Feel the Love

The other night, Will was having a hard time, so I asked him if he wanted a family hug. When he said yes, Zach and I swooped him up and hugged and kissed him. He was laughing and enjoying it, but then suddenly looked at me and said, "Baby Julia in the family hug?" This made my heart melt! I thought it was so cute that he realized that she was part of our family, and that he actually WANTED her to be a part of this little ritual that we were really trying to do just for him. Of course, baby Julia was asleep during this time, so she couldn't participate in the family hug, but it was still a sweet idea.

Overall, Will has been a very sweet big brother and hasn't seemed to struggle with the idea of Julia joining our family and living in our home. I think it helps that his routine hasn't changed much, so she hasn't really inconvenienced him. However, the other night, Zach was holding Julia, but Will wanted Zach to do something with him. So he said, "Daddy! Put baby Julia in her swing!!" This is the only "negative" comment he's made about her. Usually, he wants to give her a kiss when he wakes up, before he leaves for school, when he comes home from school, and before he goes to bed (and various other random times). He also loves to "hold" her, but doesn't seem to realize that he can't just sling her around like the baby dolls at school (or just drop her when he's finished holding her...luckily, no accidents yet!). He also likes to help give her a bottle, but he's a bit too, um, aggressive in this endeavor!

Will has also been funny in the sense that he seems to want to impress baby Julia. She is his new audience, and when he's doing anything, he wants to make sure she's "watching". We constantly hear his refrain of "Watch, baby Julia! Watch dis!" We've started to use this to our advantage in things like, "Show baby Julia what a big bite you can take!" or "Teach baby Julia how to take a really fast bath!" I know this is probably wrong, but at this point...whatever works!

We feel so lucky to have both of these sweet children in our family and in our lives. It is hard sometimes (ok, a lot of the time right now), but it's all worth it.