Flashback

Tonight I'm having a flashback of sorts:  back to February of 2010 and the one-month-old Juliet.  Here she is again, in the person of her brother James.  He's even starting to look like she did as a newborn.  And he is of course doing all the same things:  eating every three hours, spitting up a little, squinting around at this new world, peeing right after you changed his diaper, etc., etc.

What's different is Juliet.  At three and three quarters, she is her own little person, with a definite view of the world and her place in it.  She is precocious, charming when she wants to be, a whirlwind of activity, and perfectly capable of doing most things by herself, for Heaven's sake!  She is also single-minded, happy to play alone, cruel when she wants to be, and lost in her own world much of the time.  How did she get to be so grown-up??!

Juliet has quite naturally been affected by the birth of her new baby brother.  Who wants a sibling when you've been king of the hill or queen of the castle?  Nobody, that's who.  And Juliet is no exception.  The day Jeanne and James came home from the hospital, Matthew carefully explained to Juliet that Mamma was coming home, and James was coming home, too.  Juliet said, "Well he can't stay here!"  When Matthew explained that indeed, James was going to stay here, Juliet wanted an exact description of how long he was going to stay.  Last night at the dinner table Juliet wanted to know exactly how long Grandma was going to stay, too.

Her world has been turned upside down.  Everyone wants to see the baby, and coo over the baby and talk about how beautiful the baby is.  Meanwhile, Juliet had to spend the night of the baby's birth with a friend and her family, and she was afraid her parents weren't going to pick her up.  Then Grandma moves into the spare room, Daddy goes back to work, this James character doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast, and Momma is tired all the time.  When will life return to normal?

Matthew and Jeanne are very good about spending time with Juliet, talking to her and making her feel grown up and special.  I'm sure her anxiety will lessen as she sees that her place in the family really hasn't changed.  In fact, her place in the family is more important than ever:  she is now the Big Sister.