When we first brought G home, E kept pulling the blanket off of him. At first we thought it was an attention thing, but we realized it was more that he needed to see the baby. The whole baby. He needed to see that it really was a tiny person we’d brought home, and not just a crying head.
And it’s continued. He loves to point out his own eyes/nose/mouth, and then point to the same body part on the baby. He’s learning that the baby is a person.
Same goes for his classmates. E isn’t the only one that gets excited when I show up every day. While E may run into my arms, the rest of the class runs over to the baby. I put him down on one of their mini tables, and they all surround the carseat, watching and pointing at the baby. There is a chorus of “Baby! BABY! BABYBABY!”
Usually he’s asleep and they just point at him, but lately he’s come in with his eyes open. And suddenly it’s clicking to them that he’s alive. Because it’s cold out, he’s still always covered in a blanket. The other day one of the kids figured out they could pull up the blanket at the bottom, and found FEET! Tiny feet, covered in socks.
E has always been obsessed with socks, and he’s certainly obsessed with the baby’s socks. In that he must have them on his feet all the time, and will check in with me to see if he does. Well it seems like it’s a universal toddler thing - at least at this daycare. These kids were so excited to see tiny feet with tiny socks. They couldn’t stop touching them and giggling and jumping up and down.
And when we left, we stood outside the door for a few minutes as E got distracted by a balloon someone had down the hall, and I heard for the first time what happens when we leave the room. A chorus of toddlers crying and banging on the door screaming “Noooo baby! Bye-bye baby! BAY-BEEE!”
I’m not sure how I feel about making a roomful of kids cry every day… at least I make them happy with baby time first?
