I became a parent of two in June of 2009. A lot of people i had talked to said the transition from one to two children might be difficult however, i found it just as easy as being a parent of one. My two children are three and a half years apart so my oldest was potty trained already and pretty self sufficient. Kelsee is my oldest, she was a happy big sister from day one, and she has always been such a big help with Tyler. Speaking from our experience i think their age difference has been perfect for our family, she is old enough that she can teach Tyler things from her perspective that we don't necessarily think about.
When Tyler was first brought home from the hospital all Kelsee ever wanted to do was hold him and coo over him, she was so in love. She enjoyed helping mom with things like getting diapers or picking out Tyler's clothes. When we were in the car we always knew what Tyler was up to because, Kelsee always kept us informed! LOL As they grew older Kelsee was always trying to teach Tyler something new. when it came to sitting and crawling it was so cute to hear her talk to him about it and try to get him to progress. She was so excited when he started crawling and they would chase each other up and down the hallway, very funny to watch. We have never had any jealousy issues with Kelsee when Tyler was an infant but, then he started walking and understanding more. When he started getting into her toys and wanting to do everything sister did, she started to get a little distressed over it. We had to set some boundaries with them and let Kelsee know that if she didn't want to share then she needed to play in her room with the door shut. That is still a rule to this day, except that Tyler learned how to open doors so we had to put child locks on all the doors!Kelsee started Kindergarten this year and those first couple weeks were a little rough on Tyler. He would follow mom around everywhere because he wasn't used to not having Kelsee to play with. As the weeks went on though, we all adjusted and i think now he welcomes the time to spend with mom without anyone else.
As Tyler grows we run into certain times that Kelsee will get jealous and we have to remind her that Tyler is still young and he needs a little more attention at times then she does. We try to separate our time with each child evenly and as parents I'm sure you understand that can sometimes be hard. We all do the best that we can do and hope that our children understand in the end. Kelsee would never trade her brother for the world, she loves having him around for a playmate and it is so nice to see them play together and share the bond that they do.
