Big Sister Prep

As we get closer and closer to Cuddle Bug’s arrival, Brent and I are trying to prep Lexi and anticipate how the family dynamic will be shifting in a couple months.

The first logistical step was enrolling Lexi in preschool.  We had talked about it for months, but finally pulled the trigger on Friday and Lexi’s first official start date will be July 1st.  She will be going Tuesday and Thursday from 7am until 3:30pm, so I will get a few relaxation days before becoming a mom of two!

One of the big factors in our decision to outsource our child care was the social factor.  Lexi is obsessed with “friends.”  She loves to hang around any other girls she meets at the park or pool, and then comes home and tells Brent all about her friends.  Or like this morning, we go to the pool and no one else was there and she turns and asks me, “where are my friends?”  While cute, it was also kind of sad because none of these “friends” were very permanent, so we are hoping she might befriend kids for real at school.

Back on the subject of baby prep: Lexi is obsessed with “Little Sister.”  She constantly tells us she wants to “hold Baby Sister,” or that “Baby Sister needs to come out.”  Don’t I know it!  Sometimes she calls her doll “Baby Sister” (and constantly asks Brent or I to “wrap her up” in a blanket), or sometimes we will see a baby at the park and that baby is now “Baby Sister.”  I am really glad that she is so excited about Cuddle Bug.  I’m sure some of that will go away once the baby is actually here and Lexi realizes that all she does is eat and sleep, and is not much of a playmate.

With “Baby Sister”

We have the painters out in a few weeks to do a couple of the rooms (including the nursery) and Lexi got to choose her room color. It was an easy decision for her: PINK!  I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she actually comes home and sees that her room is her favorite color.  We are putting her dresser and rocker into the nursery and will be getting Lexi a new (used) dresser and will probably just set up a reading nook in the rocker’s place.

Meanwhile I am starting to realize that my little girl isn’t my baby girl anymore.  Sending her off to preschool is bittersweet – I can’t wait for the “me time” before baby gets here, but it is also one of the little signs that our daughter is growing up.  She will be spending a good amount of time away from her parents and we will no longer be her only “teachers.”  I’m confident that Lexi will really bloom in her new environment, she is so great with change and she has a lot of it headed her way this summer.  The rest of 2013 is going to be so wonderful in so many ways, not the least of which will be watching my only child become a Big Sister.