Sisters

Eva loves her baby sister already, and tries to get close to her whenever she can. Yesterday morning when she woke up, the first word out of her mouth was "Amanda?" She followed me into our room with her little jammies still on, crawled into our bed next to Dave, and gave her sleeping baby sister a big kiss on the cheek. It's amazing to think that we are now officially a family of four. The big challenge right now is that Eva doesn't know her own strength, and is apt to kill little Amanda with affection. Whenever I nurse the baby, Eva tries to climb up next to me and watch. She strokes Amanda like a cat, leans forward to kiss her (accidentally crushing her in the process), and tries to help burp her by patting her back. Then she starts inspecting her tiny hands and features, threatening to poke her eyes out by pointing out the parts of her face: "eyes!". The baby isn't the only attraction. Eva is fascinated by the way I nurse the baby, trying to figure out how my nursing top works and how mommy makes milk. When we lay Amanda down to sleep in the play yard downstairs, Eva climbs into the closest nearby chair and tries to reach in to touch her. We don't want Eva to feel pushed aside when the baby's around, so we try to include her as much as we can, but it's a challenge to keep it safe and gentle. Also, while she seems to love the new addition, she’s recently gotten more testy when she wants her way, throwing bigger tantrums than usual. It’s almost as if she wants to see how far she can push us, with company and a new baby to distract us.