Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Max eats, insane sibling rivalry ensues


Big excitement at our house. Max ate by himself for 15 minutes straight, the most ever! This is him downing couscous, which we have in abundance because Linnette (our babysitter) is addicted to it. Every year since Max was born, he always has some sort of breakthrough right around his birthday, which is coming up on December 10. At age one, he commando crawled (like Army soldiers do, because he didn't have the arm strength to get up on all fours). At two, he did get up on all fours and boy, did he get around. At three, he walked across his bedroom and into my arms. Four and five are a bit of a blur, because he made a lot of progress. And now, at six, he's feeding himself.

You may have noticed Sabrina's reaction to her brother's breakthrough (she's decked out in her ballet-recital costume from June). When I squealed "Yaaaaaaay! Max is eating!" she wailed "Hug me!!!" Not caught on tape: the part where she said "MAX IS GOING TO EAT IT ALLLLLLLL UP!!! MOOOOMMMMMY, WE WON'T HAVE ANY FOR TOMORROW!!!!" FYI, she doesn't even like couscous. Fascinating, isn't it, how kids wear their emotions on their pink-sequined sleeves.

She gets jealous of all the attention we give to Max. We celebrate, with loud whoops and cheers, every little accomplishment. I totally understand where Sabrina is coming from; I was pretty jealous of my sister when we were kids. Mainly, because she was always such a good girl and, I thought, my mother's favorite. I wasn't a juvenile delinquent or anything, but me and my big mouth gave my parents a run for their money.

Just curious, what kind of sibling were you growing up—the good one? The funny one? The smart one? The troublemaker?

8 comments:

  1. Ha ha ha ha ha! I was the bad child. I smoked, I drank,dabbled in the drugs, drove the car regularly before turning 16, had a little fun with the boys. My brother RARELY if ever got in trouble for any of his antics. I have always thought he was the favorite. But now I realize after watching my own children, that my brother seemed like the favorite because he was more dependent, and still is. I was incredibly independent, and pushed anyone away who tried to help me. I didn't care who I pissed off, I was going to say exactly how I felt. My brother, not so much! IT is still like this today. He is 2.5 years older than I am, yet still relys on mommy to help him out a lot. Its funny how some things never change...

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  2. How cute! I'm new to this blog, I read about you on Storked! just now, and I had to come read. My baby brother has muscular dystrophy/spinal muscular atrophy, and my cousin has cerebral palsy, so I was very interested :)

    Hm, well, I'm only 15, but I've always been the good one aside from my little bro. My big brother is definately the bad one, but I think as I get older I give my mom more and more gray hairs from boys, body issues, and talking about driving and going away to college. :P

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  3. I can relate. Alessandra, 3 1/2, has Verbal Apraxia. She attends Marshall's needs preschool and I also take her to private speech therapy multiples times a week. Sofia, 5 1/2, has always asked to go to speech therapy. She wants to join in on all the fun and excitement. Alessandra is pretty amazing and will work super hard during her session in order to "win" two prizes. One for her and one for her big sister. Melts my heart sometimes. Judie
    http://judiesjuice.wordpress.com/

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  4. Yay! Congrats! I can't wait my LilB to start feeding himself, though I think it may be a bit.

    I was an only child but when I slept over at other places, parents always loved me because compared to their children I was an angel. But I always behaved better around others then I did my own mom or dad (divorced)

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  5. Yeah for Maxipoo!! I'm also impressed that you figured out how to upload a video here! Yeah for Ellen!! My sister was the "good" one....I think you'll have to ask my mom how she'd describe me!

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  6. A very wise friend has corrected me, she thinks Sabrina is saying "I'M HUNGRY!!!" not "HUG ME!!!" I think she's right. No matter. Still a clear-cut case of insane sibling rivalry! Welcome to the blog, Jay. Judie, hi, will go check out your blog.

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  7. I was the smart one and my brother was the popular one. Interestingly enough, he is now an attorney but I probably have more friends.

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  8. It is very impressive that Max ate that long. My daughter held a piece of ham in her mouth for 15mins, sucked the color right out!(she has a g-tube).

    I was the overweight, grumpy, non-patient one, who never finished anything. My one step sister was smart and skinny one with the "greatest boyfriend on earth".
    My other sister the youngest and all around good daughter.

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Thanks for sharing!