Can anyone else relate to what I will refer to as the “second born child photo syndrome” My older sister has multiple photo albums devoted to her as a baby. I recall almost an entire photo album of her as an infant lying on my parent’s bed in various poses (awake, asleep, crying, smiling, etc.) My story as the second born child is much different. Yes, there are a few pictures of me as an infant but they are mainly family photos and not nearly enough to fill an entire album. (To my parent’s credit I was born on the mission field and it was probably more difficult to have film developed while living in the jungle!) The same goes for my baby book which is basically non-existent.
I can’t really say that I’m much better. Neither of my children has a completed baby book and realizing my track record with Megan I don’t think I even attempted to start a book for Paul. But being the devoted and doting parents that we were we did take tons more pictures of Megan. I can’t say that it is bad. It is part of the experience of being a first time parent.
Today our screen saver was set to pictures of Megan as a baby. Adam was telling Paul about the pictures (“…there’s Megan in mommy’s tummy, there’s Megan in the hospital…”) and Paul clearly was not enjoying the slide show. He finally had enough and said, “no more of Megan”. There was a wee bit of jealousy detected in his voice but even more so Paul does not like babies. Last week the kids stayed overnight with friends who were also babysitting a 6 month old. When it was time for the baby to go home Paul made his feelings very clear that he was happy for the baby to leave. Even more so Paul adamantly denies his existence as a baby. We do show him pictures of himself but Paul still refuses to acknowledge the truth. When I asked him where he came from Paul told me that he was dropped off at our house. Hmm. It’s a good thing that we have several years before the birds and the bees talk!
