Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Some people said, things should be ‘easier’ for us when baby no. 3 arrives, because Anya and Vai are older.

[ie. Since they’re much older, they would be of great help to us and the baby. They don’t need much ‘physical care’ from me]

Anya is 7yo and Vai is 4.5yo now.

Well, frankly, I have no idea how things will be when baby arrives.

I have no idea how the two older siblings will behave / react as they ‘adjust’ to the whole idea of having another baby in the house.

Because, with a newborn baby around, it does mean Mommy’s time and attention is no longer ‘just for the two of them’.

Mommy will be busy tending to the baby’s needs (not to mention the round-the-clock breastfeeding) and all other things that need to be done at home. And, Anya and Vai STILL crave for Mommy’s time too.

They may be able to do quite a lot of things on their own, but they have … emotional needs and demands.

You see, Anya and Vai CAN be independent, but they are not THAT independent.

They still demand my time. Unreasonably, sometimes.

They can whine and excessively complain if what they ask / want is not given.

They often choose to be defiant too (read: more often than not, I’d get such episodes from them both everyday these days)

And yes, this happens even when we do make the efforts to ‘prepare them for a new baby’ in the house.

(Read: Preparing older siblings for a new baby as best as we can doesn’t automatically mean they’ll completely be ‘unaffected’ by the change, because each child’s characters and emotional developments are unique)

…

Anyway.

We try to create a positive feel about the whole ‘new baby’ idea at home. And to (hopefully) better connect the older siblings with the baby, I try to get them involved in the preparation for the new baby’s arrival as well.

And this is one of the things they did.

They did simple drawings and colouring FOR the baby.

Anya did a little ‘poster’. She chose to write the word ‘Home’ to welcome the baby home.

Vai did a poster too, but errr … he insisted that I drew a picture of a car on it before he watercoloured it! =)

And, this is another idea we had.

We bought 5R-sized photo frames from IKEA.

Anya and Vai then did more colourful drawings and we framed them up.

[They also wrote something at the back of each of their drawing to make it even more personal. It’ll help us remember WHEN these drawings were done too, and how their handwriting was like at the time =) ]

So.

Four frames will soon be put up next to the baby’s cot!

Courtesy of the big sister and the big brother =)