Andrew has done remarkably well since Alyssa's arrival. I think part of it is that he is so mature for being almost 4 but another part is due to the spacing. I think because he was the only one for so long, he was given a lot of individualized attention and has moved into a more "independent" stage. He is still the light of our lives but I think he realizes that we love his sister just as much and to our delight - he adores her, too!
In fact, I noticed the other night that he has been sneaking into our room at night to check on his baby sister who is still sleeping in a bassinet at the foot of our bed... how sweet is that!?!?
Additionally, I think it helped that we kept him a part of it all. She has always been "his" baby or "our" baby. We have made sure to include him in the majority of the process and David has also talked with him about taking care of Mommy & Sister.
We also made a point to have a "Big Brother Party" for Andrew soon after bringing Alyssa home from the hospital. Munner & Memi (my mom) helped with getting the balloons and buying him the "real deal" Buzz Lightyear as one of his big brother gifts....
We also purchased him a Spider-Man flashlight and a Puppy Pillowpet as his gifts for being such a great big brother!
Here we got to have a special dinner of corn dogs and other youngin' friendly foods in the dining room (which Andrew associates with special meals...)...
Below are pictures of Andrew being silly during times of the "party"....
(note the lovely flowers below that we received from my mom, Cheryl & Dad "O'Nanny" & "Pa", Dianne & Ray Scott and my colleagues at ASI...)
So far we are at 3 weeks and all still seems to be going well. I wish the recovery was a bit faster so I could spend more time with both kids (mainly Andrew & the bazillion active things he is always wanting to do) but I know that will come soon.
