They’re now 21 months old themselves and, as far as we can tell, he didn’t do any permanent damage. Number 4 is due in February… we’ll see how the girls do!

We found out quickly that our two-year-old, Sophie, couldn’t keep her hands off of her baby sister. She’d rock her carseat/carrier EXTRA hard and put everything from crowns to boxes on the baby’s head. I found myself repeating the mantra, “Sophie, don’t touch the baby’s…” over and over. Although we believe in letting our kids have fun and roll around with each other as long as no one is bleeding, I had to put my foot down in this situation. Poor Olivia, pleaded with her eyes, “Keep that lunatic away from me!”

Finally, I found something that worked. I began to tell Sophie that when SHE was a baby, everyone tried to keep HER safe. We didn’t let people touch her head, wake her when she was sleeping, put jewelery on her…fill in the blank! It worked! In fact, although it has been ten months (time flies) since I first attempted this strategy, I just used it today! I said (calmly), “Sophie, when you were a baby we didn’t feed you the microscopic plastic Polly Pocket pieces” as I fished around in poor Olivia’s mouth for a tiny party hat. Okay, so it is a work in progress!

Good luck! Thanks for entertaining me with your blog!

I have been sucked into a game of online “tag”. I am sort of new to the blogging world, but I thought it would be a good chance to send some people to my favorite blogs – and you guys rock! Just wanted you to know that you are it (if you are into that sort of thing – like you need something ELSE to do)!

Michelle @ http://www.leavingexcess.com

My children have age spans that are fairly short between their births (14 months, 18 months, and the next 4 were 20 months apart), and I have run into very similar issues.

The best way I found to help deal with the “only touch the baby when Mom is around,etc.” was to buy one daughter a Cabbaga Patch Doll, one she chose herself. Of course, I only figured this out with her ( my 6th child! lol), so I went through the whole “the baby isn’t a doll, you know.” with quite a few girls before that.

Miss Cutie-Pie is a born Mother Hen, and she wanted to take care of her little brother constantly (she still does, btw), but at least with her doll, the “special one” she got as a present from her baby brother, she can groom, wash, do hairdos and feed him, just like Mom did. I saw her many times “nursing” her baby, shirt shoved over her head (not quite like me, I must say…lol).

These moments are stressful, but remember your hormones are a bit silly right now, add the constant sleep-deprivation and you will realize that your reactions might feel exasperated and frustrated a bit beyond your normal tolerance.

Taking her out of the situation was the perfect thing, and you seem to have a good handle on it. Just take deep breaths, find somethign to laugh about and/or hide in the bathroom for 10 seconds to get your bearings. (after making sure the baby is safe from ehr, of course)

If that fails, start thinking about the problems you’ll have in 10 years or so, when the dreaded teenagehood is near… eek! That’s enough to wish for the baby days…lol !

Keep smiling

My son has even started to pull her hair, she just laughs and says “Oh, Chubby just loves his big sister.” And he does if she is ignoring him, he hollers out for her.

Your kids are adorable, BTW (: