Brother's Keeper

Yesterday, Dom did a couple of things that made me realize that he recognizes that he is Will's older brother and is expected to look out for him. The first occurred at an area splash park. It is a wide open area and I could almost always keep an eye on the boys. However, I watched as they walked to the bathroom building and saw Will walk behind it out of my sight. I was just getting up to go retrieve him when I saw Dom go behind the building as well. I hadn't taken 5 steps when Dom comes back around the building hauling Will with him and pulling him all of the way back to where I was sitting. Eric and I often use Dom to race down Will as he runs down aisles or sidewalk, but this was the first I had seen Dom do it on his own. I hope he keeps this up, because it will make my life a heck of a lot easier.

The second thing that Dom did that made my heart swell a little was of a different nature. As many of you know, Dom is particularly attached to his blanket (blankie). Will also has a blanket type thing (Foo-Foo, as in little bunny Foo-Foo because it has a rabbit head) that I suspect he is only attached to because he knows Dom has a special blanket also. Both boys tend to watch out for the other's blanket. Yesterday, Dom was getting ready to have some quiet time while Will napped and went in search of his blanket to snuggle. When I came back into the room where Will was, I noticed that Dom had placed Foo-Foo on Will's stomach so that he would have it when he woke up. It was a pretty sweet sight.

It has been fun for Eric and me to watch Dom and Will's friendship grow over the last few months. They play together and in general watch out for one another. But, to put the above stories in perspective, we much more often experience the following situation:

Eric: "Dom, why is Will crying?"

Dom: "Because he is sad"

Eric: "Why is Will sad?"

Dom: "Because I hit him"