Parker's World

For the first couple of weeks that Elizabeth and Miranda lived with us, Parker didn't acknowledge their existence. This takes impressive concentration when both parents are holding a crying baby, but he persevered. On top of that, he was much fussier than usual. Much fussier. Parker can throw a tantrum as well as the next guy, but he is generally a pretty amiable, happy kid. When his sisters showed up, however, he settled into constant whining with a vengeance, punctuated by complete freakouts multiple times a day. So far, this has been the most challenging part of having twins for me. He's just been a bear to live with.

But the ratio of bad to good has been moving steadily in the right direction over the past few weeks, and he's more or less back to his good old self. He remains a bit edgy when people visit, but other than that he's done very well. Rachel and I have also been teaching to ask for things politely rather than whining for them, and he's done pretty well with that. Today, for example, he didn't whine at all, and only needed to be reminded to say please at the end of each request. That's a good kid.

But while his mood improved over the past few weeks, he continued to act as if the girls simply weren't there. I respect his prerogative to ignore his little sisters, a tactic I'm sure he'll employ for years to come. But I've been waiting for him to come around.

Well, today Rachel was at a dog conference for several hours in the morning and the evening and I was at home with all three kids. Parker was perfectly charming the entire time, playing well on his own when I was taking care of the babies, and asking nicely when he wanted something, eating a pretty good lunch, and basically being as sweet a young man as you could hope for. And then once when I had both girls swaddled and sleeping in the same bassinet, Parker came over as I was checking on them and said, baby sleeping, with a sort of delighted grin on his face. At other times during the day, he'd come over to check them out, see what was happening with the babies. And then this evening when he saw a baby on the television and he said, miranda?, almost to himself, and it was about the sweetest thing ever. So I think we've reached detente, at last.