The Difference of a Couple Years

I've always been a bit nervous about how Gareth would handle a sibling. He's been a very attention-demanding child from day one, constantly wanting 100% of any adult attention 100% of the time. He spent much of his baby and toddler-hood screaming if I ever gave my attention to anything other than him. Not exactly the temperament suited toward acceptance of an attention-demanding infant usurping his place. He seemed like the perfect candidate for enjoying being an only child.

But lately I've been feeling better about how he'll do. Oh, I'm sure he'll have his moments of annoyance with the baby. But I think, now that he's older, that he'll do much better than he would have a couple of years ago. He did quite well with his cousin over the holidays. And today we had Gareth's best friend and his friend's little brother over for the evening. Most of the time, Gareth and his friend successfully ignored the little brother who followed them around as best he could while they ran to and fro. But after I'd played peek-a-boo with the little boy a couple of times, Gareth decided it looked like fun. He managed to entertain the one-year-old for quite some time with this game, which enabled me to finish up dinner. Not only that, but at one point, after he'd gone off to play with his friend again and the baby wanted me to hold him, Gareth was more than happy to come entertain the baby while I opened the hot oven. How nice, to have a child who is capable of understanding why a crawling baby around a hot oven is not a good idea! Of course, the kids Gareth's been dealing with are all one - much more interesting than a newborn. But hopefully some of his willingness to help will remain, even if his interest in playing with his sibling doesn't.