How Do 2nd Children Survive?

Let me preface this by saying that Dylan really does love Preston. We've been super fortunate that there has been very little jealousy. He's very loving and quite protective of his little brother. And yet life is still not easy for baby Preston. The more I see, the more I am amazed that second children ever survive.

Preston was only a few weeks old when I realized he'd had his first survival miracle. Dylan had held him so many times before and was old enough to know how to be gentle. I had Preston lying down in a little baby gym with toys above for him to look at. I put a movie on for Dylan and went upstairs to take a quick shower. I came back to find loving little Dylan holding Preston on the couch, clear across the room from where I left him. My heart sank and I realized I had to be a little more careful about leaving the two of them together. Luckily nothing happened.

Skip to today. A much more sturdy Preston is now used to daily Dylan "experiments". He loves to lie on top of Preston and play "squish". We play that game with Dylan, but of course we don't put any weight on him. We are learning that everything we do, he will soon do. So far, Preston just giggles and tries to pull his hair so he must be pretty gentle, but still...when you walk in the room to find your 3 year old squishing your 7 month old baby, you get a little nervous.

Here's another one for the history books. One day we had just come in from a long day of errands. We were on edge and trying to get a ton of things done. All of a sudden I heard Marcos yell, "Dy-lan". Uh-oh, now what? I ran to see what the problem was. Preston was still in his carrier carseat and Dylan had tipped it all the way forward so the handle was holding it up. Preston was strapped in and must've just thought it was like a little Lagoon ride. He wasn't making a peep. Anyway, it was pretty funny, but just another danger in the life of a 2nd child.

We've been dog-sitting for Alicia. Well, kind of. We were supposed to dog sit for her and then Alicia ended up not going out of town. By then, we'd already told Dylan Belle was coming to our house so we ended up taking her anyway. So Dylan's had a leash around the house to play with for a few days. Preston was in his saucer (usually a very safe place for him) and I turn around to see Dylan almost tipping the thing over. He had hooked the leash onto the end of the saucer and was pulling Preston along. Saucers aren't exactly made to be stable on the move. I got to Preston before the saucer tipped over, but it was pretty close.

I've thought a million times about all the things Preston has to tolerate having an older brother, but I realized it's not a unique challenge for our family the other day when Angie called. She was in tears...trying to get advice and vent all at once. I guess she ran to get the laundry and left Connor and Tanner on the bed. Apparently Connor wanted to play with Tanner and ended up pushing or dropping him or something. She heard a thump and went running. He was fine, but Angie was so mad at Connor. I could so relate! It really is a miracle that second children survive their older siblings. For now, I'm going to do the best I can to love them both and keep little Preston safe from harm!