Big Brother/Little Brother

It's been said that one of the reasons teens turn into such terrors is because it helps you become ready for their flight from the nest. But what is the reasoning behind toddlers transforming from such sweet little babies into holy terrors complete with enough mood swings to make the worst case bi-polar look normal? Caiden often goes from smiles to tears to giggles in a matter of seconds. Some days he is an absolute angel. Other days (like today) he goes to nap in place of a visit to the store because of his uncontrollable and all too frequent meltdowns despite my best efforts to help him through whatever it is that is upsetting him. *sigh*

Ok, complaining over. My real reason for writing about Caiden today is to showcase just what a wonderful big brother and all around good kid he really is. :) We're lucky. We really really are. He is a good helper. He loves to read his books either with Mom or Dad or just on his own. He will play on his own for hours. He makes us laugh. He gives awesome hugs. I love that he asks me "How are you doing this morning, Mama?" or he'll tell the cashier at the store to "Have a nice day!" He puts a smile on my face countless times throughout the day.

Yesterday there was a particular moment I want to capture here and share with you. Ezra is the proud new owner of a Bumbo seat we picked up off Craigslist. He loves to watch what is going on around him, especially when Caiden is around. As I have often lamented, Ezra is quite the little spitter. We don't go anywhere without a burp cloth or two at hand! Well, yesterday morning, Ezra was hanging out in his chair while Caiden was playing and I was eating breakfast. Caiden noticed he had spit up a little. He walks over to Ezra and squats down to his level. He then picks up Ezra's burp cloth and very gently dabs at his mouth and chin to clean him up. As he finishes he says "There you go, Ezra. All clean!" in a high pitched singsong voice much like we use when we talk to Ezra. He then proceeded to pick up Ezra's rattle and made sure he could hold on to it. Meanwhile, Ezra has just the biggest face-splitting ear to ear grin on his face from all the attention he is getting from his big brother. All of this was done without any prompting from me. Instead, I got to watch them interact with each other and my heart just swelled with love and joy at the scene I was witnessing. I made sure to tell Caiden right away how proud of him I was for his gentle and loving treatment of Ezra. Moments like these make me so excited and eager to watch them grow up together. They also fill me with hope that those two will be close compadres their whole lives.