Mikayla, the Proud Mama

Mikayla was always excited to have a younger sibling. She's always been the "little mama" type, and couldn't wait to help out with a new baby. Before Xander was born, she was even excited to help with diapers.
As it turned out, she didn't make the greatest mama. I've even tried to nurture it along. She's plenty willing to help, she just doesn't have the touch. Once he was past the tiny infant stage, I'd pass him off to her, so she could cuddle with him while I got something urgent done, if he was fussy. She'd try to cuddle, but he just wasn't having any of it, and would scream at the top of his lungs. Now, he did do that with Aaric as well, but I guess he wasn't close by as often.
When my mom was in town to help out while Aaric was in the hospital, she noticed that while Mikayla wants to help him, she's pretty rough with him. She'll drag him by the arm, she takes stuff away from him, and she tries to help him with stuff he doesn't necessarily want help with. Or, she'll try to hug and cuddle him as he's screaming and pushing her away. She tries, poor thing! Aaric, on the other hand, drops down on his level and talks to him in a mommy voice. (You know, studies show that around the world, all mothers talk in a higher, more sing-song pitch to their infants) He's gentle, and usually knows when to stop and leave the kid alone, and as a result, Xander often goes to him for help. But he also knows that Mikayla is more likely to get him things he's not allowed to have. He knows his resources.

Tonight, she finally got her chance, and they were both so thrilled. We'd all been outside playing. She came in and went straight for the tub. A minute later, he followed. He can sniff out a tub of water a mile away, and will run for it, yelling, "bah! bah!" After a little while, they both come out of my bedroom, looking for towels. She gathers one up for each of them, and they get wrapped up. She tells me that she helped him get undressed, and after he got in, she washed his hair for me. Then they headed downstairs. As I was going down the stairs, she met me at the top.
"Mama, I even got his diaper on him! He let me do it! LOOK!!" I don't know if I've ever seen her so proud. I look down the stairs, and he's just getting to the bottom step, patting his diaper excitedly, smiling, and yelling, "MAMA! MAMA!" Followed by gibberish which I can only assume was meant to be, "hey, look, Kay-uh put a diaper on me!" He was also quite proud of this accomplishment.
She got to be the mama, and he got to be helped by his big sister, and they were both thrilled.
Now, maybe next time I need to pull something out of the 450 degree oven, while stirring the pot on top of the stove and carrying the boiling pasta over to the sink to drain, he'll let her read him a book instead of screaming behind the gate. Oh, yeah, except he's learned to climb the gate already. That lasted a whole 2 weeks.