakes up. When it’s time to eat, he’ll set down his cars that are always with him on a shelf and say “bye bye, brmm brmms” and then promptly marches to his chair.

Yes, my little boy is getting bigger. I suppose the main thing this new baby will bring to him is the title of “big brother.” He has shown more love to babies than either of the other 2 ever have, and I know he will just dote on his little sister. He doesn’t strike me as a jealous kid, rather very very nurturing.

He’ll be a good big brother. We’ll all be fine. I’m sure of that. In a logical, unemotional way at least. The emotional me is going to snuggle his little body over my big tummy as much as I can