Brotherly Love

One of my life's most pleasant surprises is how much Buddy and Sambo love each other. I wrongly assumed Buddy would be jealous, or would lose his patience with his brother, but not at all. Never. Buddy had a few behavioral issues in the months leading up to Sambo's arrival. And now I can see it wasn't stress about the upcoming addition to the family, but it was stress about *not* having his brother with him. Buddy recently asked me if I wanted Sambo really bad. I told him, of course I did. And he said, "Me too."

It brings me a great deal of joy to see the bond these two boys share. They a-d-o-r-e each other. Plus, these boys couldn't be more alike if they came from the same genes. Although they look nothing alike and Buddy is rough and Sambo is gentle, they are both chatty and busy and wiggly and happy and laugh at the same exact things. They both hate milk but love food, they both are short and stout, they both love swimming, they sleep well, neither has any issues with strangers, and they both love to play outside, and I'm pretty sure Sambo will follow in his brother's footsteps as a world-class climber.

I'm not naive enough to assume they'll never fight or anything, but so far Buddy is extremely protective of "his" baby. In fact, he tells me that when he grows up and is a dad, he wants Sambo to be his "kid." He calls Sambo his "best" and he prays for him about ten times each time he says his prayers. Buddy gets very worried when Sambo is sick and prays for him and tries to give him blessings. I can't even count the number of times I've walked into the room and found Buddy laying his hands on Sambo's head. And you should see the look on Sambo's face and hear the squeal come out of him when Buddy comes around. He refuses to wave at me or G, but every time Buddy walks in the room he waves at him and tries to get his attention.

Buddy wants to be like his baby brother. He insists on me combing his hair "just like his" after his bath and it's like World War III, to do Buddy's hair for church. "Sambo doesn't wear gel and hairspray. I want hair just like his." And of course, Sambo wants to be just like Buddy. Sambo refuses to play with baby toys. His favorite toys are Buddy's dragons, dinosaurs, and dress up clothes. And get this: Never in my life have I heard of this. Sambo is obsessed with Buddy's beloved teddy bear. Buddy has been in love with "Teddy" since he was a baby -- sleeps with him, cuddles with him, takes him on vacation, you know, his "lovey." Thankfully, Buddy doesn't mind sharing because Sambo loves Teddy too and laughs hysterically when he gets his hands on him.

Buddy actually gets offended if we forget to tell him if Sambo sprouted a new tooth, or learned to pull himself up or whatever. Sambo learned to crawl one night after Buddy was in bed, so I told him first thing the next morning. You would have thought I announced we were going to Sea World, he was so happy. And Buddy gets really impatient with me when I try to re-direct Sambo. Sambo is at that very enjoyable age when he gets into EVERYTHING, so I'm constantly sighing as I pull him out from underneath the computer for the 500th time in an hour. And Buddy always says, "It's fine, mom. He's just a baby." Sometimes Buddy's helpfulness isn't so helpful, though. One day I went outside to take the garbage out. Sambo started to cry because he loves to go outside too. So, Buddy decided he could be helpful by opening up the door and letting Sambo crawl outside. Because every mom wants to come around to the front of the house to see their infant sitting on the driveway. Or like the other day when Buddy opened up a new can of formula and started to make a bottle because he knew Sambo was hungry and I was busy talking on the phone.

They share a room and they both love it. Buddy gets so excited when we put them to bed at the same time, even though most nights we are so exacerbated by Buddy, we try to get him into bed first so we can feed Sambo in peace. But anyway, Buddy has expressed several times that he wishes he could sleep in the crib with Sambo. And a few months ago we went to Sunriver with a bunch of friends and stayed at a really nice house there. All the kids slept in a cool "kid" room, which had several bunkbeds. Buddy was excited at first to sleep in a bunkbed (because he wants one), but after more than an hour, he hadn't gone to sleep yet. I went in there to scold him, assuming he was distracted by the other kids (who were all asleep, by the way). But he said he didn't want to sleep with them. He wanted to sleep in the room with Sambo. As soon as we moved him to Sambo's room, he was asleep within minutes.

Nothing, I mean nothing warms a mommy's heart more than to see her children in love with each other. It's a blessing to be sure. And while it's good while it's lasting, at least I'll have these precious pictures and stories to remind me of the good ol' days when they start to lose patience with each other. But for now, I'm loving it.
*Note: We decided to change Pee-Wee's name. We were hoping a cool nickname would emerge, but alas after 9 months, nothing has. He is a boy of many nicknames at home, all stemming from his name. So we're going with one of them even though it's quite close to the real thing. I hope we don't regret this...