(no subject)
I have a son, Sebastian (Bash), who'll be 2 by the time the baby, Oliver, arrives, or within a week or so if he comes a bit early.
So, we've determined the new baby will be a lot more "penned in" than Bash was. With Bash, he would lay on a blanket on the couch, the floor, the bed, wherever. pretty much wherever there was a flat space, I could set him down and he was fine to nap or just lay there and do nothing, as the teeny ones do. With Ollie, I'm pretty sure that even if I'm just going to grab some water, or do dishes or something, he will have to be left in a playpen/pack-n-play thingie primarily so that Bash can't get to him. I'm really paranoid about Bash trying to pick him up, even with the best of intentions, since I've seen the stranglehold he puts on his lovies, and since he things it's really fun to throw them around (i mean, what boy doesnt like to try to destroy everything in sight, right?).
And that makes me feel a little guilty, because I rarely put Bash in one, except to sleep, for the simple reason that he then had basically nothing to look at but the mesh walls and the ceiling. So I wonder how long it will take to get Bash to the point that he'll be safe around the baby, so I dont end up with one happy, stimulated, well developed child, and one window-licker who was trained to just blankly stare at nothing while his brother happily played nearby.
For those of you who had a second (or at least, a subsequent) child while you still had a toddler, any advise on how to show your little wild thing how important it is to be careful of the baby? And did you have any particular issues with getting them to follow these directions if you turned your back? I wouldn't leave him there alone for any real stretch, but I know there will come a time when he's alone with the baby, even for a millisecond.
So, we've determined the new baby will be a lot more "penned in" than Bash was. With Bash, he would lay on a blanket on the couch, the floor, the bed, wherever. pretty much wherever there was a flat space, I could set him down and he was fine to nap or just lay there and do nothing, as the teeny ones do. With Ollie, I'm pretty sure that even if I'm just going to grab some water, or do dishes or something, he will have to be left in a playpen/pack-n-play thingie primarily so that Bash can't get to him. I'm really paranoid about Bash trying to pick him up, even with the best of intentions, since I've seen the stranglehold he puts on his lovies, and since he things it's really fun to throw them around (i mean, what boy doesnt like to try to destroy everything in sight, right?).
And that makes me feel a little guilty, because I rarely put Bash in one, except to sleep, for the simple reason that he then had basically nothing to look at but the mesh walls and the ceiling. So I wonder how long it will take to get Bash to the point that he'll be safe around the baby, so I dont end up with one happy, stimulated, well developed child, and one window-licker who was trained to just blankly stare at nothing while his brother happily played nearby.
For those of you who had a second (or at least, a subsequent) child while you still had a toddler, any advise on how to show your little wild thing how important it is to be careful of the baby? And did you have any particular issues with getting them to follow these directions if you turned your back? I wouldn't leave him there alone for any real stretch, but I know there will come a time when he's alone with the baby, even for a millisecond.