Big Brother Josh

When we found out we were expecting Silas, all three of our children were excited. We knew they would all love their younger sibling, but we are a little amazed at how much. I'm sure there have been times of unnoticed jealousy in the past 8 months, but we have not seen it. JEB truly adore Silas and still love to have time to play with him. We always knew Beth and Brenna would love to help with Silas. We knew they would change diapers, change clothes, feed him, and all sorts of "mothering" things. We just sort of figured they would love that...and they really do. We knew Josh would be a great big brother, but we really didn't know how involved he would be with the "hands on" stuff of baby care. Josh has become the model big brother. With the girls he's very protective. He has the attitude, "No one can annoy my sisters...but me!" Is that good, or not? Still trying to figure that one out! :o) Josh truly seems to love his time with Silas. Sunday morning we had a 35 minute drive to a church we had never been to before. So, needless to say, we were rushing around getting ready. Josh came and got Silas and took him to their room to play. Josh has been showing Silas toys that he has in a box under his bed, and Silas loves them. Especially to suck on them! But, that is how Josh has been, ready to play with his brother.

One thing Josh really doesn't do is change diapers. We've made him change two....it was a sort of "you need to learn this for when you're a Daddy" type thing, he was fine with learning, but he'd rather not do that anymore! So, I don't make him. Patrick and I are trying not to fall into the trap of letting our older siblings do too much for the younger ones. The Christian life is a life of balance, and we're trying to balance teaching them to be a help, but let them be brothers and sisters, not second parents. Know what I mean? From time to time Josh asks if he can pick out Silas's clothes for the day and get Silas ready. Josh did that today, and what a blessing! (You should have seen the socks! Beth wanted to know if they really matched that outfit!)

My main reason for this post is to do a little bragging on my son. I think it must sometimes be hard being the first born. He's been our "practice kid". We've made bunches of mistakes in parenting. I think it always helps when we go to Josh and tell him "I'm sorry, I've messed up." One of my greatest desires is for our children to see that we are real, and with being real, they'll see we make mistakes, too. It's probably hard for first born children because they always have younger eyes watching them. They're always an example, whether good or bad. I'm truly thankful E, B and S have Joshua for a big brother. I know he's not perfect, but he loves his sisters and brother and watches out for them. He's a true help to me and Patrick.

I love you, Josh and I'm so proud of you!