Brothers

Caleb has begun crawling. I think he is just trying to keep up with Noah, but he sure is progressing quickly. Just a couple of weeks ago he was scooting like an inchworm, but last night all three of us watched as he lifted his belly off the floor and coordinated his legs and arms to make his way across his playmat, chasing down one of Noah's trucks. Caleb's goals seem to be to get as many of Noah's toys in his mouth as possible, so crawling has become a large part of those plans.

For his part, Noah is pretty good natured about having to share. If Caleb has one of Noah's toys, Noah will go get one to trade. So far this works, since Caleb is happy with any toy he can put in his mouth. Of course, Caleb's new mobility has meant that we have to pay special attention to keeping track of crayons and the small farm animals that wander across our carpet.

Noah has really proven himself to be a great big brother and has shown an intuitive knowledge of what infants need. The other day I had trouble getting Caleb to settle down and I could not figure out what was wrong. He was fussing and crying, would not eat and I knew he was tired. Noah came up as I tried to rock an upset Caleb and told me, with a very matter-of-fact look on his face, "Caleb crying." "Yes," I replied, "Caleb is sleepy and he is having trouble going to sleep." Noah reached over on to the table beside the rocking chair and grabbed the pacifier that had laid there, ignored in my attempts to settle the crying baby. "Caleb paci," Noah said as he aimed for Caleb's open mouth. Sure enough, Caleb took the pacifier and immediately settled down, closing his eyes and fell asleep. Now why didn't mommy think of that?