Brotherly Love

When Logan was a newborn I was telling Debbie how Brody seemed to love Logan a little too much sometimes. Debbie asked me if Logan had learned to turn his head away from Brody yet. She said that her own baby lover Wilson would get so close to Jackson's face that he eventually learned to turn away from Wilson. I was amazed that a newborn could have such a strong survival mechanism so I looked for the same behavior in Logan but never saw it. He wouldn't look towards Brody but he wouldn't look away either. He seemed indifferent unless Brody was crying, in which case Logan cried too. Of course, this wasn't specific to Brody, Logan cried whenever he heard anyone else cry.

Now that Logan's almost four months old I can tell that he's not going to turn his face away from his brother. When Logan hears Brody's voice he looks at him and smiles. Brody thrives on this, so he tries to do whatever he can to make Logan happy. When Logan cries, Brody shouts "he needs pacifier!" and races to find one. When Logan is in a happy mood, Brody tries to make it even better with big smiles and laughter. I have already written about their gigglefest, which was repeated last night at Granny and Poppa's house.

Brody also has a calming effect on Logan. When Logan cries, I often ask Brody to sing to him. He'll sing Baabaa Black Sheep or Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light or You are my Sunshine until Logan is happy again. Last night as we were driving home from Granny and Poppa's and nearing the boys' bedtime, Logan started getting fussy. Without prompting, Brody started singing his ABCs. Logan began to calm down but started crying when the song ended, so Brody kicked off round two of his ABCs. This time Logan calmed, but started whimpering again during Brody's last sentence "now I know my...". Instead of finishing the last bit of his song, Brody started right over with "ABCD...". I think he went through 4 or 5 rounds of his ABCs before Logan drifted off to sleep and slept through almost all of our car ride home.

I've heard other parents say that they were afraid having a second child forced their first child to grow up too fast. I don't think we have that problem in our home. Brody was ready to be a big brother and luckily for Logan, he's really good at it.