Mike, Merritt, and Max Make Magnificent Music

Our friends Mike and Sam were nice enough to let us test-drive their five-month old baby, Merritt, tonight, so that we could help Max ease into the whole Not-The-Only-Baby thing. Max was interested in Merritt, and petted/smacked him a few times. I was relieved to see that he did not seem to be jealous of Merritt, even when Ian or I was holding him. He did, however, notice when Merritt was getting breastfed, and immediately tried to climb up on Sam's lap and get in the way. We are trying to wean Max off of breastfeeding, since I am feeling a bit drained from all possible angles. Max is reluctant to be weaned, to put it really mildly, but my doctor says that I should really try to have him completely weaned by the time I am twenty weeks pregnant, so we are trying to step down gradually. It has been really fun trying to explain to a one-year-old that the milk factory is closing. There has been some yelling (from Max), some tears (from all of us), and some creative comforting techniques (mostly from Ian, since my attempts to comfort often end in more attempts to nurse). When Max saw Merritt nursing, he naturally tried to share in the milk that he has been so cruelly denied on the home front recently. Sadly, Merritt was not interested in sharing. This is the first of many life-is-hard lessons that big-brotherhood has in store for Max, I'm afraid.