As we round the corner towards our last few weeks before baby brother arrives, we're trying to enjoy these final days of being a family of three while it lasts. We talk often with Lucas about the baby and how things will change when he's here. Lucas knows that babies get held a lot (because they can't walk), that they cry sometimes (because they can't talk), that they drink momma-milk, and that they are very small. He loves, loves his newborn cousin Liam and asks to see him most everyday. When he does see him, he showers him with kisses and touches him in a surprisingly gentle manner. For the last couple of months he's liked to pretend that he's a baby who needs soothing. I hold him in my lap (whatever's left of it) and call him my "baby bird" and he calls me "Mami Bird." He pretends to cry, and I tell him, "Don't worry, Mami's here." Afterwards, he says that he's happy again. We usually end up wrestling afterwards, during which Lucas sometimes pauses and looks at my abdomen and says "Mama is big!"
A while back ago, we were at a department store, when Lucas pointed out to me that he could hear a baby crying in a stroller closeby. I asked him what we should tell the baby to help her, and the translation to Lucas's answer was basically: "Don't cry, baby - Mami's here." I added to that, "And Papi's here. And Lucas is here." Ever since then, when he hears a baby cry, either on the street or in a playgroup or on t.v., he says, "Lucas is here, Papi is here, Mami is here - don't cry."
Having a baby in the house is going to turn his world upside down for a while, but we're getting some good glimpses that he'll make a great big brother. Agreed?
