"You mean John!"

Mitzi called my attention to a typo in my last blog post.  I generally have several typos as I rarely edit (and I could cry that I have little time to do so...but the reality is that I just don't).  However, this particular typo has special significance to our life these days.  It is the fact that I will very often call John "Will".  I just happened to even make this very mistake at the end of my last post. 

I said it when he was born that John reminded me of Will.  This early opinion of my fourth child has stuck itself firmly in my subconscious and now I will often call him Will as I tell the kids the order of the day.  For example:

"Ok, you all get ready and make your beds while I feed Will"

I don't even realize I say it, but the kids jump on this error quite quickly.  It has now become a little joke between us...except I very rarely do it unintentionally.  The great thing is (though John may have a different opinion in a year or so), Will almost seems to think of it as a compliment.   He always has a little smile on his face when he corrects me.  Which brings me to Will's relationship with John.  I don't know if it is because of fact I mistake the two, or just Will's love of his brother, but I will often find Will laying or sitting next to John imparting his wisdom on his baby brother.  The other morning Will told John all about how special his birthday was:

"Your birthday is April 11, which is Grandpa's birthday and Dom's half-birthday".

He also went on to tell John that his shirt was a pattern: blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue...(he was wearing a striped shirt).

Another time Will filled his backpack with a bunch of toys and brought them to John.  I listened as he pulled toy after toy out of his pack to show John.

"This is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, this is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, this is a gun..."  yeah...

All of the kids lavish attention on John.  Molly helps me burp him and will let me know when John is being quiet or crying...generally a little louder than I would appreciate, and Dom is always ready to help carry or hold John when I need him to.  The other day, I was loaded down with bags and handed John off to Dom to carry back to our hotel room.  Dom is very proud of his position as third in charge (after Mom and Dad...in that order)

And now I need to go check on Will, I mean John.  He's been sitting patiently as I typed this, but my time is up.