"I want to hold him."

As I reported in an earlier post, Max is sitting up now but still needs spotting. (This was reinforced today when I left him sitting up on his own on the rug in the playroom and turned my back for a second only to hear a resounding *thunk*, turned around, and found him face-planted on the floor. Scarlett reenacted the scene several times with much dramatic flourish, including whacking her own head on the floor and fake-crying to make it as realistic as possible. Look out Meryl Streep Susan Lucci.)

Now that Max can sit up and reach out and grab things, I am slowly starting to see a shift in their relationship. Scarlett continues to be very sweet to Max. And Max continues to stare at Scarlett adoringly, laughing at just about anything she says and does. But these days there's a lot more grabbing of Scarlett's things by Max, and a lot more "no, baby brother!" and "no, Max -- that's mine!" from Scarlett. Once he's mobile, I suspect Scarlett will be beside herself trying to protect her things from his grasp and scolding his every move. (Last week, Scarlett (the Queen of No) gave Max an ironic lecture on saying no. "NO, Max. Don't say 'no' to me. Stop saying 'no'!" Max of course was saying nothing and smiling happily, but Scarlett must have used her baby ESP skills to sense that he was thinking it.  Babies can be really sneaky that way.)

In the meantime, I'm savoring the sweet hugs and kisses Scarlett gives Max and her frequent requests to hold him while she still finds him huggable and while he is still willing to indulge her.






(Don't they look just alike in this last picture?)