Today I witnessed some cute examples of brother love. It was encouraging since Elias’ first reactions to Simon were mostly negative. Although Elias doesn’t want to touch Simon, and doesn’t often want to be near him, he looks out for his little brother. He tells me things like “Mommy, Simon wants his pacifier.” or “Mommy, Simon is happy.” or “Mommy feed Simon.” or “Simon, look at this rattle!” or “I will choose his diaper.” or “Don’t cry Simon. It’ll be ok.”
And we have gotten to a point where Elias doesn’t often choose to be near Simon, but he tolerates it. He cuddles up to me to read a story even if I am holding Simon. (One of my favorite things…cuddling and reading with both boys at the same time!) He even occasionally kisses Simon on the head.
The first thing I witnessed this morning was during breakfast. I had put Simon down to rest on the floor where he could see us while we ate, but he fell asleep. Elias and I ate breakfast together, and Simon slept near us. After breakfast when I let Elias down from the table, I left Simon where he was so that I could do the dishes while he still slept. Elias ran to get Simon’s stuffed animal (Elias named it “popcorn”). “Mommy, he wants popcorn next to him. Here Simon.” Even though Simon did not know popcorn was there, I thought it was so cute and thoughtful that I took a picture of popcorn where Elias had left him.
Later in the day, when I was feeding Simon, I overheard Elias reading to himself. He was reading a book about being a big brother that my friend Jenny bought for him. The text of the page he was on says something like, “Daddy loves me. Mommy loves me. I am special because I am me.” What Elias said was, “Daddy loves me. Mommy loves me. Simon loves me.” That made me smile inside and out.
In other news, I got both boys out of the house and all the way over to the other side of town on short notice and we were on time in order to sign for the closing of our refinance. I think that is worth bragging about…even if it has nothing to do with the rest of this post.