The Evolution of Sibling Love

We weren't really sure how Moses would react to ZuZu-- in the weeks following the ultrasound showing she was a girl, he refused to say her name and instead insisted that he was having a "brudder." But after the 3D/4D ultrasound, he was excited to carry around her "picture," and suddenly every ultrasound he saw was automatically of ZuZu.


I was prepared with presents and chocolate for the hospital-- and his MaMa was as well. Little did we know that we had nothing to worry about! He was there about 45 minutes each day we were in the hospital, and he warmed up a little each time.

The first day, though, he did have a little "deer in the headlights" look about him:

But anything can be overcome with "cowboys and horses." :)

The next day, his MaMa and PaPa gave him a Fisher-Price digital camera of his own. He LOVED taking pictures, and he finally acknolwedged ZuZu and wanted to take pictures of her:

That day, he had walked down the hallway to our room saying "Going to see Mommy! Going to see Mommy!" Which of course, warmed my heart and broke my heart at the same time, since by then we had no idea when we would get to come home. (But as a sidenote-- if I had been discharged and ZuZu had not, the hospital would have let me stay in my room for free. How cool is that?!).

That day K took him down to the hospital gift shop to pick out a stuffed animal for ZuZu-- he picked out a little lamb and so proudly gave it to her, saying, "Here ZuZu. Here ZuZu."


He also acknowledged to one of the nurses that ZuZu was his sister-- while eyeing her suspiciously as she touched his new sister. We knew a breakthrough was on the way!


When we got home on Sunday, he was at the window, and I could see him proclaiming, "It's Mommy! It's Mommy!" Poor Daddy. He was apparently not missed as much. :)


It was then that he finally wanted to hold ZuZu:


Since then, the love has just started overflowing. He loves to help change her diapers-- his self-proclaimed job is to throw them out, and he does so with importance.

When we got home from taking ZuZu to the doctor Monday, he was SO excited to see ZuZu again. For some reason, he thought she wasn't coming back. I walked into the house to cries of "It's ZuZu! It's ZuZu! She's back!" Poor Mommy AND Daddy. Apparently we've been slightly replaced. :)

These were from Tuesday:


Moses picked out her onesie that day. In this pic, he was patting her head. :)




Here he was signing "I love you" to his new sister.