State of the brothers

The boys love their new baby sister.  They like to cuddle and touch her. "Pet baby!" Rip says frequently, then gently strokes her head.  Rip loves to get diapers for her and put the dirty ones in the diaper pail.  (Unfortunately, this has led to a habit of putting things which are not trash in the garbage, which we then have to fish out.  We have found a ball, a book, and baby leg warmers in the diaper pail.  Ick.)

Jolly has been more difficult than usual, as he sees that I am spending lots of time feeding the baby and he is jealous.  He acts up to try to get more of our attention.  From all we have heard, this is very typical and it seems to be improving.

The other night we had a seriously adorable time where Jolly narrated a picture book to the baby and then declared she was sick and got out the doctor kit, and both boys gave her a checkup.  Poor Rip was really worried until I assured him it was just a game.

Jolly speaks of himself in the third person.  "Jolly wants some milk."  This is much less annoying than his other habit of reverting to toddler-level grammar in imitation of his brother.

Rip's new favorite thing to do when reading books is to announce that he drives the vehicles on the page, and that other family members drive other vehicles.  This leads to very amusing sibling arguments.

Rip: "I drive dump truck!  Baby drive backhoe.  Jolly drive forklift." 

Jolly: "No, I drive the backhoe!"

Rip: "Noooo!!!  Jolly no drive backhoe!  Jolly drive forklift!!!"

(Guinevere adds: Except it's usually even more insidious than that, where there can be multiple forklifts on a page and Rip, the bossiest second child in existence, insists that "I drive THAT one!" and that "Doln drive THAAAAT [other, less desirable] forklift!" and then the two of them have these high pitched very passionate arguments over who gets to drive WHICH forklift. Baby Tamvina, as she is currently being called by Rip, is happily agreeing to drive anything right now, happily.)