Our Little Prince

It takes a special guy to be the little brother of a princess. Baby Dude has already been subjected to countless humiliations he's hopefully too young to ever remember. Since his sister has two years on him, princess gowns outnumber pirate swords three-to-one. So, things can get a little confusing around here. In fact, it's not uncommon to witness Baby Dude kicking a soccer ball or throwing legos across the room while sporting a tiara. Just yesterday afternoon, as I walked one of my students to her mother's car, I looked back to find Baby Dude close in tow, swinging a metallic pink purse in his hand and wearing a silly grin.

Games have taken on a bizarre twist as well. Last night during bathtime, Lil' Miss insisted on playing "Little Baby Mermaid", a game that involves holding Baby Dude with one hand and dumping water over his head with the other. This baptism is narrated by the sweetest, most serene voice ever heard this side of heaven. Ever so softly, Lil' Miss reassures, "Here you go, Little Baby Mermaid. Here you go..."

Interestingly enough, this bathing ritual eventually helped clear up an unrelated mystery for me. It struck me as odd the way Lil' Miss suddenly gave up playing with her baby dolls while her other gal pals still couldn't seem to get enough of them. Her girlfriends, the perfect models of attachment parenting, took their babies everywhere with them while the long forgotten babies of Lil' Miss went unfed, unrocked, and unloved for weeks at a time. What had happened? Would she one day grow up to abandon her own children? Then it occurred to me- they didn't have younger siblings. Why bother with a store-bought Baby Angel Annabel when Lil' Miss was already upgraded to a homemade model of Baby Smother Brother?

It definitely explained why she could never keep her hands off Baby Dude , the squirming piglet restrained in her lap, her arms squeezed tightly around his neck. I wish I had a housecleaner for every time I heard her yell from the other room, "Mom! He's ok. He's ok, Mom!" which definitely meant that he was NOT ok. Now that I think about it, it may even explain why he was such a late walker. The poor guy was probably ready to go months before he actually took that first step but could never seem to break free from his older sister's "loving embrace". And does he scream or fight back? No, not really. Our little champ just takes it like a man, letting her mother him, and biding his time until this nurturing phase runs its full course.

When the family is all gathered together and Lil' Miss has pinned Baby Dude down in her lap again for the umpteenth time, their dad is fond of saying, "You better enjoy this now, little girl, cuz some day he's gonna thump on you." It's a little frightening how excited we both are for that day to come.