Brothers

The past few days, the boys are playing together!
We actually had to separate them in church last night because they were being so naughty.
Remind me that 19 months is the magic number for the beginning of good sibling interaction. This weekend, we were at the lake house and I felt like if the other one was still sleeping, that John Michael or Noah seemed lonely. To this point, it's been me constantly providing the interaction for John Michael and it is NICE to be able to pass the baton onto Noah. John Michael was pushing Noah for a while on the baby swing this morning and it was so cute. Granted, JM was literally hanging off the swing and dragging his body in the dirt, but they were having so much fun and really, pushing on the swing is one of my least favorite parental duties, so yay! Yesterday I caught them sharing a bowl of oatmeal. JM was actually spooning some into Noah's mouth. He likes his instant oatmeal, so that is some love!

The bad news is that a lot of their interaction is annoying. One of their favorite jokes is when Noah says "Bella!" (as in our dog) and then JM says "I'm not Bella!" and then Noah says "Bella!" and JM again says he's not Bella. It goes on for a while and they both think it's hilarious. Ah, toddler humor.

When Noah was first born, I felt a LOT of guilt for introducing this new person into my first-born's life. I felt horrible that suddenly JM's world of being the center of attention came to a crashing halt with this new person who needed his mama (and especially her breasts!!!) 24/7.

I have such good memories of giggling with my brother on car trips on the way to see my Chicago grandparents. Now that they are a little older, I can see where having siblings is a really wonderful thing and not anything I should have felt guilty about when Noah came along. I'm going to need to remember this when the new baby comes. Noah is still such a baby that it's going to be hard for him to share his mama. But, it's going to be easier this time, I think. Although both boys will miss some of my attention for a while, at least my bigger boys will have each other.