Best Big Brother Ever!

Collin has just been awesome lately and has grown into a wonderful big brother. It is so nice to see him care about Owen. :) I always thought (mostly based on my own childhood) that Owen as the younger child would always be chasing after Collin and wanting to play with him and copy whatever he is doing. Yup, I was wrong about that; it's the other way around. Owen definitely love his big Bubba, but I think Collin is a bit more attached right now. Collin always wants to play with Owen and is happy to help him with anything he can. He has even attempted to change a dirty diaper, but he soon found his limit with that one! Often times Collin will get his feelings hurt because Owen would rather have Mommy or Daddy help him instead of Collin. For months now, Collin has been wanting to help Owen to unbuckle his car seat when it's time to get out of the car, but Owen would scream and only allow Timothy or I to do it. I tried to encourage Owen to let his brother help because after all, it would help me too, but he just wouldn't have it. Finally, last week Collin asked Owen again if he could get him out and Owen said, "sure Bubba" and it was just awesome! So now that is a pretty regular thing and I love it.

On Sunday night, Owen was being his normal monkey self and kept climbing on the couch and jumping off. I don't mean sitting on his bottom and sliding off either. He was standing on the couch and jumping to the floor. He actually managed to land on his feet most of the time, which was impressive, but still-- we don't stand on or jump off of the couch! When I told him to sit down for what seemed like the hundredth time (and yes, there were some time outs involved) I said something like, "Stop jumping off the couch before you break your neck!" Well apparently that's the wrong thing to say because Collin lost it. He was crying so hard he could hardly talk but he managed to say, "I don't want Owey to break his neck off!" He was so scared that his brother would get hurt. After that, he kept an eye on Owen all night and told him to sit down every time he stood up. Later, they were is Collin's room and Collin jumped off his bed and of course Owen followed him. Collin immediately realized what he had done and got right in Owen's face and told him, "I'm really sorry I jumped off my bed and I won't do it any more and you can't do it either because I don't want to you to get hurt and break your neck off!" He was so serious and Owen listened to him.

They play together as well as any two kids their age can I think. They will play quietly making a spectacular mess for 20 minutes before one of them starts fussing about something the other one did. I mostly attribute this successful playtime to Collin being an all-around easy-going kid. If Owen wants the toy Collin is playing with then Collin will say, "ok it can be your turn now and then my turn again." We tried to teach him early on that Owen has a short attention span that it's easier just to share because he won't play with the same toy for long anyway so you will get it right back most of the time.

Owen won't go to bed unless he gets to give Bubba a hug and kiss. And there are times when Owen refuses to go to sleep no matter how many time Timothy and I go in to put him back to bed, but we only have to send Collin in once. He will cover Owen up and give him lots of friends (stuffed animals) to sleep with and tell him goodnight and it's just all better. They have slumber parties all the time in Owen's room and sleep on the floor in sleeping bags. I hope that they always get along as well as they do now, and when they don't I will come back and read this entry and remember the good ol' days.

Speaking of bed time, this week I started reading Harry Potter to Collin. It's his first chapter book and first book without a picture on every page. He seems to like it so far (we just started chapter two today) but I'm not sure if he understands all of it. I try to stop and explain often because it's so new for him, not to mention it's British. I really was expecting him to freak out a little when I told him Voldemort killed Harry's parents, but he didn't get scared at all. I also think part of the reason he likes it is because he knows he is staying up a bit later then he normally would, but it's not like he would be sleeping anyway. He always talks to himself or 'reads' a book to himself for a good hour before he goes to sleep. Which is just what I need to do now too, so I will talk to you all again soon.