Three is company, four is a crowd

A friend of mine had a baby last week. It was our first time to see Iman’s reaction to another child that small. Usually she is great with other children, but usually those other children are also close to her age.

Initially Iman was really excited to see the little one. She was squealing in delight, clapping her hands and yelling BABY! BABY! Perfect reaction… she likes little kids!

A short while later when she realized the baby doesn’t do much; she completely lost interest and went about playing and doing her own thing. Funny though, every time anyone picked up the baby, she went straight to them, raised her hands and nodded (her way of telling us to pick her up). As if trying to tell us that having the baby around is OK, but no one should carry anyone but her.

But when I picked him up, she dropped what she was doing and came to claim her turf. First she innocently stood by my feet, arms extended and head nodding. But instead of picking her up, I sat down and told her that I had the baby right now and started asking her to interact with the baby. I asked her to tell me where the baby’s hand is… nose… etc. When she realized that this “thing” in my arms was just as harmless as her toy doll, she again went about her business.

I was kind of happy to know that she didn’t detest the child, and was welcome to see me carry another baby. Obviously her reaction to another child is important, since we want to have all our (three) kids with little gaps. Iman being the eldest would play an important role, and it was necessary for me to see her reaction to this one.

To make things better (or worse, depending on how you look at it…) Iman was eating animal crackers, and when she saw that the baby didn’t have any, she did the noble thing by going up to him and trying to feed him some. We caught her in time and made sure that she hadn’t secretly stuffed in a couple. Thankfully baby was ok. Of course I sat Iman down next to him and told her that he was too young to eat. In her words, I told her that baby doesn’t eat “um” (Iman’s word for food). “Um” is only for big kids like her, baby is small and only drinks “dudh doo” (read: milk in Urdu). Well then… THAT changed things for Iman. For her, “dudh doo” is mommy’s milk, something she IS NOT willing to share. So she got up, picked up her shoes and my keys, and headed to the door, her way of saying… It’s time to go.

I was too quick in mentioning the child’s sustenance. It would have been better if I hadn’t mentioned “DD” something near and dear to her heart, and something she still isn’t willing to share. Maybe it’s still too early to think about another child, but I’ll leave you with an image of me with 2 kids.