License to Kill… or Love

There’s a James Bond marathon going on on Spike TV right now. The Munchkin reminds me of one of the titles: License to Kill (Timothy Dalton as Bond).

She loves her baby brother. She’s just trying to kill him with that love at the same time. She wants to kiss him, check on him, is constantly saying “hi baby” to him, and making sure that his burp cloth is near (or on) his face.

On the flip side, yesterday the Webmaster and I saw her pick up a hard ball, stick out her jaw (when she is focused or ready to draw blood, she juts out her chin in this underbite, which is funny because she actually has a slight overbite), and approach her father, who was holding the baby. At the same instant, the Webmaster and I became clairvoyant and yelled “NO!” We could actually see the wheels in her head turning and making connections to throwing the ball at the baby. So we are making the effort to curb her natural aggressive attitude, while at the same time trying to be empathetic to her altered status in life.

This baby has upset her routines. There has been less cuddling with Mommy, and my 24 hour stay in the hospital actually resulted in her pushing me away to a certain extent and becoming more Daddy-dependent (she fussed for him when I put her down for her nap today). She has started telling us “baby down” – meaning for us to put the baby down – but when we have, she is torn between climbing into our laps or checking out his face with her fingers. She has yelled at us, shaken her finger at her father and told him off in no uncertain terms (in her Jawa-like language, although we hear a lot of the words “Mama” and “baby” in there), and is generally acting out to get attention. She is getting attention, but she wants it ALL, and she can’t get it all.

Since her brother is five days old, obviously this is all very new – for all of us – and we have a long way to go. I’m confident we will all be okay. In the meantime, I am shopping for an infant-sized helmet – the Munchkin has a wicked overhand pitch and her aim is not that bad, either.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2005 at 3:19 am and is filed under Children.
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