Not What I Expected

Happy Thanksgiving! I'll post on our weekend in a few days but this morning I had an interesting experience with Zach...........and that dream I mentioned recently. It all started during our time staying with my parents after the storm, before we got power back, when I was going through a tub in the closet at my parent's house. It's the closet in what used to be my bedroom but is now my Dad's study. It's my beanie babies tub and we needed some to assist with show and tells for Zach.

In that tub I found a few other toys. They include a pound puppy he named "Squirt", a purple popple, and my Cabbage Patch kid, Tina. At first Squirt was his favorite. He renamed Tina, "Norma" after Norma Jean from the TV show. She doesn't look like Norma Jean but Norma is his favorite so I'm not surprised. He asked for a boy Cabbage Patch kid for Christmas which we got him as well as series 3 Trashies and a bunch of Transformers Prime figures. Lately, Norma has been his favorite. He takes her almost everywhere we let him.

The more he does things like put her down for a nap the more he talks about Kaden's little sister. You might remember Kaden is a classmate. This morning I asked him "are you pretending Norma is your baby sister?" He nodded his head without hesitation. We haven't been talking about another baby, but he seems to be using Norma to continue to sort out how this big brother thing works. He even wanted to bring one of his bottles in from the garage and "feed her milk". It's like my question set him free. He used to be mild about it but now that he knows it's okay, he's been "let's care for the baby" full swing ahead.

He wants all the alone time with me he can get. When we took our walk yesterday, he said, "just you and me". He took Norma's pet cat (beanie baby) and left Norma home. It's part of sorting through how he feels about sharing our attention and having a little sister to play with. So, I asked. Josh didn't see it coming but it made sense to him too.

How do I feel about this? It's the usual, I want a second, we still can't afford it so he can play all he wants but Mommy and Daddy can't do anything about that just yet. My instincts, which are always right about these things, tell me we will have a second but not yet. It's good for him to explore being a big brother and ask about it. Some day when he's older, it will happen. But I actually see him being in the first or second grade when it happens. That means he'll be 6 or 7. It's easier for me to make it through these things when I put my trust in God. I hope when the time does come, he'll be ready and hopefully excited.

At first it just looked like he was playing with her as a placeholder until Christmas. He started really getting into her after a family trip to Target we made. Daddy disappeared while Zach and Mommy "shopped for Sammi and Michael's presents". Sammi and Michael are his much older cousins. Daddy got the Cabbage Patch Kid he wanted and ran it to the trunk. Then, Daddy took over and Mommy disappeared to shop. That night Norma entered his arm and rarely left. So, it's understandable why I thought she was just a fill in for "Sheldon". The Cabbage Patch he wants looks a lot like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. I suspect come Christmas morning He'll start off focusing on Sheldon (which I suspect he'll name "Barry" after his favorite boy Cabbage Patch Kid) and later alternate between the two to decide if he wants a brother or sister. Something tells me by his birthday we'll have to explain how gender is chosen. It's not what I expected but it makes life interesting.