The Little Green Monster
Lest you think it's all sunshine and rainbows up in this joint, there are a few Not So Excellent things happening. For one, our not-that-old air conditioner died. If ever there was a bad time to spend $1000 to repair something, THIS IS IT, but whatever. Being a grownup sucks sometimes.
Being a big sister kinda sucks sometimes, too.
While Alexis is over-the-moon happy to have Mila in her life, she can't help but let a little green inch its way into her veins. She's not ridiculous levels of jealous at all, but ... it's there. A little bit.
The way she's handling it is rather hysterical, if you ask me.
A couple of days ago some fantastic friends stopped by to meet Mila. And by "stopped by" I mean drove REALLY far and in the case of Casey, flew. In an airplane. (My friends. There are no better ones out there.) Alexis was, of course, happy that we had company, even if they forgot to bring more kids with them.
As the adults sat around the patio table fawning over Mila, Alexis did exactly what any jealous-but-unwilling-to-admit-it sibling would do. She performed acrobatic feats in the yard.
(Photo by Casey. You should check out her blog. It rules.)
She didn't yell, "Look at me!" or anything like that. She did, however, pause frequently in her tumbling to see if anyone was watching. There were no parenting rookies at the table, so we all knew to make sure and acknowledge the existence of the the Big Kid. We clapped and cheered at all of the appropriate times.
But I knew she was just waiting for us to fail. She wanted an excuse to be mad.
The EXACT same thing happened the next day when the next door neighbors came over to visit. As we sat on the patio, Alexis did back walk-overs and waited. Staring at us. Waiting to see if we would notice.
An occasional round of applause would break out because we all knew what she was doing.
There are far worse ways to deal with a little jealousy. If we keep having visitors, Alexis might have her back handspring ready for action in time for cheer season.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Reader Comments (6)
Looks like you had a great time with your visitors! I feel for you on the AC. When we lived in CA (aka the hinges of hell / edge of the desert; your choice), the fan motor on AC went out.... and it was 95° in the house while it was 110° outside. Not fun.
As I said, that's exactly what I did. Cartwheels. Walkovers. The casual "thanks" to make it seem like I didn't care. I almost died when I saw it happening. It made me feel things. She's a great kid. And Mila is gorgeous.
And you have amazing friends.
As the oldest of three girls, this never stops. But crowd approval helps.
She'll find her new normal. They are both beautiful and what adventures they will have!
I wondered if that was what she was doing! She is absolute aces at being a big kid...even when it's hard. Tell her all the Internet noticed her death-defying feats and said she is AWESOME. ;)
does this mean that i can come see you and the baby, then steal alexis and shower her with tons and tons of attention?!