The Life of a Big Sister

So far Clara has been an amazing big sister. She really loves Baby Emmett and tells him so often. She loves to kiss him, see his ojos, and touch his hair. The fact that Tia had Bailey nine months before Emmett was born really helped Clarita to understand that I was growing a baby in my tummy and what he would be like when he was born. She often told me that she grew in my tummy and then came out, Bailey grew in Tia's tummy and came out, and Baby Emmett was growing in my tummy and would come out. She talked about the things that he would do when he was born such as drink milk from my pezones (nipples), cry, spit up (luckily she was wrong about that one), and wear diapers.

Clara refers to Baby Emmett as "my baby" and does not like other kids to get too close to him. She will yell at them, "No, don't touch my baby!" Clarita has also spontaneously shared her favorite stuffed animals and blanket with Emmett and she won't let anyone touch those, not even Bay Leaf. She likes to talk about how tiny Baby Emmett is, "He's real real tiny" and it's very sweet to watch her with him and listen to her talk about him. She told Kate at a water polo game, "Don't let Baby Emmett fall down."

Helping to give Baby Emmett a bath

There are also days when Clarita is not very well behaved. She has done a million times better than I imagined with Emmett taking up so much of my time, but she sometimes uses the distraction to do things she knows she should not. One day she and I were getting ready to give Emmett a massage and I had to run upstairs to get something. I told her not to touch the baby oil until I got back and two minutes later I found her with the oil that she had gotten from the bathroom sitting on the bed slathering it all over the poor Little Guy. There was oil in his hair, on the comforter, and all over his back. He was a good sport, but we had a little talk about listening. While I finished the massage she proceeded to get a dental floss out of the bathroom drawer and unroll it (also something she has done before and been told not to do again). Another day I was in the shower and Clara was playing in the living room like she normally does. I came out to find her lathering body wash all over the couch and she said "I'm cleaning the sofa." We had already had numerous discussions about the fact that she is not allowed to take off any of the lids to the lotions or soaps and she had poured out a little bottle of mouthwash on the bathroom floor earlier that day. This necessitated her first time out. Which was followed that evening by her second time out when she got the Vaseline for Baby Emmett's circumcision (which she knew she was not allowed to touch) and smeared it all over her arms and legs.

Hurricane Clarita sharing her spoils with
Baby Emmett

Covering herself with stickers when Mama's
not watching

Clarita has had a couple of incidents where she lightly hit Emmett on the head and said, "Bad Baby Emmett, I'm bonking you." Luckily she did not hit him hard, but we keep reminding her that she needs to be gentle with him and treat him nicely. She sometimes gets a little rough trying to play with him, but luckily he's a tough little guy. Pretty soon he will be hitting her back!

Big sisters also get to do super fun things like play at the park with friends, cousins, and Abas.

Watch out Kieran!

"Slide with me Sarah!"

"I catch you Reedcito!"

Hangout with friends and cousins.

Bath time with Eli and Eden

Playing with Daylynn and Cambria

Clara just climbed up on Sophia's lap!

Pants off dance off!

Strollin with Bay Leaf

She refused to do anything until she took a picture with Bay Leaf

Rolling up rugs with Hadley

Eat ice cream at the zoo.

Go potty.

Multi-tasking

I wanna show you my poopoo, there's a lot!

And play with fun toys.

"I want to play with my slippery red shoes.
They're from Holland."

Overall Clarita is a very good big sister and she loves the Little Guy and reads him stories and wants him to come everywhere with us. When I told her that I was going to take her and Bailey to yoga and leave Baby Emmett with Aba she got genuinely upset and said that she wanted him to come too. I thought she would like the time with me away from him but turns out she wants him to come and said that she misses him when she is not with him. Hopefully this attitude towards him continues!

Snuggles