Unfortunately, my daydreams of peaceful domestic boy-related bliss were somewhat tempered by Aaron's kind of lackluster response during my pregnancy to Sam's imminent arrival. I kept telling myself that it was an abstract concept for him to grasp, but the fact was that he was pretty indifferent towards the idea of a baby in general. He basically ignored any babies of our friends and pretended like he couldn't hear me when I'd talk about a baby living in our house. We even bought a baby doll, in the hopes of encouraging some kind, caring feelings. Nope, he was only interested in the fact that the baby doll would toot and burp after a bottle. Nice. And then when Sam first arrived, it was kind of like pulling teeth to get Aaron to acknowledge him.
Exhibit A
Here's the fake smile version, after I made turned off the TV and said, you can be done holding Sam as soon as you SMILE AT MOMMY.
Can you tell he's humoring me? Delightful.
Then slowly, he started feeling Sam out. Kind of like with an unfamiliar dog, Aaron would just put out his closed fist in Sam's direction and then look at us like, is this safe? After a few tentative fist bumps, Aaron saw Sam was pretty tame and warmed up.
Then suddenly, somewhere around early February, Aaron decided he LOVED his brother.
And these days he cannot get enough of Sam. He loves to tell us what Sam is doing at every moment and will stop playing every so often just to run over to wherever Sam is and check him out. Poor Sam is patiently enduring a lot of friendly poking, although Sam's not always quite so forgiving when Aaron wakes him up from a deep sleep. Me neither, really. House rule is "You wake it, you take it." Aaron's not buying it. Bummer.
A few cute brother interactions lately...
We've been trying to help Aaron understand why Baby Sam cries. He tends to laugh at him, which we're trying to curb, since uh, it's not nice. The other day, I was in the kitchen, Aaron was playing in the family room and Baby Sam was napping in his swing in the living room. Sam woke up and started crying. Aaron ran from the family room and grabbed my hand in the kitchen, yelling "Hurry Mommy, Baby Sam is cwying! He needs us!" And he pushed me, with dripping wet hands, into the living room to help Baby Sam.
He also runs to inform us, on a regular basis, "Oh no Mommy Baby Sam losed his annuder binky!" Translation: Sam's pacifier fell out. The debate is warring within me...do I teach Aaron to put it back in and save myself some trouble but subject Sam to more invasive poking? Probably not, right?
Aaron's also been repeating phrases that he picks up from us, my mom and other random sources (usually Mickey Mouse). The other day we were getting ready to leave the house and Sam was crying in his car seat. Aaron bent over the car seat, rocking it, and said "Aw, whatsa matter suhweetie?" He calls his brother "suhweetie", "bud", "Baby Sam". All cute.
Anytime someone is holding Sam and playing with him, Aaron climbs right up and wants to snuggle right up next to Sam. He likes to hold Sam's hand too. I would love to know what Sam thinks of all of this.
Whenever I try to take pictures of Sam, Aaron is RIGHT THERE to participate. Even though he doesn't want any pictures taken of himself. Instead, about half of my pictures of Sam have a big ole head in the picture too. Sam generally ends up looking kind of bewildered.
I could go on all day about these two brothers...but I won't. I'll just show you. Because these pictures, they speak much louder than any words.
I had propped Sam up to take some pics of him.
And Aaron can't resist a chance to love on him.
Poor Sam. Utterly bewildered.
But he really does like it too.
There's that tongue again! And they are holding hands.
That's nice, Aaron. Use your brother's head as a prop.
Contemplating his brotherly love. Uh, sure.
This makes me laugh. Okay, maybe they look a bit alike here.
And here. Teehee.
Same face again. These outtakes are better than the final shots.
Is this a comedy routine?
Sam's bewildered again. But cute.
That was my victory shot. Two smiles...not both looking but I'm not picky anymore.
Anytime I put Sam on the floor to play, he has an instant playmate by his side.
Whatcha doin Baby Sam?
You are twelve weeks old, Sam. Time to start reading.
Okay, Aaron will read to you for a little while, but you better get your act together and start pulling your own weight soon.
This just melts my heart.
This is blurry but seriously...every.single.time I put the kid down. And a lot of times when I'm trying to take photos of Sam...there is a mysterious brown head bobbing into view or casting shadows. But I'll take best buddies over perfect photos anyday.
Patting Sam through tummy time. And when he cries during tummy time, Aaron just lays his big ole noggin right down on Sam's back. Not so comforting but at least it keeps him from rolling out of tummy time everyday.
Look, Aaron's baby sitting.
Nugglin (snuggling) wif Baby Sam.
Snuggling quickly turns into poking. Aaron saw us pushing on Sam's nose and saying "Boop" to make him laugh. And now he pokes him. A lot. While yelling "BOOP!" Usually while Sam is sleeping. Cute, right?
Boop! Sam seemed to like it...this time.
Giving kisses. Sweet.
Playing soccer together. Aaron's super into soccer...so, obviously Baby Sam wants to play too. Obviously.
This would have been a real winner if my camera strap hadn't fallen in front of the lens. Sigh.
Like I said, best buds. Just like I had hoped.
We're really trying to tread the fine line between keeping Aaron from annoying/disturbing/injuring Baby Sam and keeping him full of love for his brother and interacting with him. I'm allowing more poking than I ever though I would, simply for the fact that I want Aaron to want to play with Sam. We'll just pray that he continues to think he's the bees knees when Sam starts to crawl around and steal Aaron's stuff. But since I don't allow crawling until nine months, at the earliest, we've got a few good months left. (Did you hear that Sam? I do.not.allow it.)
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