Thomas Rhett Opens up About Daughter Willa’s Role as Big Sister

Thomas Rhett’s life is no longer just country tunes and tour stops. Now, his career as a hit country singer is carefully balanced with his role as a new dad of two young daughters.

“To have two children under the age of 2 has been pretty challenging for me and [my wife] Lauren,” the country singer told PEOPLE. “But at the same time, I feel like if we can handle this, we can handle pretty much anything.”

The couple first welcomed 22-month-old daughter Willa Gray in May after adopting her from Uganda. In August, Lauren gave birth to another daughter, Ada James.

“For two weeks, [Willa] was like, ‘Who is this person who came in and took some of the attention away from me?’ ” Thomas Rhett says. “But now she’s super protective of Ada and is just turning into an amazing big sister.”

While adjusting to life raising two daughters, Rhett also released a new album, Life Changes, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and he’s in the middle of an international tour.

Still, he makes time to witness as many of his children’s milestones as possible — like Willa Gray’s first day of school earlier in September.

“It was sad for me and Lauren, but she didn’t care,” Thomas Rhett said of his daughter’s new adventure to school, which is only one day a week. “I don’t think she even turned around and looked at us before we left.”

And though Thomas Rhett and Lauren brought their eldest daughter home this spring, the relatively new dad says he feels closely connected to Willa Gray.

“I feel like I’ve known her for forever,” he continued. “I feel like she’s so much older than she is, but she’s still so young and so to watch her in [the school] environment and watch her play with other kids was just really cool for me and Lauren to see.”

As for dealing with life as a dad of two, while being a rookie in the newborn department, the 27-year-old is just trying to figure it all out.

“When you step into immediately having a 16-month-old — I feel like I know how to deal with 2-year-olds pretty accurately now, but an infant is a whole different story, because when they cry, you don’t fully know why they’re crying,” Rhett said, as reported by The Boot. “And I have not been a very good ‘make you stop crying’ dad. It’s been a huge adjustment, but we’re having a blast. We’re very blessed to have two beautiful girls.”

Photo credit: Instagram / @laur_akins