Awwwww. Thanks EC.

P didn't want Zia and I to go to bed yesterday until he'd had a good snuggle.

A dear friend told me that when the kids start playing together, well, its a whole new level of happiness in a Mama's heart.  And she was So right.  I figured I had a couple of years to wait for this gem of joy, but the last week brought us the best holiday present ever.  

Zia's development this week (its amazing how at this age, you can count the changes in a day - its mesmerizing really) truly put her on P's radar.  She started trying to sit up.  Which is heeelarious, really.  Because, (she's only 3 months old) much like her attempts at crawling, she's just too damn little :)  But she wants to see it all.  So she started heaving her huge baby head up whenever I'd lay her in her little rocker. She'd rocket herself forward to a mostly sitting position... which she could only hold for a teeny bit, and then she'd drop back in exhaustion.  Repeat. Repeat, repeat.  P and I would just laugh.  And then, when her little baby abs were apparently tired but still trying, P would help her.  Awww.

Zia, sitting up to watch the world.

 So after much, much internal debate, I picked up a Bumbo off of Craigslist.  I won't bore you with my maternal angst, I'll just say its working, Really freaking well, for us.  Since she was getting less and less happy with her view from the floor and there are times I can't hold her safely (ummm, think chef knife and huge butternut squash that needs dicing...) she is fabulously content to stare at her toes from her new seated position.  And this, P LOVES.  She seems so much more "kid" sitting. Then he does "baby entertainment" and dances, hops and growls to make her giggle.  Which she does.  I love seeing her smile at him.  And he watches her, I catch him watching her, with the strangest little smile on his face.

In addition to her independent seating, she started using the potty.  Big, big brownie points in P's book.  Now that she's not shrieking all day anymore (well, we did have a couple of days last week after I posted but before the dairy worked its way out of our system that she cried and spit up and hiccuped and refluxed almost all day, each day - poor baby!!!  Methinks we found the main culprit for those early days of misery...) P's only complaints post crying-jags are based on body fluids.  He's not fond of the drool or the diaper dumps.  (In fact, after her first huge, ummm, bizness, I exclaimed out loud, I was so, erm, impressed.  P came running to see what the excitement was and instantly backed away, gagging, "I think I'm going to throw up."  I chuckled and continued wiping tushie.  But what did I hear?  Poor little P, throwing up.  For reals!  Yah, really not fond of poo that P;)  So, doing her duty out of her diapers has totally helped their bond.

And I'm surprisingly enjoying the ECing too.  She's in between snap sizes on her infant Kissaluvs, so I figured I'd finally jump into the ECing, kinda guessing I'd be a failure and run back to the cloth dipes as soon as her thighs chunked up to the next snaps.  I imagined days covered in urine and poo on the floor from me missing her cues.  So color me happy with shock that its so freaking natural for babies that she's slowly teaching me how to take her to the bathroom rather than spend hours at the changing table.  Heck, even E is doing it!  The first couple of evenings he requested a regular wool cover over the questionably covering prefold.  But handing her off this weekend, bum just barely covered in a prefold, he tried taking her to her potty and... she peed for him!  Then a little later, she poo'd for him!  Unfortunately, we've only figured out her poo cue (grunting and a look of concentration) and are just taking her to pee based on timing and when she seems to squiggle and want it.  Which works great when we're holding her since she totally won't pee on us (yes, I'm still flabbergasted.  I'd read it.  I'd seen it in other kids.  I wasn't sure I believed it.  Its true.)  But if we toss her on the floor, she's bound to whiz, and I can't tell what cue I'm missing...  But its only been 4 days, so I'm guessing she'll figure out how to tell us pretty soon :)

She also started grabbing things.  My dinner plate's days are numbered.  And she's enjoying P's hair as handlebars.  So he tries handing her toys and jumps with joy when she holds it or shakes it for a second before dropping it - always more interested in what her brother is doing than whatever she's holding.  They love to hold hands and just grin at each other.

Dinosaur peekaboo (she addddddores peekaboo)  Good thing she seems pretty tame to growls and big ol boy raucousness...  (Oh!  And, old story I keep forgetting to journal.  The pink butterfly bassinet? My mom went to pick us up a nice white one when she was here to help.  P went with.  No, no, he said when he saw her grab the dull white.  We need the pink butterfly one because, and I quote, "Its pretty like my sister." :)

So our delight this lusciously long holiday weekend was watching the kids watch each other.  And this weekend, joining us downstairs after waking up, the very first thing he said was to ask if we'd seen Zia yet.  (I was kinda confused, since she was asleep in the wrap on my front.  Maybe he was so used to seeing me with the enormous green growth  that he'd forgotten my actual stature?!) No, he clarified, had we seen her awake yet?  How was she?

Now E just has to come to terms with P carting her around (insert sheer look of horror from Superman).  Cuz the Little Man is really ready for the whole big brother role...