Sisterly Love

Having a baby around is special, but having a baby around with two toddlers is an absolute hoot! It has been especially fun listening to the girls' observations of their brother. Here are some quotes from the last couple of weeks:

"When will Merrick get a mustache like Daddy?" - Karamea

Me: "Do you love your little brother?"
Kaylee: [shaking head no] "Name. Merrick." (She was correcting me for calling him 'brother' and insisted that I refer to him as Merrick.)

When Kaylee was born, some close family friends gave Karamea a doll and stroller, and this time, Grandma and Grandpa O gave Kaylee the doll and stroller and Karamea's doll got a new set of clothes. They love caring for their babies and taking them on walks around the house.

Mark and I observed that Merrick wasn't too much bigger than the dolls, and decided to try out the stroller to see how he fit. He didn't like it, to say the least. But I had to take a picture of him when he was this tiny because I know this time will be gone all too fast.

The girls do a much better job being gentle if Merrick is down on their level, so Mark piled some blankets in a basket and set Merrick in it for a couple of minutes and the girls had a couple of very closely supervised minutes pushing and pulling their brother around.

Karamea and Kaylee continue to dote on Merrick whenever possible and were imitating him moving his arms at the dinner table last night. Kaylee loves giving him kisses and holding his hands. She will often hold his hands and recite our family prayer that we say at dinner time, which is really endearing. She wants to share with him and it takes a little bit of explaining to this very determined 23 month old that we love her sharing things with her brother and sister, but no, brother can't have animal crackers yet. Both girls are really helpful and will let us know if they hear him crying on the baby monitor.

The girls' relationship with each other has really grown lately too. They are playing together much more peacefully recently and help each other out. Kaylee's increasing ability to communicate her wishes helps a lot with this. It brings us so much happiness to hear joyful giggles and squeals coming from the girls as they play. The other night, Mark and I were gathering laundry in the bedrooms, and when we returned to the bathroom to check on the girls, we saw this adorable scene (forgive the poor quality of the photos; my phone was the only camera we had handy)