Cheese Baby Alex

I think all parents are worried that when the second child comes along that the first born will resent the baby.  I am happy to say that Henry has nothing but love for "baby Alex."  At times, maybe a little too much love but love all the same.  In fact he is fascinated with him.  He ask for him in the morning and he tells him goodnight before bed.  Yesterday he even drew a picture of him.  It just looked like a giant scribble but according to Henry is was baby Alex.  Don't get me wrong there has been a time or two that Henry has been flustered by having to wait for something because I am dealing with Alex.  However, he channels his resentment towards me instead of the baby.  Getting one's juice in a timely manner is apparently a high priority for a two year old.   I am sure one day the boys will have their fair amount of angst with each other but right now it is nothing but love.

The current and most adorable way that Henry is showing his love for his brother is by wanting to have his picture taken with him.  It started when Jason was snapping photos of Henry painting. All the sudden he boldly proclaimed "cheese baby Alex."  We thought he just wanted us to take a photo of Alex.  In toddler "cheese" means "to take ones photo" (incase you weren't down with two year old vernacular).  However, as a paint covered Henry rushed towards Alex it became evident that he wanted his picture with Alex.  It was kind of adorable.  With a little help from mommy, we got this . . .



Okay, momma isn't looking so hot in this photo (it was a bum day) but Henry couldn't be happier.  This started a chain reaction.  Henry now wants his photo with Alex all the time.  Whenever he gets close to Alex he starts asking to have his picture taken.  He will even do cute things like give Alex his "BearBear."



Then, I had a mommy epiphany.  I can use Henry's picture taking desire to get a good photo of the boys.  Yes, yes.  My plotting got me this . . .



There aren't words to describe how happy this makes me.  When Jason looked at this photo his first questions was "how did you get them to do that?"  I then explained my evil genius of exploting Henry's love of photos to get the boys together.  It took a little coaxing but I got Henry to sit still and not try to pick Alex up.  Here he is thinking "holy crap I can't belive mom is letting me sit this close to Alex.  I could totally pick him up."



This is when I swopped in and started telling Henry to say cheese.  And, just like that he is focused on the camera and not of the baby he wants to lug around the house.  This is the "cheesy" face.  And, this is Alex's "what are you doing to me" face.



While we are on the subject of the boys I wanted to share this photos with you. It is blurry because I didn't exactly want to encourage shoving things in the baby's mouth.  I was putting up laundry while Alex chilled and Henry sang a song.  Henry is constantly making up songs.  All the sudden I hear say "sing baby Alex."  And I turn around to see this . .



Yes, that is a microphone shoved into Alex's mouth. While he wasn't singing, Alex was drooling and sucking all over the mic.  I quickly told Henry he was sweet to play with his brother but that he was a little too young for singing.  They keep me on my toes.

PS.  Just for fun, here is another shot of Henry painting.  The more messy, the more fun!