Big Sister

We have been introducing Cpl Cutie to the idea since we first found out I was pregnant. In fact, two days after I found out, I picked up a shirt that says, "I'm the big sister." We thought that would be a fun way to tell our parents. (By the way, my parents totally did not get it. We had to spell it out for them.) I have also been talking to her a lot about the baby in mommy's tummy. She has come to the conclusion that since she is the big sister, there must be a little sister in there. She won't even consider the fact that it could be a little brother. We are working on breaking the possibility to her.

A little background on my girl:
She is our first.
She is the youngest of all the children she spends most of her time with. She has learned quickly that the little one will get pushed around if allowed. So, due to her quick learning and her first born tendencies, she has developed some bossy habits.
She loves to play with dolls and likes to dictate to me how the baby needs to be cared for. "She wants you, she wants me, she wants her baba, hold her like this" etc.
She loves to pretend play.
She is a big time mama's girl.

So, I am excited for her to become a big sister, because I know she will be great at it. Bossy, but great. I also think we will have some big transitions on our hands. We did a short dry run yesterday. We watched a cousin's 7 month old on an outing and I thought it would be interesting to see how she reacted to mama spending so much time with him in her presence. Well, she was such a champ! She didn't show any signs of jealousy. She wanted to help push him in the stroller, even let him use her stroller without much ado. She held his bottle and she got down on the floor with him to play. She could not understand why he couldn't walk and play with her though. All in all, I was so excited about how the day went. I know that this is just a small snapshot and it will be totally different when the baby lives in our house 24/7. But, I did feel like this was a positive sign.

On a related note, I have some concerns about how the transition will be for me as well. How will I handle a toddler and a newborn? Will it be a replay of "Cryfest 2005"? Today, I felt like I did well with both of them. I was exhausted when I was done, but other than that, I wasn't too ruffled by a toddler and a baby. I had a preschooler with us as well, so I went from one to three on this outing. Again, I know it will be totally different come June, butI still count it as a good sign.

Unfortunately, there is no way to tell whether we will have a Cryfest 2009. More to come on that this summer...