Preparing Grace for sisterhood

December 1, 2016

My dear Grace,

Very soon, your life is going to change dramatically. Until now, you have been the sole apple of our eye, our pride and joy, the center of our lives. But in just a few days, you are going to have a little brother or sister! That doesn’t mean we will love you any less, of course. But it does mean our attention will be split between you, that we will love another little human just as much as we love you, and that our lives will no longer center around you alone, but around both of our beautiful children.

Of course, you will also have an important role, as the big sister! We have delighted in watching you the past several weeks grow into a little person with a deepened sense of the world and your role in it. We have seen your heart grow in its ability to love. While you have never been a very cuddly baby, lately you have taken to hugging a lot more, sometimes throwing your arms around our legs or necks. You will crash into us on the couch, arms out, and offer one of your famed open mouth kisses (you haven’t quite figured out how kisses work, so yours are often quite wet, but you still make a sort of clicking sound with your tongue because you have figured out that kisses come with a sound!). You willingly blow kisses to us, to new friends, even to your grandparents’ pictures or over the phone. What has been perhaps sweetest of all is that you have latched on to a couple of “babies” of your own – in particular, to the pink bear Gramma Lo made you, and the “Bebe” toy that your Grammy MayMay got you that is just like daddy’s childhood favorite toy. First thing in the morning you will smile, jump up, and point to one of these toys, looking at us and asking, “Bah-by?” As soon as we hand it over, you grin and throw your arms around the toy and hug and kiss it. Then you will proceed to carry them with you all over the house. Sometimes we will catch you sitting Pinky on your Y bike to give her a ride, or holding your empty bottle up to Bebe’s mouth to feed her. Once I saw you trying to put shoes on Pinky. You are learning, my dear, how to love and care for another, for someone who is important to you, and it gives us a beautiful glimpse into the bigness developing in your heart.

 

We hope that you will share this love also with “Twos.” We will certainly do our best to love and care for the new baby like we have for you, but we are grateful to have your help in this! He or she will be so lucky to benefit from the love and care of three Rehbaums, and you, his or her wonderful big sister, will be an important part of that.

There are so many other things we hope you will teach Twos! You, my darling, are so adventurous and brave. You have become very interested lately in your little bike, rolling it to different parts of the house so you can use it as a stool to see something new. You always want to walk yourself rather than be carried, so you can stop and look at things if you want. You can even go up and down steps several inches high! When you fall (which is often, given your bravery and adventurous spirit!), you get right back up again, unfazed. So we hope you will teach your little brother or sister to be brave, to be unafraid to try new things, to trust in his or her abilities.

You are joyful. You are clearly delighted by life. You sing, you smile,

you make jokes and laugh at them, you draw us into conversation, you share your toothy grin eagerly (and always have). Whatever it is that has given you such a spirit, my sweet, we hope you will share your secret with Twos.

You love to learn. You are always taking everything in. Your dad and I have watched you be mesmerized by airplanes, watching them move across the sky until they can no longer be seen or

Always exploring something...

heard (you are your daddy’s daughter!). You carefully examine new people and things, maybe trying to mimic their sound. You are always pointing at things and asking, “Wha-dah?” and then sometimes trying to say the word. When we sing you songs, you listen carefully, then try to repeat them to us. (You’re favorite right now is, “Row, row, row your boat” – you can get as far as, “whoa whoa whoa…”and you have taken several stabs at the ABCs.) We hope you will help Twos to learn! You have learned so much in your first 15 months, and he or she will have a lot of catching up to do to keep up with older sister Grace!

Oh my darling, I could go on and on about your charms. Please just know that even though your life is going to change, it will be for the better, and that we will only continue to love you more and more each day. We think you’re tops! You will always be our darling Grace, loved and adored for exactly who you are, and we cannot wait to see you as an older sister!

                                                                                                Much love,

                                                                                                Mom