Botherly Love

One of my goals as a mother is for my kids to like each other, really like each other. I want them to have a friend for life, someone they know they can always count on. I want them to feel about each other the way I feel about my brothers. I'm going to try my best to guide this friendship and most importantly, step out of the way to let it blossom. So far, Wes and Nate absolutely adore each other and I'm having a great time watching their relationship form.

Wes is a pretty typical boy in the sense that he doesn't have much time for pretending to nurture a baby the way that little girls seem to want to, but he has always been very concerned and interested in his brother. When Nate first came home from the hospital and was crying on the changing table, Wes was very concerned. I explained that Nate was just crying because he was cold when we took his clothes off to change him. The next time Nate cried while I was changing him, Wes ran into the room from across the house to make sure I knew that Nate was cold and I better do something about it. Every time we left the house in those first few weeks Wes would ask, "Can Nate come too?" or remind us, "Don't forget Nate".

Now that Nate is getting more and more playful, Wes is having more and more fun with him. "Nate is smiling at me" or "Nate thinks I'm funny, he's laughing at me", he'll exclaim. Wes has also started to interpret Nate's demands, "Mommy, Nate wants you to feed him" or "Nate needs his Nuk". Most recently, Wes has started to get excited about all the things he can teach Nate.

Nate looks at Wes with a sense of wonderment and a sparkle in his eye, like he's thinking, "that kid is amazing". He thinks Wes is hilarious and when Wes cries because he misbehaves and has to go to time out, Nate cries too. What can I say? They laugh together and they cry together. I really hope this is the start to a beautiful friendship.