This year is going to be a very merry year. I have many friends who’re either expecting a baby or have just delivered. And I’ve heard many stories about how the elder child treat the younger one. Most, if not all, showed some sign of jealousy.
I’m not sure how Sze Yi would react later when the baby arrives. I’ve been reading on ways to prepare her for the 2nd one. When I found out that I’m pregnant, one of the first people that I told was Sze Yi. I told her that she’s going to be a big sister soon. At first, she didn’t show any sign that she understand me. But over time, as my belly was growing bigger and bigger, she seemed to be excited. And she knew baby’s in there. Everytime she sees me, she would say “baby”, and tries to pull up my blouse and point to my belly button. Sometimes I wonder if she thought the belly button is the baby, because she would want to touch that before saying baby. If I’m in a public place, I would not allow her to pull up my blouse. So she would end up crying. She would only be satisfied if she can see and touch my belly button everytime she wanted to touch or talk to baby. When we asked her to sayang the baby, she would kiss my tummy.
By the time she learned her first song, we asked her to sing to the baby. So, she’s been singing her favourite song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star at my tummy (I wish I could record that down, as this is the first song that she could sing from start to end on her own, though some of the pronounciation was out a bit). Well, something interesting happened here. One day, hubby tried to sing to the baby (you see, he’s not been communicating with the baby as frequent as when I was expecting Sze Yi, so he was feeling guilty about it). He started with one song (I forgot which one), but there’s no reaction at all. So, he switched to other songs, and still the same, no kicks. Then he started to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and guess what? The baby started to kick! So, it looks like she’s been listening to her sister singing all this while!
Recently, Sze Yi has started to massage for the baby, or rather my tummy. She would repeat the steps that I normally do on her to the baby (start with the eyebrows, then the eyes, gently pull her nose, make a smiley from her mouth, rub her ears, then hands, legs and back). But she only did the face portion with the baby. First, she would ask me to lie down. Then she starts by using her fingers as if shaping the baby’s eyebrows on my tummy, and then pull my belly button (as if pulling the baby’s nose. Hubby always asked me to stop her because sometimes she’s pulling a bit too hard!) and proceed with the smiley, etc. Well, she also used to massage for me, including my hands and legs as well, just like how I did to her. I wish she would continue doing this when she’s bigger 
I’ve also started to read her bedtime stories since Dec last year and she seemed to be enjoying it. It’s been a routine now, and she would request a certain story to be read. What turns out the most tiring thing is that she would want me to start over again when the story has finished. Well, at times, she would ask me or hubby to lie down and she started reading to us or the baby. Here’s how she would go, “Ali Baba,” turn to the next page: “Ali Baba,”, flip the page, “Ali Baba,” (repeating for every page until the last, and then followed by “The End”. And then she closed the book. She would expect a clap from us when she’s done.
Is she ready for the baby? Well, I’m not sure. There were also times when we told her that she needs to share her toys with the baby, and she would say “mai!”. I guess time will tell.
