Men at Work

People are consistently asking me, “How are Ane and Tad dealing with the new baby?”

Today, I will talk about Tad.

He’s actually doing quite well.  We watch him carefully when he is around Rerun, but generally, Tad ignores him.  The only times that Rerun actually gets Tad’s attention is when he cries.  “Mama, baby cry,” he calls out.  It doesn’t matter if Rerun is getting his diaper changed, or fussing in the car, or wanting to eat.  If Rerun so much as makes a peep that sounds like a cry, Tad is our informant.

Family friend C., Tad’s second-hour Sunday School teacher, theorized that Tad thinks that Rerun is actually in pain, or hurting in some way, since that would be the reasons for Tad himself to cry.  And of course, Mama can fix hurts.  So Mama should be able to fix the baby!  Right?

Tad has only had one really big meltdown.  It was last week, and Rerun and I had been to the hospital for a post-partum checkup, and I had taken Ane to Grandma’s for a play date with Libby (a distraction for both girls).  Tad had been at home with the Webmaster, but hadn’t napped that day.  And by that evening, he was in full meltdown mode.  And the Webmaster had lost patience with him.  Tad was refusing dinner and just being a little snot about everything, but I knew that he was over-tired and feeling hurt.

So I handed Rerun to the Webmaster, got Tad ready for bed myself, took him into his room, pulled him into my lap and sat down in the glider.  We just sat and rocked for a while together in the dark bedroom.  I cuddled Tad – which is not as easy as I remember!  He’s a big boy now, and compared to Rerun, he’s HUGE – and I prayed with him and talked with him quietly.  I told him that I understood that his world had been turned upside down, and that I knew that he was tired, and that this was hard for him, but that I love him very much and he hadn’t been forgotten.

Tad fell asleep in my arms.  I carried him to bed and tucked him in, and all was well for the night.

We have been making an effort to make Tad feel more like a big boy, too.  Last weekend, the Webmaster put him to work.

He had a pretty good (heavily supervised) time, sharing a man’s work with his Daddy.

And then Mama made him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and all was right with the world.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 10:07 am and is filed under Children, Mommyhood.
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