Adam is My Brother!

I, well "we" is probably more accurate, babysat for Billy Rockey's children, Eli and Jillian, today. From the moment they arrived, Grace was fascinated with Eli, who is 7 months old, and frequently competed with Jillian. It was hysterical watching Gracie and Jillian argue over which color paint each would use, who would sit at the little table, which person would flush the toilet, and which books to read first. But, the best argument of all was over Eli. Gracie decided he was "mine" baby, and Jillian would have nothing to do with that. With great pride Jillian said over and over, "No, Eli is my brother!" Grace looked over at me and I told her the truth..."Eli is Jillian's brother, not Gracie's. Adam is your brother." Then the argument went something like this...

Gracie: Adam is mine brother!
Jillian: Eli is my brother!
Gracie: Adam is not your brother. Mine!"
Jillian: Eli is my brother! Eli is my brother!

After hearing this off and on for about 30 minutes and distracting the girls with snacks and a Curious George episode, Adam walked in the front door and Grace started jumping up and down and following him down the hallway saying, "Adam is mine brother. Adam, pick me up. No your brother. Mine." Of course, Adam was completely unaware of his increased value to Grace at that moment, and Jillian went immediately to claim Eli with a hug. I didn't hear the brother argument the rest of the day.

Grace begged to help with Eli all day, and I kept wondering if this was what she saw the grown-ups doing in the orphanage. She wanted to hold him, give him toys, report on when he needed to blow his nose, and even climbed into her big bed alone for her nap so that I could rock the baby when he was fussy right before his nap. When we changed his diaper, she brought me the wipes and powder, too, and wanted to fasten the tabs on the diapers. I was worried that it would bother her to see me holding a baby, but it didn't phase her at all.

 
Watching other children really helps me to get a handle on Grace's development. I noticed today that Jillian is much more independent with the bathroom than Grace, but when asked to share, Grace really had an easier time with this than Jillian. If I asked her to share, she would do it without too much fuss. Of course, Grace is two years older and was used to sharing everything in the orphanage. Jillian wanted to paint with every color in the box and use every paintbrush. Grace chose her 3 favorite colors, used them one at a time, and washed her brush in between each color. She hates messes. Grace let Jillian paint at the table while she painted on the floor, with no complaints except when Jillian walked through the middle of her painting accidentally. The girls shared the puzzles, Play-Doh, beachball, crayons, legos, tricycle, beads to string, Nuudles for paper plate pictures, and dolls. Usually, they wanted to stay with a task for about the same length of time, but Jillian finished both Nuudle pictures because Grace didn't like having sticky fingers and lost interest. Jillian also was much more attentive to the Curious George movie, since Grace really doesn't care for TV much at all. Most of the time they played and had great fun, but both of the girls wanted to boss the other around once in a while, and it was obvious that they both wanted to get their own way. Hmmm...Is this a girl thing, or a developmental stage? Adam says Grace is just a typical girl. Can you hear the sarcasm in this comment?