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Brotherly love

May 10th, 2006 Caroline

Ben has been a big brother for almost a year now, and has behaved throughout in fairly predictable ways.

For instance, regression? Check: the day we brought Eli home from the hospital, Ben announced, “I’m going to pee and poop!” “Hurray! ” we cheered, pleased at his new body awareness; “Let’s go to the bathroom!” “No,” said Ben, “I’m going to pee and poop right here in the living room!” And he did.

Jealousy? Sure. Our early days with Eli brought lots of cries from Ben of “Put that down!”
Mimicking my behavior? Oh yes, as Ben would pull up his shirt and “nurse” his baby doll against his belly button.
For the most part, he’s alternated between ignoring and delighting in his baby brother and that’s worked pretty well for us.
Now as Eli has begun to crawl and have more of a direct impact on Ben’s life, it’s been fun to watch Ben find ways to deal with “Eli monster,” rampaging around his room and wrecking the megablocks creations, the train tracks, and the intricate patterns of playing cards.
The best recent development , since our trip back east last month, is a game Ben invented called Travel. He sets up his collapsible mesh fire truck – the airplane—next to the collapsible mesh house – the baggage compartment. Ben fills the baggage compartment with every toy in the house, while Eli crawls in and out of the airplane. Every so often, to Ben’s great delight, Eli crawls back into the baggage compartment. “Uh-oh!” shouts Ben,  “Eli suitcase!” The role really suits Eli’s chunky size, though he’s way too wiggly to play the part of a suitcase very well. Still, it’s nice to see them playing “together” at last.

Entry Filed under: General