Ok, Dani

When Rohan first met Kaya, he was just released from a 1.5 hour car ride, and was at home for the first time in 4 days. He was a wild man. Running here and there, shreiking, pointing at and labeling everything in sight, screaming everyone’s name and hugging everyone.

Except me.

Except the lady holding the baby.

I cried.

My mom guided him over and was like Rohan here’s Kaya, this is your sister. He said: Whoa! Cool! And commenced running, shrieking, pointing and labeling.

I was disappointed.

Later on, when he’d settled in and calmed down to his normal self. He came to me and gave hugs and was all mama mama mama again. He took some long looks at Kaya but didn’t say much or try to touch her. We encouraged him to touch her hand gently, but he wanted no part of it.

When I was changing her, he came over and watched, still silent. But just nodding slowly. This is odd because normally he’s asking questions about everything, touching everything and opening everything. But he just watched tentatively not moving besides nodding.

On the second day, he was a little braver. He touched her hand (stole her mitten) and gave her kisses before his nap and before bed. He raced over when she cried, and he calls out for her and waves “hiiiii” in her face. I think he wonders why she doesn’t respond.

Since then he’s been great about her. I have to remind him to be gentle, and watch like a hawk if she’s in her rocker while he’s tornado-ing around the living room. He hears her first when she wakes up, and screams “KAYA FUSSING!” and bounds down the hall and waits for me to catch up. He loves helping, and will get her items for changes, and blankets and whatnot. He loves giving her kisses and hugs and is brazenly touching her, reading to her and showing off his coloring pages to her. lol.

HOWEVER…. In general, his behavior has started deteriorating. He’s tantrumming more than ever, and I’m not sure if it’s because of “terrible two” toddlerness, or if it’s Kaya related. Maybe a bit of both. ::shrug::  He’s gotten a few time outs, and boy does he hate that.  Luckily, threatening time outs gets his behavior back on track…usually. (He’s lucky he hasn’t gotten punched in the face yet.)

Overall He’s a great big brother, and loves when we praise him for being one. He’s dealing with a bit of jealousy but he’s such a resilient lil trooper that he’s handling it in stride. Giving him special one on one Roey/Mommy time helps. But, I can’t wait until they can play together.

Any ideas on how to keep making big bro feel extra special?