Creating a Big Brother Present

We tried the classic big sibling kissing Mama's belly,
but in the end this one was much more us. 

This winter we spent a lot of time preparing Big Brother for the arrival of Little Brother. We took him to the midwife and ultrasound visits, read books, talked about how Little Brother compared to the other babies at daycare, and tried to involve Big Brother as much as possible in some of the planning.

Something For the Nursery

One of the things we did to include Big Brother in the process was we had him create a piece of art which would hang in Little Brother's room. We told him that it would be something nice for Little Brother to look at and make him feel welcome. Although he was incredibly excited for the arrival of his little brother, our big guy was feeling a little sad to see some of the changes happening in the house. This included the emptying of our guest room where beloved family and friends usually stayed in order to create a nursery. He liked the idea of being able to help out and have a voice in that room. 

We had decided to have elephant details in the baby's room, so I looked up elephant clip art on the internet. When I found one image I liked I printed it out in two different sizes and traced it onto white contact paper. Using a small utility knife I cut the pieces out to essentially make two large stickers. I also free hand drew a small heart and cut that out.

I had an old canvas which I had painted on in college which I repainted with white gesso. After it dried I stuck my handmade "stickers" onto the canvas. (Kind of hard to see in the picture below.)

Now came time for Big Brother to be involved. Using craft acrylic paints he painted over the contact paper stickers and filled the whole canvas with color. He loved mixing the colors, and created some really nice shades as he worked. At the very end, we painted his hand and printed it on the opposite side, as a way of "signing" the work. (Side note: We keep a few clothes on hand which we wear when painting with more permanent materials like acrylic. That way no one has to worry if it gets on us.)

When the paint dried I peeled off the stickers and we were left with two white elephants (a big brother and a little brother elephant) in a field of blues, greens, and yellows.

Over the last month and a half many people visited to meet our new baby and several wanted to see the baby's room. Big Brother likes to show the room with pride and point out his contribution to his brother's space.