At the NICU with Early Bird, little kid siblings were not allowed in the rooms with the babies. So the first time Builder Boy (who was two and a half) met Early Bird was when we brought Early Bird home, almost two months after he was born. He had been practicing with a baby doll how to hold and be quiet and gentle around babies. When we let him "hold" Early Bird for the first time he tried to pick him up and put him in the baby seat that he had been putting his baby doll in.This is a picture of them on Mother's Day, just a few days after we brought Early Bird home.
As Early Bird got bigger and a bit less "breakable," Builder Boy wanted to help out. He was allowed to do a few things, well supervised of course.I even let him help feed Early Bird once.
The NICU that Lady Bug was in let the boys visit and meet her before she came home. The plan was to take them in one at a time. We took Builder Boy first. He was immediately entranced by his baby sister. When Daddy asked him what he thought of her, Builder Boy whispered "she's beautiful!" We let him stick around for about 10 or 15 minutes and then we told him he needed to go back to the waiting room with his grandparents so his brother could have a turn to meet her and he started to cry. Not a tantrum; he just buried his head in his daddy and tears dropped down his face.We decided to let him stay and Principal Daddy went and got Early Bird so that he could meet Lady Bug, too.
Builder Boy hung around while Early Bird and then Nana and Apa all got to meet Lady Bug. He was quiet and good, mostly just gently touching and adoring his baby sister. He had only one request: to hold her. We made that happen.
Every day since Lady Bug has come home Builder Boy has held her and fed her (with supervision and pillow support.) I've taken about 20 pictures of the adorableness that is this kid's love for his baby sister. Here are just a few more.
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| Lady Bug holding Builder Boy's finger |
Very sweet!
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