* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2017*
Matteo: When Mama was still pregnant with Sissy, we used to read you this old
Mercer Mayer book that belonged to Papa when he was a little boy. It’s
about how everything Little Critter wants to do, his baby sister wants
to do, too. She follows him around, yelling “Me too!” while he’s riding
his skateboard, flying a kite and going on big kid adventures with his
friends. He endures most of this with patience, helping his
sister climb a snowy hill, balance on her ice skates and even
begrudgingly cutting his slice of cake into two pieces. At the end of
the book, little sister has a candy cane and, with the tables turned,
she shares it with her brother when it’s his turn to ask “Me too?” You
used to love that book. We must have read it dozens of times during
those months when we were all still wondering and dreaming about what
it would be like to add another person to our family. I realized the
other day that this book has really come true in the last few weeks.
Everything you do, Sissy immediately wants to do, too. When you play
with Legos, she wants to play with Legos. When you feel like dancing,
she feels like dancing. I tried to feed her some watermelon yesterday
and she refused to take even one bite until you came over to the table
with your own big bowl and suddenly it turned into a watermelon party.
When you snuck Mama’s phone away and crawled up on the bed to listen to a
Mike Birbiglia track (which you find hilarious because it’s mildly
inappropriate), suddenly she wanted nothing more than to hold that
phone, too. Sometimes this “Me too!” is inconvenient for you, but you
have been amazingly patient. You usually go out of your way to make
sure that when you get a treat, she gets one, too. It
genuinely makes you happy to include her. The lesson of the book seems
to have made a lasting impression on your little heart, and I’m so proud
of you.
Lilah: Bubba helping you fit your whole foot in your mouth, because that's what brothers are for.
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