Chapter 6, Play and Games

November 9, 2002

Bex has grown a lot since she was born, she also has a lot of cheek fat on her face. Though I can’t say much since I also have that on my face. She’s finally been able to make noises, and also do the normal baby stuff you expect. Today my parents told me if I could take care of Bex for a bit, which I wanted to do since after all I wanted to be a good older brother! I’m in the living room with my baby sister, she’s got a rattle and a few stuffed toys in the little playpen my parents made. I enter it and I bend down, I notice Bex. She’s in a pink onesie and has a little pink bow for the hair she does have, she’s looking really cute in them and luckily hasn’t been a big problem at night when she’s crying.

“Hi Bex, I’m your youngest older brother, Ken!” I say this in a soft and happy voice to not startle her.

Bex, while waving her rattle in the air, looks at me and says “Aaahh?” She can only make babbles at the moment so I can’t have a one on one conversation, though I’ll pretend I have

“So… What do you of that meanie that is Brenden, Little Becky?” I tell her

Bex responds by blowing raspberries before returning to wave the rattle aggressively. 

I give her a few pats when responding with, “Yeah, I get you.”

After a few minutes though, Bex starts to cry. I start to think, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ And I consider crying with her. I swifty go and check the island in our kitchen, there I see mom and dad left a note saying ‘If Bex cries, she’s probably hungry. Here, just open the fridge and give her the food! -Mom and Dad to Ken.” I open the fridge and see the baby food, I place it in a small bowl and go over back to the playpen. Bex is still crying but I think this baby food can help end that. I tried to feed her it, but she’s a little fussy at first and doesn’t want it. Maybe I can try the airplane method and hopefully it’ll work. 

“Here comes the airplane little Becky!” I say.

 This time she isn’t fussy and actually eats it. I finally feel accomplished and calm down from almost crying. Bex also stops crying and returns to playing with the baby rattle. I think I should engage in more conversation.

“So Bex, what’s your favorite sport?” I say

“Ahhh?” Bex replies with

“I get it, there’s a lot to choose from” I tell her, “Also plus you probably don’t know any.”

Bex nods her head before playing with a stuffed cat toy.

“Basketball?” I tell her, but she ignores it. Which is good because that’s Brenden’s sport.

“Golf?” I say, she blows raspberries as her response.

“Baseball?” I told her.

“Ahhh!” Bex replies back, I think she likes that.

“Yeah, I think there’s a game going on right now. Our favorite team is playing!” I told her.

I go over to the TV, and put on Channel 2. Currently the Giants are going against the Dodgers. I see Bex is getting excited over the game, which is good because that means she isn’t disturbed over the noises. 

“You see Bex! Now this is exciting!” I exclaim to her.

“Ahhhahh!” She tells me.

We continue to watch the game, it’s going to take a bit for mom and dad to return home, so hopefully they won’t turn it off the tv thinking I’m intentionally trying to make Bex cry. I wanted to grab some snacks, but we ran out of applesauce cause I don’t want to risk Bex accidentally choking. Bex really enjoys this game, hopefully I can find a baseball plushie and give it to her so I can entertain her love of baseball before she can play it on her own. 

“Ahhhhh!” Bex garbles, before returning to gibberish.

 “Yeah Bex, I agree… I agree…” I told her. 

I don’t know much about Bex as she’s 4 months old, I think we will have fun together. Growing up; teaching her what me and my brothers were taught as the unspoken rules, playing games with her, and doing silly stuff when we’re in the double digits and adults! But then again that’s a long way away before we can do any of that, we just have to focus on the present. Now cheers to the first day of a lifetime of fun!