Hey, Brother!

Caleb loves his new little brother! It is such a blessing from God that this boy of mine adores his little brother the way that he does. I've never really known a toddler who loves babies as much as Caleb does. Whenever he sees one, he immediately wants to kiss their head, and pat them, and hold them. And if another baby cries, any baby at all, he wants me to hold them. It is very sweet. I thought I'd share some of the wonderful, brotherly-love moments with you that I've been touched by:

1. Caleb got a cold right after Elliott was born. (That is a story in and of itself. My sick toddler was MUCH MORE exhausting than my newborn baby!) Anyway, we really tried to protect Elliott from getting sick. Who wants their 3 day old baby to have a nasty cold? Now, as you have just read, Caleb loves Elliott and wants to constantly touch him and love on him. So keeping him away from Elliott was not a task for the weary! To help him understand, we told him that he could kiss Elliott's head when his boogers went bye bye. Until then, he needed to kiss him on the foot. Later that night we were sitting at the dinner table. Caleb found the blue bulb syringe (we call it the booger sucker at our house!) This said instrument is not my child's favorite thing. He whines whenever we use it on him. On this night, however, he had a goal. He proceeds to shove it up his nostril and suck out his boogers. He did this for probably 3-4 minutes and then proudly announces in a yell, "BOOGERS, BYE BYE! KISS ELLIOTT HEAD!" My heart immediately melted into a pile of mush. He was bound and determined to kiss his little brother! Let's just sum it up and say we let him kiss his head ;)

2. For the first month of Elliott's life, I was really careful to try and make sure Caleb got to spend some one-on-one time with me. Since Elliott is super content, especially in the morning, I would usually go in to Caleb's room by myself when he woke up. I would put Elliott in his crib or bouncy seat for a while. Caleb would greet me and then immediately ask where Elliott was. Then we'd have to go find him so he could give him a kiss!

3. When I was pregnant we always told Caleb that we were going to have a baby. He loved to kiss my belly and say "baby" randomly throughout the day. One term we didn't use a lot was brother. Somehow Caleb picked it up really fast after Elliott was born. And no matter what Elliott is doing--eating, swinging, sitting in his bouncy chair, and yes even sleeping--Caleb will stop whatever he is doing, run over to him and really loudly say, "Hey, Brother!" He is a proud big brother.

4. One of the things Caleb loves to help with the most is giving Elliott a bath. He splashes water on his feet to "keep them warm." The end of the bath is his favorite part. And I genuinely appreciate his help here. He sits on the chair with the towel on him and "catches" Elliott for me. If you've ever bathed an infant, you know how hard it is to pick up the slippery little babes and get them in the towel before they get chilled. Caleb is a huge help. Of course, once he "catches" him he looks at Elliott, kisses him on the forehead and says, "Hey, Brother!" everytime without fail!

5. The other night we were driving home from a wedding late at night. Caleb was sound asleep and Elliott was starting to get hungry. Elliott started to fuss a bit and Caleb, with eyes still shut and without even moving says, "Toe-tay, Elliott!" (Translation, "It's ok, Elliott!") It was so sweet! He protects him even while he's sleeping!


Those are just a few of the ways that Caleb loves Elliott! We have so much fun together. I am praying that even as they grow they would continue to adore each other that way.