When I was pregnant we spent a lot of time reading books about new babies and being a big sister. We talked about “our baby” a lot and about the things to expect with the baby. Clare had a baby doll and we spent lots of time taking care of it. I would love to say that Clare’s enthusiasm over baby Sam had anything to do with us, but I honestly think it’s 100% her. She just loves him, loves being a big sister and is perfectly content with adding him to our family. I told people that we weren’t done having kids after Clare, that I felt like someone was missing, and it seems like Clare did too. Of course we didn’t know it was this cutie-pie who we were missing but now that we’ve met him it’s like “of course! We were waiting for you to join the party!”

That’s not to say that Clare hasn’t needed additional reassurance with this change to the family, or that she doesn’t sometimes get frustrated with being told to wait while we take care of Sam. My biggest pride with her is in how well she tells us what she needs. If she needs extra reassurance she’ll ask us to “shush her” which is to snuggle her close and shush her like we do to Sam when he’s upset. She’ll tell us to go take care of Sam when he cries (though we’re usually on our way to do it) but sometimes she’ll say “No, you stay with Clare.” Even if we can’t stay with her in that minute, we try to listen to what she’s telling us. Not once has she ever taken it out on the baby.