brother presents

Today marks 35 weeks with 35 days to go until my official due date!  We're getting down to the final few weeks of excitement around here.  I really think that Aiden is getting the idea that a new member of our family is on the way.  We've been reading books about new babies for a while, and I think his biggest takeaway is that the baby won't be able to "play" right away.  He emphasizes that the baby needs to grow first, then he'll be "old enough to play fun games!"

We had my friends and their five month old baby over for brunch last weekend.  I wanted to give Aiden a chance to see a baby again since it had been a while.  We talked about how the baby loved watching him.  He picked out a toy for the baby to look at and brought it over to her.  He mostly just popped around the room being a show off goofball.  She was very attentive and locked in on everything Aiden did.  It will be fun to see how much Keaton loves paying attention to his big brother.

I asked Aiden if he wanted to get the baby a present and he initially said Keaton might like a new car!  I said I bet he'd like something that you make.  He said I can draw him a picture!  His school is planning this fundraiser through Art to Remember where they put art on items like shirts, towels, etc.  They won't be ready for the fundraiser until after the baby is born, but I thought I could do it myself by scanning in one of his drawings.  So he created a family of four drawing including the baby and picked out a baby bib (he almost picked a golf towel, which he thought would be good to "clean up the baby messes" but then he changed his mind when he saw the blue bib).  I think the bib is perfect, especially because I can squirrel it away in a keepsake box.  For the record,  here is the description of his bib drawing: "Mommy smiling is on the far left, then baby Keaton, then Aiden (and he's bigger because he walked forward), then dad talking on the far right.  We're all holding robot arms together!  There are clouds in the sky and grass at our feet."

Now I'm trying to decide what would be a good big sibling present.  We already have the big brother shirt ready and waiting (thanks Santa!).  I think that a photo album for the big brother might do the trick?  He could even use his camera to create photos to put in there if he wanted.  I want it to be something that he can look back on later.  Any ideas?  I'm trying to avoid stuffed animals or anything that gets too grubby or I can't store away in my sentimental archives ;)