Is this a Middle Child Thing?

One of the more exciting things about having three kids is observing their personalities, how their personalities interact with their siblings, and how they evolve and change as we add another to the brood. People always talk about "Middle Child Syndrome" and knowing that Cole is in the middle, I always wonder about him.

We were lucky that neither of the boys did the whole "regression" thing when a younger sibling came along. I'd heard horror stories of the older child refusing to use the bottle, acting "babyish" etc. when a newborn comes along and garners all the attention. Considering Mason was only 17 months old when Cole was born, I feel extremely fortunate for this. And Cole was (and is) so in love with Lila that I don't think it even occurred to him to be jealous of her.

Fast forward to yesterday. Lila's morning naptime is winding down. I hear her chattering over the monitor. Cole comes to me and announces, "She's awake!" as he too has heard the chatter, and then he ran off. I finished what I was doing in the kitchen and was making my way towards her room when it occurred to me that Cole might be in there with her. So I flipped on the video monitor and no joke, there was Cole's face staring at me from the screen. He had picked up the camera that's in her room and was examining it, Evil Genius that he is. Then I see a shot of the ceiling before he set it down.

I went into her room and below is what I saw:

He's never climbed into her crib before. Thank goodness, because could you imagine the hazard? At least now she's 8 months old and can use her evasive maneuvers when he comes near. So now he thinks her crib is GREAT. I thought it was cute so naturally I took pictures!

Today after naptime, it was the same deal. He marched in there and hopped on in. Now it's not so cute. For one, it's dangerous to the both of them. He could break a bone or something trying to Tarzan into her crib, and she could get crushed for crying out loud! Second, he's a stocky boy and I venture to guess he exceeds the weight limit.

So I scold him, pull him out, and tell him to stay out of her crib. I take Lila to feed her lunch, and after lunch it's suspiciously quiet in the house. I thought Cole was watching Noggin that I had put on to keep him quiet while Lila was sleeping, but he was nowhere to be found.

Lila's crib was the last place I looked, and this is what I found:

He took out Lila's blanket and bunny and discarded them on the floor. He took her two pacifiers and gingerly placed them exactly in the spot on her shelf that I keep them, which I thought was interesting. Then he put his own pillow, blankies, Ruff Ruff and Scooby Doo in there, climbed in, and took a siesta.

I mean what in the world?

So here I go again with the scolding and kicking out of crib and he's telling me, "It's like mine! It's like mine!" (This did used to be his crib and room before Lila came along, perhaps he does have some recollection?)

Sassy little boy! I love him to bits. He's such a sweet soul, so easy-going and happy go lucky. Even after he got banished from the crib, he just wanted to model for the camera. It's impossible to be mad at him!