The pictures don’t lie…that I post every day…sorry, not sorry…the boys love their little brother. Gabe gives the kid zero personal space and always wants to wrap his body around the baby. McKay is like a 3rd parent. I have found him eating cereal with one hand while holding Christian’s binki in for him with the other. They both come home from school, greet their baby bro, and say, ‘aww, he’s so cute mommy’. Then I yell at them to wash their grubby toddler hands and not to touch him until they do.
We’ve had a couple of interesting moments with the two boys though. One night Gabe was messing around with the fan in our room and Liz was holding the baby. Liz said, “Gabe, why don’t you stop messing with that fan”…Gabe, always quick on his feet like his mama said “Mama, why don’t you put that baby down”. Ahh, there it is…jealousy reared it’s ugly head. He then followed up his comment by saying, let’s put these clothes on the baby’s head or let’s put this pillow on the baby’s head. I say, Gabe, we wouldn’t want to do that. Do you know what would happen to the baby if we did that? G (very casually): Yeah, we wouldn’t have a baby anymore. Ok…Obviously Gabe would never do anything to hurt him but he was clearly feeling left out and in need of attention. He’s actually fiercely protective over his little bro. I called Christian ‘pukey pants’ the other day because he’s been spitting up a lot. Gabe sternly told me to cut it out and that he didn’t want his brother to be called that.
One weekend, maybe 2 weeks after the baby was born we decided it would be a good idea to break down the kids beds in their room and build them bunk beds. This seemed like a good idea at the time, in retrospect, waiting a week or two more might have been a better idea. Liz did most of the work but I helped build the bunk beds. Did I mention it was an IKEA bed set? Now, for anyone who has ever put IKEA furniture together you rightfully consider us to be even crazier to put this bed together on week 2. The boys had been messing with some of the parts and tools and we couldn’t find something we needed. We yelled down to Mckay and said, ‘McKay, do you have the tool?’ M responds: ‘Um, no, but I do have the baby!’ Liz and I sprint downstairs and Mckay is sitting on the couch with Christian. He had pulled him off of his Boppy Pillow and was holding him. He said, Mommy, he was crying so I needed to hold him. Hooooly crap. This morning I was brushing my teeth and the baby started crying. Before I could do anything McKay was at his side, saying, “It’s ok sweetheart, it’s ok” and rocking him in his car seat. He was able to get Christian settled down without me having to move a muscle. #proudpapa Haha
The funniest development we’ve had has come out of our mornings. Typically, the boys wake up between 5:30-6am so we have about 3 hours together before they go to school. My routine is to nurse the baby, drink coffee and eat breakfast, feed the boys breakfast, and pump to save up some milk for when I go back to work. McKay and Gabe are not at all rattled by this pump being attached to my boobs and the process that ensues. What they have done is taken to cheering for one boob or the other. Oh, mommy, which one is going to win today? Recently this has evolved into them picking a boob as their own. Ok, Gabe, you can be the left one and I’ll be the right one. Again, they can use my blog for future therapy sessions. #boys #everythingisacompetition #earlyboobobsession
McKay and Gabe are learning to be a lot more self-sufficient now. They get themselves dressed every morning, some mornings they get their own breakfast or juice, and on good days they help me with the baby or with each other. I found Gabe out back a few days ago using the pooper scooper to pick up a dog poo and McKay strapped Gabe in his carseat yesterday. On bad days they fight with each other, I count how many times I have to say put your shoes on until they actually do it, and then I yell. We aren’t perfect that’s for damn sure. All in all, we are still doing well and adjusting to our new normal with our 3 boys in LALA land!
