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Since moving to Tennessee and adding one more child, I’ve noticed some changes in how the kids relate to each other.

Isaac and Charlotte still get along very well and play together all the time.  It seems like they’ve been conspiring more and getting into more trouble since the move, but maybe I just think that because I am much busier and have less family support out here.

Other than adding a new baby, I think the way Charlotte relates to Nicole has been the  biggest change in dynamics.  Isaac’s school day is much longer here in Tennessee so Charlotte has had to resort to playing with Nicole in the mornings.  Charlotte likes to encourage Nicole to do naughty things like ransack my candy drawer so that she can reap the benefits of candy plunder while passing the blame onto her younger sister.  Nicole loves to climb into Charlotte’s bed and Charlotte willingly invites her in and they both crawl under the covers together.  Charlotte has been spontaneously hugging Nicole when she cries and getting out toys for her.  I’ve even seen Charlotte spontaneously sharing her things with Nicole like the other morning when Charlotte helped her pick out a combination of her shoes to wear.  While Isaac is at school, they spend the majority of their time playing together.

Isaac has always been a kind and loving brother to all of his sisters. When Charlotte was a baby I would catch him putting bits of cereal in her mouth, swinging her in her baby swing, talking to her, or trying to teach her things like how to brush her teeth.  Before Nicole was born, I repeatedly talked to Isaac and Charlotte about what newborn babies were like and what they could and couldn’t do.  When Nicole was born, Isaac loved to talk to her and regularly told her lists of things she could and couldn’t do (“you can cry and you can suck but you can’t walk or crawl. . .”).  As Nicole grew, Isaac continued to watch out for her, help her with things, and baby talk to her.  Now he baby talks to Ila and regularly asks to hold her.   When he gets in the car after school he says “Hi Ila” in a cheery voice.  Sometimes he tries to explain things about the world to her in his higher-pitched baby voice.  (Recent example:  After telling me what he learned about the Revolutionary War at school and what it means to be an American, he turned to Ila and said in a baby voice “We’re Americans, Ila.  That means we are  free for everything."

Charlotte has recently taken more of an interest in Ila.  She has a little pink blanket that she has claimed as her own.  I think I remember her telling me it was hers and insisting that I surrender it when I used it on Nicole.  Now she regularly places it on Ila and says “I love Ila so much that I want to share her with my pink blanket.”  She also loves to sing a little song to Ila that goes like this:  “I Love Ila, Ila Jane.”  She has started asking to hold Ila more and more and even fell asleep holding her one day.

I can’t figure out what Nicole thinks about Ila.  I have to be really careful about where I  put Ila while Nicole is awake because if I lay her somewhere that Nicole can reach her, Nicole will not leave her alone.  If I lay Ila on a blanket, Nicole immediately lays down right next to her and rolls close to her to give her a hug.  Nicole loves to put pacifiers in Ila’s mouth, but can be a little rough.  She also likes to hug Ila, but sometimes her hugs are rough and amount to trying to lay on Ila.  I had to move the baby swing into another room because as soon as I put Ila down in it, Nicole would be right there trying to swing it faster or pointing out Ila’s eyes, or almost laying on her in an attempt to give her a hug.  I have also caught Nicole trying to put non-food items (mostly toys) into Ila’s mouth.  I have never seen Nicole do anything that seemed intentionally unkind to Ila, but she does sometimes try to climb on my lap while I’m holding Ila and push Ila out of her way if they are sharing my lap.