Tyler is the sweetest brother ever. He must kiss the baby 25 times a day. It makes Tyler's day when baby reaches up and touches Tyler on the face, hand, hair, wherever. Tyler will take the baby's hand and put it on his chin, then declare "Touch chin!" At daycare, their teachers do their best to give Tyler the same freedom to interact with the baby that he gets at home. Meanwhile, they are constantly telling the other kids to leave Baby alone. I'm sure this is a frustrating thing for the teachers, and am so grateful they believe in maintaining the same boundaries (or lack of boundaries in this case) at school as there are at home. But lately I'm beginning to think that sneaky Tyler has caught on to the fact that he is allowed to do something nobody else can do. I see him excessively giving the baby hugs and kisses, which warms my heart, but then he looks up at his friends standing around them, ready to pounce if they so much as point to the baby.

When I pick them up in the evenings, Tyler and his partner-in-crime Carina always bicker about this very thing. As I'm buckling Gavin in his carseat, Carina likes to watch and talk to the baby. Tyler is right there saying "No Carina!" if she touches the carseat, and he tries to position his body so she can't get near it. Then she yells "No Tyler!" back at him. It's good fun. They act like they're married or something. Carina moves up to the next classroom in two weeks. Tyler's teachers are already expressing concern that he will be crushed when she's not around. As they prepare her to move up to the 2's classroom, she gets to spend an hour or so down there each day. Ms. Jaclyn says the entire time she's gone, Tyler just stands by the classroom door looking around and asking for her. She's 25 days older than him, so for 25 days, Tyler has to live without Carina in the classroom. But, knowing her presence will make his transition to the 2's room so smooth is a big reassurance!