Sympathy Pain

I woke up Saturday morning. The house was quite. Tony had woke me up with a couple of grunts transmitted through the intercom.

I got up and made my way to his room. It was another sleepy Saturday morning…and I wasn’t asleep. Then his smile hit me, and I was glad I was the one who had gotten the wake up call.

I changed his diaper, and he gave me the, “why am I not eating” grunt. So I made my way to the kitchen, and he gets louder and less patient for the chef.

I’m missing and shaking his bottle while he grunts and whines some more, and then…silence, followed by different voice, sweet and small.

“It’s all right Tony. Dad’s almost here. It’s alright.”

The commotion has woken Jack, who has is standing beside the changing table, with crazy bed head, holding his little brother’s attention while I complete the gourmet meal of formula.

“Good job, Jack,” I say and he beams with pride. He is so proud to be a big brother..and I’m proud of him.

My son…my oldest son…is very excited about his brother. We called him soon after the doctor’s office.

“Cool” was his response.”Very cool.”

He ask some questions, but not many. We talk to him about what’s going on. He’s always interested in how big the baby is. We usually try to come up with something familiar to compare to the baby’s size, such as a plum, banana, base ball. He knows the baby is 50 times smaller than him in weight.

He told his mom he “wanted one of both” after we told him we were having a boy. I guess we never went into the “only one in there” talk with him.

He’s got a great sense of humor about it. “Sticks and Stuff Comer” was his latest name suggestion. I think it’s copyrighted.

I love my son. He’s an amazing little boy. I hope that Sarah and I can raise lil peep and Jack together to be great brothers. I’m a little nervous about that. I want Jack to know that this house is as much his as any-one’s. That is going to be the hard part.

Any suggestions? How do you we create a home for our new son that allows Jack to feel like he’s as big of a part of it?