Claire has been very excited about the upcoming new baby ever since we explained to her why Kit's tummy was getting bigger a couple of months ago. Claire has ranged from mild curiosity about the baby ("When will it come out and see us? How will it get out of there?") to impatience ("I want to open Mommy's tummy and see the baby now!"). She has tried to help name the baby, with "Ansista" being her most original and consistent choice. Claire speaks often about how she will help take care of the baby by feeding it and showing it how to do things like cook and jump.
We had some early incidents when Claire bumped up against Kit's tummy while playing, so we had to give Claire specific instructions to be very careful around the bump. Now Claire is extremely cautious and gentle around Kit, and last night she make her way up to Kit's tummy and kissed it ever so gently. Then she just kept kissing it. We said, "Okay, thanks, that's enough," but she said she wanted to kiss the baby ten times, and that she did. We asked Claire if she wanted to say anything to the baby, and she gently patted the bump and said, "What are you doin' in there?" with a little smile on her face.
I know the new baby will not always be easy on Claire. For one, Claire is going to have to learn to get along without quite as much dedicated attention. But so far, Claire is off to about as good of a start accepting her little sister as we could have hoped for. We are very proud of big sister Claire.
Kit and I are not doing as well. We have have been too busy and/or exhausted to prepare, and we are struggling just to get a crib set up, much less get any basic baby supplies in place. I also have a small pile of books to re-read about babies (we already forgot the details of what to do with babies) plus some new books on siblings. None of them have been cracked yet. We will find figure it out, but it may be more of an on-the-job training than we had hoped for. We are glad that Claire, at least, is ready for the new baby.
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