Cupcakes and Shopping Carts

Cupcakes and shopping carts: Two essentials required for winning over the heart of a two year old little girl.

When Eliza first met her baby brothers, she was uninterested and very unhappy. She noticeably pouted and stuck her lip out, doing her best to avoid any contact of the babies. When we asked her if she wanted to see them and meet them, she would say, "No. No, thank you." It was so cute it killed me, but it also broke my heart that she was having such a hard time accepting her siblings. She is old enough to know she wants her parents, but still too young to understand the concept of being the "big sister."

After the second night in the hospital, where Eliza screamed to leave and refused to even look at me as I held Elliott, I called my mother in tears. She gave me amazing advice. She suggested that we buy Eliza a present and have it waiting for her at the hospital. The next time Eliza came to visit, we would surprise her with the gift and say it was from the babies. Apparently, my parents did this to me when my brother was born, and it worked like a charm.

Nathan devised a two part plan of attack. Part one would be to give Eliza a cute little shopping cart at the hospital, like my mom suggested. The second part would include the babies "making" Eliza pink mini cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkle hearts once we came home. Eliza has wanted a shopping cart for weeks (and they were on sale for $10.00 at Walmart!), and she loves pink, sprinkles, hearts, cupcakes, mini things, and more pink.

Part one went incredibly well! Eliza found the shopping cart in the hospital room and was so excited. Nathan did a wonderful job giving the babies full credit for the gift. Eliza ran to their bassinets to thank them and finally showed an interest in acknowledging their existence.

On Friday afternoon, Eliza woke up from her nap to two babies and a table of cupcakes.

She happily thanked the babies and smiled nonstop. It is probably the cutest moment ever captured on video.

Today, she has talked to the babies a couple of times and has no problem with us holding them. We are certainly making progress, which makes me one happy mother!