Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Sweetest Thing

Yesterday morning, as I was trying to get all ready to leave for the store, Guthrie was playing in his room, and I laid Turner down on the living room floor to go do a couple things in the kitchen. I was unloading the dishwasher when Turner started fussing, and since I was almost done I thought I'd just go ahead and see if I could finish before he had a total meltdown. He was terribly fussy yesterday anyway, and it really didn't seem to matter what I did.

Guthrie apparently heard Turner fussing and ran in from his bedroom. He lay down on the floor next to Turner, put his arms around him, talked to him softly, and Turner calmed down. They lay there together for a few minutes, Turner staring and smiling at his big brother, Guthrie smiling and making faces at his little brother, holding hands, completely unaware that anyone was watching them. I wished I'd been able to get it on camera, but then Guthrie would have known I was watching, and gone after the camera instead.

It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life.

Guthrie is, mostly, an amazing big brother to Turner. Yes, he gets mad when Turner wants to play with his toys, or when he wants on my lap when I'm nursing Turner. Mostly, though, he wants to calm him down when he's upset, and is careful not to let him get anything he could hurt himself on, and if Turner is playing with a toy Guthrie wants or shouldn't have, Guthrie will take it away (sometimes gently, sometimes not) and replace it with something more appropriate.

He also wants to share with everyone. When he's eating his food, he'll try to feed me bites, or when we make a meat and cheese tray he'll fix up little sandwiches for Eric and me. And the other day when Turner and I were napping, Eric said it was all he could do to keep Guthrie out of the bedroom, because he found one of Turner's toys and was certain Turner needed it right that second.

He's a sweet, sweet kid. We must be doing something right.

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