As the day of Meimei's arrival approaches, I've been wondering whether Caleb is ready to receive her into our family. From the very initial stages of my pregnancy, we had already started talking to Caleb about a new sibling. He had always said that he wanted a meimei so that seemed like a positive sign. But ever since I got pregnant, he has been increasingly sticky and whinny and manja. Yes, many people have told me that it's the result of my pregnancy and he wants more attention from me. Well, anyhow, me and Daddy are trying our best to help him cope with the idea of having an additional family member.
At times, when we talk about Meimei and we talk about sharing toys with Meimei or talk about where Meimei will sleep or ask Caleb whether he will help out to take care of Meimei, he has always sounded quite positive. Sometimes, he'll take a ball and talk to my stomach and ask loudly,"Meimei, you want to play ball with me?" Other times, he'll come and pat my stomach gently. Or he'll come and talk loudly to my stomach when he comes home and announce,"Meimei! I come home from school already."
Whilst on the surface, he seems ok, but he has other reactions that tells me that he may feel a little insecure about having a sibling.
Well, for one, for the last 4 nights, he has been waking up in the middle of the night and trying to crawl into bed with us to sleep with us. I'm really not sure what's causing him to wake up coz he's not sick or anything. But that's what he's been doing. It's quite hilarious at times actually coz he'll gather all his pillows and bolsters (that's like 2 pillows and 2 bolsters) and hurl them all onto my bed before trying to make himself comfortable beside me. Of course we don't want him to make it a habit so every night, we chase him back to his bed to sleep. Sometimes he'll start to whimper and start to call me in a very pitiful voice when he gets sent back to his bed. And that's when Daddy steps in with his stern voice and tells him to go back to sleep.
Maybe he's training me for the night feeds that will come when Meimei arrives.
The other night, I was playing with Caleb. He was holding on to a toy taxi and telling me about the people sitting in the taxi. Well, according to him, he will sit in the backseat with me holding him. I tried to test him by asking where Meimei would sit. He told me that Meimei was in my tummy. So I asked him again, "what about when Meimei comes out? Where will she sit?" And he said,"Mummy carry Caleb and carry Meimei to sit at the back." So, I went on and said," Oh, but I can only carry 1 person. So how?" and he replied," then Mummy carry Caleb. Daddy carry Meimei." I was like... hmmm... ok....
There was this other day when I asked him whether he would share toys with Meimei and he said yes. And then I asked, what about Daddy and Mummy? Will he share with Meimei too coz she will call us Daddy and Mummy too. He stood there, froze and frowned for quite a while before moving on to change the subject without giving me any answer.
Well, I guess maybe it's really not a concept that he's able to grasp and accept, especially since he has never seen Meimei physically. Anyhow, me and Daddy are praying that he and Meimei will take to each other very well and hopefully when the time comes, it'll not be too big an adjustment for him. Yesterday I brought him shopping and asked him whether he wanted to buy a present for Meimei and he was very enthusiastic about it and helped to choose something for her. And I've prepared a present for Meimei to give to him in exchange. So hopefully, that'll be one small step to ease the transition.
