Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Considering that Miss Z's arrival in our family meant X's demotion from complete center of the universe, he's doing pretty well with her. There are wonderful moments when they laugh together in the car, urging each other on to ever sillier noises or faces. They rough house with the Mr. and it's a joy to see. There is occasional sharing (mostly on X's part), and sweet words and hugs. But there are also more-than-occasional skirmishes and anguished cries of frustration--from X--when Miss Z thwarts his plans.

Last night I was making dinner and X had been badgering Miss Z for long enough to get her frustrated (which means a long time because she's incredibly easy going). She went over to the lazy susan and started to scrounge through it--a favorite activity and something we totally allow. X got in her way, I wasn't watching closely and suddenly I heard agonized screams--from X--accompanied by copious tears. In between sobs he showed me his bicep with a perfectly clear bite mark on it, two little half moon indentations of teeth.

It is not the first time--nor I imagine the last--that Miss Z will bite her brother. She has some words now--cracker, more, MillMill (the beta cat), Bro Bro--but not enough vocabularly to tell her brother "God damn it, stop hounding me and let me get down to my toddler business!" So she bites. Each time I explain patiently to X that, yes indeed that doesn't feel good, and no indeed we don't condone biting in our family (unless it's me biting Benny--the alpha cat--because he really likes it). But that babies who get frustrated by aggravating big brothers will bite, so his best defense is to simply be nicer to her.

It's amazing to me how we got the perfect baby sister for X.