Getting Ready for Baby Brother

So we've been discussing with Bree the arrival of this new mysterious baby brother for a little while now. For the most part she seems to be taking it all in stride, (probably largely due to the fact that he's not really here to intrude on her everyday reality yet). But we've been talking about it and it's been funny to see and hear how Brianna integrates this information into her life right now. Take Mom's growing belly....we keep talking about how it's getting bigger and that the baby brother is inside there. Then we tell her that right now he's growing and when he's ready he'll come out and live at our house. And, on her part Bree seems to get it as much as you can at 2 and 3 quarters old.

For example, recently while she and I were taking a bath she pointed to my belly and said, "Baby brother is growing in there?" "Yep," I said. "Okay," she answered and then she dumped a cupful of bathwater over the area. "Water will help him grow!" she explained to me seriously. (Apparently she's made the connection that plants need water to grow so why wouldn't that also apply to growing a baby brother right?)

And she has stopped even calling my belly anything other than baby brother. She'll stroll up to me, pat the belly and ask, "Mom, how's your baby brother doin'?" Then there's the matter of the new brother living with us. He's already got his own room in the new house (although it's nowhere near being ready for him and is currently sort of the moving "I don't know where this goes" dumping ground). Despite its current state of disarray however we've still been calling the room, "the brother's room" or "baby brother's room" when talking about it with Brianna. So, whenever someone new comes to visit the new house Bree loves to give them a little tour, mostly skipping all the other rooms to direct them straight into her room but not before pointing each time to the room next door and explaining, "That's the brother's room."

The most interesting part to me though is how all Bree's little dollies are now baby brothers (despite the fact that most of them came in pink clothes). One of her favorite games these days is to play with her baby dolls and all of them are brothers. She's even picked out the tiniest one and insists "he" needs to sleep in his toy crib in her bed with her. "Mom, baby brother (the dolly) needs to come to bed with me!" Overall, it all seems to be a pretty healthy integration and preparation in her daily play and activities for getting a new brother this summer.....although I do expect the sibling rivalry and resentment parts to kick in once he arrives in person. :)