Noah is officially part of the clan -- his big sisters have fully welcomed him.
On the very first day, Charlotte gave him a loving nickname: Baby Noey (rhymes with Zoe and Chloe). In fact, Charlotte's repertoire of Noah nicknames [aka variations] has steadily grown: Nola, Nona, Nolika, Nolina, Noney, ...
Whenever she gets a chance, Penny gives little Noah a good sniff or wet kiss.
When Charlotte hears her little brother cry, she's taken to commenting
"Baby Noey is crying. Ima gonna make him feel better."
Big sister has gone through the gauntlet of siblingdom though, and exhibited a gamut of sibling emotions over the past weeks.
On the way to her second hospital visit, Charlotte exclaimed to Daddy in the car:
"Ima gonna hold baby Noah." [Ed. note: Pause. That's nice Charlotte. Maybe she's getting the hang of this thing after all.]
"Ima not gonna poke his eyes out." [Ed.: Umm, I wasn't concerned about that until just now. Why would that even come into your head? What other types of "interaction" have I neglected to anticipate?]
"Ima not gonna hit him." [Ed.: Sounds like daycare teachers were working hard on adding a NOT to this sentence...]As if he had known, Noah arrived bearing gifts to appease the sisterly gods. We're not sure if it was the fancy camera 'he' gave Charlotte, or simply his sweet newborn charm... but she immediately took to him: Charlotte's favorite activities now include kissing Noah, helping him burp, kissing Noah, assisting with diaper changes, kissing Noah, singing and reading books to him, and... kissing him.
Penny, on the other hand, has been completely unfazed by the new delivery. When we had Charlotte, we had the distinct impression that Penny didn't trust us as newbie parents [she would run in our room -- tail wagging -- and stick her wet snout into whichever face she could reach when Charlotte began crying]. She's now more relaxed about how the whole operation works, letting the two-leggers tend to the situation on their own terms -- but still grabs every opportunity to snuggle up to "her baby".
All in all,
it looks like Noah can look forward
to more sisterly love from our girls.
