The Bond

My mother-in-law is a very good amateur photographer.  She recently sent us her pictures from when she and my father-in-law stayed with us the two weeks after Chloe's birth (which oddly was only about 3.5 weeks ago - seems like she has been here forever... and it seems like forever since I've had a good night's sleep... aah - breastfeeding). Anyway, she really captured some good moments of the bond that is slowly growing between Evan and Chloe (I think more on Evan's part than Chloe's) so I thought this would be a good time to address how Evan is responding to the "intruder."

This is where we started.  After about a day or two of being at home, Evan realized that Chloe wasn't going anywhere so he started to investigate.  There was a lot of poking and prodding and some "accidental" hitting that occurred.  He even go so interested in her bouncy chair (formerly his bouncy chair) that he pulled out the part he is playing with in this picture and tried to "hand" it to Chloe.  Needless to say, that piece has not been put back in the bouncy chair.

Then he found out he could get praise and attention if he was nice to Chloe and gave her kisses.  Here we are about to kiss her (notice how thrilled Chloe looks).

And here we are post-kiss.  Again, I think Chloe's face pretty much says it all.

After a couple rounds of practice, Evan really caught on to the whole kissing thing and Chloe put up with it.

They even had a whole bonding moment where Evan held Chloe and apparently pointed out her belly button. 

But it seemed like the initial interest was beginning to wane (you can tell by his face that he isn't so engaged anymore) and Evan went on about his life.

Then his grandparents left and it as just Brian, Evan, Chloe, and I and Evan couldn't escape Chloe.  He has since started to approach her with much more interest and not necessarily for adult praise.

Here is how Evan now interacts with Chloe:

• I refer to Chloe as "Chlo-Chlo" (which is such a big surprise considering I have Bubba, Lu-lu kitty, Bel-Bel, and I'm sure many repetitive syllable names).  Evan has started to call her "Co-Co" and will come into the room calling out her name.
• While I'm breastfeeding (which deserves its own post on how obsessed Evan is with breastfeeding.... even though he wanted none of it as a baby) Evan comes over and gives Chloe his finger to hold and will even push down on my breast to make sure she gets enough milk.
• When I go to burp Chloe, he will help me pat her back (and he is actually really gentle about it).
• The other day while he was blowing bubbles he tried to get Chloe to blow bubbles (at least he is sharing).
• He no longer hits her (accidentally or not).

And seriously, who blames him. Wouldn't you want to hang out with her?