[Dmitry'smom]

Thanks to everyone for the advice and suggestions. I am not sure why things seemed to go down hill after the trip. I had seen improvements since Sophia came home until now but it did seem to go backwards after the trip. We have sat down and talked with Dmitry about what we expect from him attitude wise and asked him what we could do that would mean the most to him and reassure him.

We do have special date days with Dmitry alone every other week (or so depending on his extra activites) We don't usually do mom and dad with Dmitry alone on these dates because Dmitry likes it to be just one or the other of us. What I meant about the alone time before was that EACH night we make sure he gets one on one attention from one of us (he likes us to take turns) I also want him to get used to having fun with Sophia around so we are trying to incorporate her into things he likes to do.

I have been doing like some of you said and when someone states how cute Sophia is I say something about how both my children are special/cute/smart and I have been telling Dmitry about things he did as a baby when Sophia does something similar.

I don't make Dmitry share some (most) of his toys with Sophia (just some old baby ones) but I was making him let her in his room some of the time, now I am letting him make that decision.

I have been trying to make sure that Dmitry is not having to babysit, but since I think family helps, he is helping with some of the chores instead and he seems fine with that.

It has only been a day or so but his attitude does seem better. He was never mean to her he just seemed off. He was kind of snippy to her today after he got home and once I brought it to his attention he stopped and just wanted to be alone. After he had some alone time and decompressed he was much nicer to Sophia.


Thanks to all of you for the great advice. I hope to keep seeing improvements!!