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Mental Mentor
With baby Merritt’s inevitable arrival, we are taking stock of many things in our family. Trying to prepare the children for the little one is one of those tasks, and it has been fascinating to think of what the little guy will experience in his first few years.
Avey will naturally be a doting second mommy, willing and wanting to read to and hold him at any given moment. If Hakan’s coming was any indication, Merritt will be Avey’s first thought of the morning, last thought at bed time, and most of the rest in between.
Carver is another story. He will no doubt be a good brother, but what kind of role model? Just this morning, he told me, “Dad, I want breakfast, but I want you to think about what I want to yourself.” He has done this for several weeks now. What he means is that he does not want me to list off some possible foods he might like, because he would turn most of them down, and that takes up his brain power. He would prefer that I just pick the one food that he would eat. The problem is that I have no idea what he wants at any given meal. I confidently suggested that he would eat egg, which he turned down. After I thought for another moment, Carver had an epiphany – “Dad, how about I just tell you what I want?” Stroke of genius. Poor Merritt is going to think mind games are a normal pastime.
Hakan will undoubtedly have an enormous influence on little Merritt. They will be less than 2 years apart in age, so they will probably be best friends when they are both able to run and climb. Hakan has been mastering his climbing skills as well as he can. Just last night, he was scaling the little futon mattress trying to reach things on a ledge above it. He is also a little daredevil, dashing through the house as fast as his little feet will carry him, and sometimes faster (of which the little bumps on his head often bear witness).
Luckily, through all of the fighting and arguing over toys and attention, the little ones are sure to find a few moments of laughter and giggling. We’ll try to catch as many as we can on film.