Big Brother

This week Akiva has been especially loving towards his stuffed animal, Kitty. He was never particularly attached to a blanket or really any sort of stuffed animal until the last couple of months. During these last few months, Akiva got a new baby nephew, and some close friends had their baby girl, and Matt and I told Akiva that he is going to be a big brother.

Akiva is now sort of mommy-baby obsessed. He takes Kitty places he would never have taken a stuffed animal, and scrunches up his face as he hugs Kitty and in a great impression of someone doing baby talk, says things like: "look at her little chubby mouth", or "look at her little chubby paws" and often points out to me what good care he is taking of Kitty.

Akiva has had a thing for baby girls and even before we told him I am pregnant, he acted as if he had a baby sister. He would play with some toys and lay some aside "for my sister". I thought maybe it was an imaginary friend kind of thing, but then he started referring to to the baby in my belly as his sister. I tried to tell him it could be a baby brother once but he sort of looked at me like I was crazy.

And the other thing he likes to do is tell me that we are going to play babies, and then he assigns roles: I am baby Willa (our friends' daughter) and he'll be baby Ezra (his cousin) and then we lie down and stare at each other and say "ga ga goo goo" or the even funnier to Akiva "waa waa"and then Akiva starts laughing and says in a very high pitched voice: "What do you need little baby Willa?" Actually, more often than not HE is baby Willa and I am baby Ezra. He finds great delight in how small babies are and I guess maybe this is just a universal truth about animals: we all find smaller versions sweet. Akiva has the added twist of finding them funny, too.

This image cracked Akiva up today as I asked him if he wanted to see what the baby looked like:

He thought it was hysterical. He also likes to make nonsense noises at my stomach and ask "is my little sister laughing in your belly?" I'm glad he finds the whole becoming a big brother thing so funny.

So we'll see what the next few months bring. My mother told me that on at least one occasion my older brother (about 2 1/2 at the time like Akiva) punched her in the stomach when she was pregnant with me. I'm not blaming my mom for not protecting me by somehow making the whole new baby thing a laugh riot for my brother- I honestly don't know how Akiva will be feeling when it really sinks in that he is going to have to share us... but for now I'll take his adorable mommy baby games and how he declared in his tiny high pitched voice before bed tonight that "I love my little sister and I can't WAIT for her to be born!"