twobytwobytwo: February 2010

I was thinking today about when Devin and Lauren -my soon to be 8 year olds- were born. Connor and Regan came to the hospital to meet their new sisters. We have a picture of Regan sitting on a bench in front of the window carefully holding the new baby. Connor is looking out the window at the view of the roof top. "Do you want to hold your new sister Connor?" "Do you think I could get out there and throw some rocks?" And thus began Connor's indifference toward his sisters.

That's okay, I told myself, according to the baby books, it is normal. (Maybe less normal was the way he shredded the book we bought him called "I'm a big brother") Eventually, he'll come around. For the first week he ignored his sisters completely. If someone stopped by the house Regan would eagerly take the visitor to meet her new sisters. She would tell people, "This is my new sister, DevinorLauren. And this is my other sister, DevinorLauren." But Connor would be quietly playing with his matchbox cars under the table.

On the day it was time for their 1 week check up I was packing them up into their car seats.He came over, and started asking about what I was doing and where we were going. "I'm taking them to the doctor," I explained. And then I went into detail about what we would do at the appointment. Connor was interested, and I was excited to take the opportunity to get him interested in his sisters.

When I returned from the doctor visit the first thing I saw was Connor playing in the driveway with chalk. He saw me get out of the car and his face lit up in a huge smile I hadn't seen for a while. I turned around and opened the van door and pulled out the first infant carrier. As I turned back to Connor he yelled "You brought them back! Why did you bring them back? You said you were going to take them to the doctor!"

I guess I forgot to mention the doctor doesn't keep them.

And it's been pretty much the same around here since then.