Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Big Sister



Olivia was born when Alyssa was three years and ten months old.

Before O was born, Alyssa was so excited about having a little sister. Like many children, I think she believed this baby sister was going be born two years old, already walking and talking and ready to play.

Not only did that obviously not happen with Olivia, she was a very cranky, very demanding baby.

Alyssa no doubt felt very much slighted when that baby sister came home from the hospital.

Heck, to be honest, I felt slighted when we brought this angry, screamy baby home from the hospital.

I'd imagined cuddling my two daughters, one asleep in the crook of my arm and the other snuggled against my side as I read to her in whispered giggles.

Of course, life rarely takes the exact path we expect and plan for and imagine.

And as Olivia got older but still didn't crawl or walk, I think Alyssa got complacent. She didn't have to worry about her 'stuff' being messed with by that baby sister who just laid like a slug where ever we put her. (She did stop crying when she was about six months old, once the doctors finally agreed with me that she needed medication for the reflux they didn't believe she had.)

When Olivia started crawling at seventeen months old, Alyssa was still pretty confident that her stuff was safe. See, even as she learned to crawl, O wasn't all that inclined to pull herself to a stand. She just crawled from place to place and found things to play with at that level. She didn't feel the need to explore beyond what she could see at that point.

But oooh, the rude awakening Alyssa suffered when Olivia started walking. O was 29 months old, which means that Alyssa had turned six a few months prior.

Alyssa realized that with a walking little sister came a meddler, an explorer, a THIEF! Someone who would see HER stuff and want it.

Ohh, the drama that has ensued ever since.

When I got home from work a couple of years ago, I saw that Alyssa had decorated HER desk with pictures of a little girl in a circle with a line through it.

She'd declared her desk a "No Olivia" zone.

She was marking her territory in a much less smelly, messy way than a dog might, but it was marked just the same.

Of course, Olivia had no idea what those signs meant so she continued to explore and meddle and annoy her sister to no end.

But Alyssa tried and for that I have to give her credit.

And to her even greater credit, she's come a long way in the world of sharing her 'stuff' with her sister. Of course, Bubby is still off limits but hey, a girl's got to have a few things to call her very own.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And it seems like she is doing a great job. It's not easy for any child to share the spotlight especially with a very demanding little sister ;}

Tiffany said...

What a good sister!!