Her new role

Ever since January we've been talking with C about becoming a big sister.  Early on she acknowledged that I had a baby in my tummy but the concept that the baby was her little brother didn't really stick.  Then at Easter she got her first big sister book and a few weeks ago I bought another one.

Through reading those books the concept has started to become a little more real.  She now can tell you (sometimes) that babies can't eat pizza and ice cream and she proudly reads the books that she's a "Big Sister Now!"  She will even occasionally tell you that baby J is the baby in my tummy.  But she still wasn't really showing an affinity for her baby dolls.

Up until now she has been one of those little girls that wasn't really interested in them.  She had them and she'd sometimes play with them, but she preferred to play with her stuffed animals instead.  She would tuck her stuffed animals into her cradle upstairs and would push her animals around in her stroller.  We have never really cared about this and also haven't pushed baby dolls on her.  I figured that she'd eventually start to like them but until then stuffed animals are cheaper than baby dolls and we already had a plethora of them! :)

But apparently all of the big sister and baby talk has gotten in to her head and last week she picked up and started playing with the first baby doll that wasn't completely stuffed that we ever gave her.  One afternoon she asked to watch Mickey on "Mommy's Daddy's Bed" and carried her doll to watch with her.  She sat her doll next to her on the bed propped up against the pillows and made sure that her doll had "covers" just like she did.

After Mickey was over and Daddy got home we were just sitting on the bed playing.  She then picked up her doll and started rocking her in her arms which was really a first for her to initiate herself.  Since all of her animals have names I asked her what her baby's name was and when she just looked at me I asked if her name was Baby Chloe (pick a random name, it's hard coming up with names for all of these stuffed things!).  She shook her head and said, "No, Baby Clarabelle!" and the name stuck.  (In case you don't know, Clarabelle is the cow on Mickey Mouse and C loves her!)

Maybe more of this big sister/new baby stuff is sinking in after all.  C and Baby Clarabelle have been pretty inseparable since that day and C loves pushing her in her stroller and sleeping with her.  I have always known that she'll be a great big sister.  I'm under no illusions that the transition won't be difficult -- she'll only be 27 months old after all -- but she's such a people pleaser and someone who loves to help so I knew that she'd step up to the plate and excel at her new role.  But I have still loved watching her embrace her baby and take care of her.  I can't wait to watch her take on the role of J's big sister!