The Reluctant Big Brother

My oldest three children are pretty close in age. The oldest two have a 12 month age gap and my second and third have 15 month age gap. There was a good 3 years before my fourth came along. Now because everyone is so close in age, we have dealt with very little sibling rivalry. They do not really remember a time without each other. And it was a known fact that our forth, Cillian is the baby. Cillian was very much treated like the stereotypical baby. And he very much enjoyed this role in our family. In fact, he was quite proud to be the baby. He got attention every where we went from the time he was very little because he was fair haired and very different from my other babies who all had very dark hair and eyes. Cillian loved that attention and role and happily enjoyed it for almost 8 years.

Along came our fifth. Now little baby Conor was quite the surprise. The older three were pretty excited to find out they were quite unexpectedly receiving another sibling. Cillian was not. Not in least bit. We tried to involve him and tell him how fun it would be to have a baby brother. Someone to look up to him. He was not having it. I even took him to a siblings class at the hospital to help get him excited for a new baby. Nope, still not having it.


Waiting for the sibling class to start. Doesn't he look thrilled to be there?
I was pretty worried about how this was all going to play out.

But since the baby was born he has been nothing but an attentive loving big brother. He is helpful and kind. And one of the first people to run and grab the baby as soon as he starts crying. The other day Cillian gave Conor his beloved Elmo doll. Awww. He loved Elmo when he was little. We have gotten rid of most of our baby and toddler toys over the years (we had to start over fresh with Conor. Talk about expensive...but I digress). But we held on to that Elmo doll. And Cillian proudly and lovingly gave that his baby brother.


Poor Elmo has had a rough time in our home. Please note his missing nose.
Cillian is still very much my baby, my bear (Bear is his nickname). But now he happily shares the baby role with his little brother. He is proud of his baby brother. Aww, I worried for nothing.