Brothers

My kids are four years apart.  We planned it that way and for the most part it has worked out.  But the age difference has made the sibling relationship a bit fraught from time to time.  Liam gets bossy, Jamie gets grabby, there are unkind words.

They're brothers, I expect this.

But every now and then I see sweet gestures between the two.  Liam will play games with Jamie and I'll hear gales of laughter, usually while wrestling with each other.

This morning, Jamie melted my heart.

Liam was having a rough morning.  Time change is kicking his butt.  He woke up cranky and difficult, telling me he wouldn't go to school and with raging attitude.  I was working through all of this with him, trying to coax him through morning routine without it becoming a battle, when he complained that his back hurt.

Given that he was sitting on the hard kitchen floor scrunched up against the island this was hardly surprising.

Jamie was hanging around while all of this was going on and he ran off at this point; I assumed he was going to go poke around in the freezer and then shove some breakfast item in my face to fix for him.

Instead, while I was continuing to talk to Liam, he came back with one of our kiddie ice packs from the freezer.  We call it "cold Nemo" because it looks like a clownfish and has gel inside so you can freeze the whole thing but have a flexible cold pack.  Anyway, he came running back with cold Nemo and put it on his brother's back.

My tank of a two year old, who is made of all ego and rarely thinks beyond himself (he's two!) heard Liam say his back hurt and ran off to get something to help.

Melted puddle on the floor.

I hope, as they get older, they find more and more common ground.