Jealousy

Lately, Lily has been going through this kick where anything Marco uses, touches, shows interest in, or looks at... Lily has to somehow be involved also.  

Some things, like bath time, are great!  Baths, that used to take a half hour, now take no more than three minutes.  

Marco's seat has been a little trickier than bath time.  I didn't think that Lily would fit into the things I place Marco inside of... but apparently I was wrong!

Any time we take Marco out of the bumbo, she sneaks her little bottom right in and gets all cozy.  But, this isn't the only thing that she has wanted to use.  She uses his baby bouncer (also seen in the picture above), she wants to lay where he is in the stroller, and she has even asked to be buckled into his carseat once he awakens and we take him out at church.  We will buckle her right in and she sits all comfortable and strapped in for a good twenty minutes before realizing that she is bored of "Marco's toys" and wants to get out and participate in whatever he is doing instead.

But where he sits, lays, and sleeps, aren't the only things that she also wants to be a part of.  She wants our attention more than ever before.  And doing things where I need to give a LOT of attention to Marco, I need reinforcements.  And Michal sure makes a good handy reinforcer.  Sometimes I just can't hack it alone, and I am so, so grateful to him for all the additional help that I receive from him.  He is truly a blessing when it comes to handling two children during difficult times.

But jealousy isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Lily plays so very well with Marco.  She wants to show him how to play with his toys and interacts with him when he is trying to figure things out.  She wants to share and make sure that they are doing the same activity together.  And normally, Lily would never be interested in most of these toys/activities, but now she exemplifies what it means to be a good big sister!

Through this whole experience of Lily's want and need for additional attention (ahem... jealousy), I have realized many things... one of them being that Lily needs more interaction with children her own age until Marco is old enough to really play along with her.  We've tried to get out and visit other Moms in the area who have kids the same age as Lily, and that has helped.  And I've decided that come Fall she will be attending a pre-school a few days a week to help her get involved with boys and girls in similar situations. But the quickest fix to this problem was, deciding last minute, to take a trip out to Utah where Grammy and Pa-Pa could shower her with loads of attention and make sure that she felt loved and the need for jealousy didn't arise.  

She is really such a good kid and loves her baby brother so much, but sometimes a little too much and  I can't get upset at her for wanting to be involved and wanting love.  However, sometimes I don't know how to give her the attention she needs so I'm experimenting with different options.  Each brings new understanding: some positive and some negative.  But overall, I'm growing to love these children, and their love for each other, more and more each day.