Anna Loves Evie

These days I don't have as much time to post about what's going on in our house as I'd like. But I have been writing to friends about Anna's reaction to Evie. Rather than rewrite everything, I figured I'd just use what I've already written and save myself some time.

Three days old

Anna absolutely loves Evie. As soon as she wakes up or comes home, she wants to check on the baby. She loves giving her kisses and loves "holding" her too. She either sits on my lap or Dan's to hold Evie, or right next to someone who is actually holding Evie over Anna's lap. Anyway, it's been really sweet to see how much Anna loves Evie.

The only time she gets really upset is when she can't help with Evie. When I gave Evie her first sponge bath, Anna freaked out and I really think it's because we didn't put her up on the counter with Evie.

She started trying to push me away from Evie. You can imagine how fun it was to try and bathe Evie while Anna was freaking out and pushing me.

One week old

Anna continues to love Evie, but I think she thinks of Evie as a doll. She's started taking Evie's pacifier and stealing her socks when her clothes have open pants legs. Last night she started walking around the room saying, "kicking" and practicing her kicks. Evie was on the floor, but we stopped Anna before she got within range of Evie. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to explain to her that she can hurt Evie if she's not gentle and soft around her.

Two weeks old

I really worried that Anna would be jealous of Evie, but actually, Evie's presence has helped a lot with Anna's behavior. I used to have to turn on the TV and then wrestle Anna to the floor to change her diaper. That still happens sometimes, but if Evie is up, I can just lay her on the floor and Anna will happily go lay by her. Then we have a diaper changing assembly line. Of course she wants to hold Evie's hand and sometimes that makes it hard for her to lie on the floor, but we make it work.

This time she's not stealing Evie's socks; Evie just managed to stick her foot between the snaps on her leg. I guess this outfit was still a bit too big for her.

For Evie's two-week check up, I got to take both girls to the doctor's office. It was my first time taking both of them out all by myself. Of course I was running a bit late and so when we got to the office, I was anxious to move quickly from the car to the reception desk. Anna had other ideas. It's hard to carry an infant in a car seat and drag a 25+ pound toddler, but that's what I did. I was probably too tired to be completely rational. Otherwise, I probably would have realized that it would be a lot faster to take the time to calm Anna, rather than drag her screaming into the office. After we made it past the reception desk, for the most part, things went smoothly until we had to take Evie to the lab for the PKU. It's in the same building, which is convenient, but on the way, I lost Anna. She had been following me because she didn't want to hold my hand. I got to the lab desk and realized that Anna had disappeared. So I quickly walked back down the hall calling Anna's name. I could hear her yelling--I think it was "no." Thanks to her yells, I found her. The doctor's office really isn't my favorite place to play Marco Polo. She had stepped into a stairwell that I didn't even know existed. So at that point I picked her up and carried her back to the lab and refused to put her down while I filled out the paperwork. At one point she was hanging upside down, but at least I knew where she was.

Sometimes I'm a little overwhelmed by trying to manage two kids, especially when one of those kids likes to wander off, but as Dan has pointed out, Evie has helped us see that Anna has a good heart. All of the crazy stuff she does is just because she's little and curious about her surroundings. But she really does love Evie and has never done anything intentionally mean to her. Although the other day while I was in the bathroom, Anna decided to sit on Evie. I was not gentle as I yanked Anna off poor little Evie. After that I've been much more careful about leaving Evie on the floor around Anna. We do have a swing for Evie, but Anna likes to push Evie so hard that she practically sends her into orbit. So there aren't many safe spots for Evie besides her bassinet.
This last photo is courtesy of my friend Kate who took Evie's newborn photos when Evie was ten days old.

A few nights ago Anna pulled out the Primary song book and said, "Song Mom!" meaning that she wanted me to sing to her. She opened to the song "I Love to See the Temple." After I sang the first verse, she said "temple! Song Mom!" So I sang it again and she actually did her best to sing along with me. Of course a few minutes later she was lifting up my shirt, trying to look down the back of my pants, and saying, "Poop!" So precious.