Profligate happiness

Today my little girl is one year old, which means (among many other, almost certainly more important things) that for twelve months my unabated sense of life being good has been in full effect. When my wife and I (mostly my wife) brought the little guy into the world and into our lives, it changed everything but almost always in a positive way and never felt like anything less than a blessing. To have a second child, which in my mind at least felt like a 100% increase in delight with only maybe 10% more life-alteration, just about defies comprehension. Even after I’ve had a full year (a leap-year, no less!) to get used to it.

The little girl is at this moment halfway through a course of antibiotics for her third ear infection in as many months, which is a bit of a drag, but she’s on the mend and hopefully with the weather improving and cold season ending she’ll be getting sick less often. If not, well, her brother had lots of ear infections too and we rode that out (and addressed it surgically) and we can do the same for her if it comes to that. She should be in reasonably good health and spirits for her birthday party on Saturday, where there will hopefully be no shortage of people willing to hold her hands and help her toddle around, an activity which she has gotten pretty adept at, along with the ability to crawl up to someone’s leg, grab on and pull herself to her feet, and look up at the person with an unmistakable plea of “Are you gona help a sister stroll around this joint, or what?” on her determined little face. So, yeah, if you’re planning on being at the party, be ready for that!


Just as the little girl is poised to start getting into absolutely everything, it looks like we may be catching a break as far as the détente between her and her brother goes. Granted, often times “looks like” means “I am projecting my desire for this to be true” but ah well. It seems to me, at any rate, that the little guy has gotten much better recently at sharing with his sister, up to and including sharing some of his most favorite toys (all of which, it goes without saying, are cars). It almost seems as if it is starting to dawn on him that if his sister is interested in his playthings, then that means there is a person who is into the same stuff he is into and that sharing of interests is actually fairly cool and enjoyable and worth nurturing rather than freaking out and getting inordinately possessive about. There’s a glimmer of that in his behavior, at least, which I’m also hoping bodes well for this weekend’s festivities. At this point I think the most likely scenario is not so much that the little guy will pitch a wobbly because his sister is getting all the attention (and all the loot) and he is not, but rather that he will put forth all indications that he is happy about his sister’s celebration and cheerfully help her unwrap her presents, after which he will equally cheerfully select whichever of her new gifts he thinks is the coolest and wander off to play with it by himself. And honestly, if that happens, it’s fine, and I’m a lot more inclined to cut him some slack and let him take a few toys for the first test drive given the fact that he has been more inclined to cut his sister some slack, too. It all goes around and around.