Brother's Keeper

When you first break the news that you're "expecting" people LOVE to try and bring you down.  Why has "you'll NEVER sleep again!!" become an acceptable form of congratulations?  I heard this so much that I vowed to counter this negativism by insisting that it's all a lie, children don't equal sleeplessness, it just takes a little work and some common sense to figure out ways to make it work.  But after Finn came into the world last week I've had to hang up my smuggy-pants, at least for now.  I'm pretty fucking tired.  I think it's the toddler/newborn ONE-TWO punch that's kicking the crap out of me.  Plus the fact that it's harvest season in the wine world doesn't help.  So yeah, I'll nibble on my words a bit, because right now my greatest desire in life is a quiet bedroom for a good eight hours.  What I wouldn't give...

Exacerbating my frayed nerves is an unexpected and disturbing issue that has cropped up over the course of this fun-filled week....I'm pretty sure Liam is trying to kill his new brother.  I'd hoped that the moment we presented our precious Liam his new sib his face would light up and his heart would swell with adoration.  Instead he regarded the baby like a pile of cat sick.  "You better clean that up before someone steps in it"....he seemed to say.

A friend suggested we try giving Liam a gift "from Finn" so we picked up the "Cars" DVD and tucked the box into Finn's bouncer.  "Liam, look what Finn got for you!!" we coaxed, pointing to the shiny box peering out from behind his baby brother.  Liam eased over with an expectant smirk on his sweet little face, slipped the box out from behind Finn, and clobbered him in the fontanelle. 

We've taken a more defensive tactic since then but so far Liam has still managed a few glancing blows with some well aimed toys.  Luckily the barrage has already started to ease up and over the weekend I'd thought that Liam had shown signs of warming up to Finn considerably.  Yesterday we let Liam get in close to Finn to see what would happen.  Liam bent over him for what looked like a sincere moment of brotherly love.  I was so touched I grabbed my phone and snapped this shot:

 

You'll notice Finn is looking a little red.  Liam was putting all of his weight on Finn, squeezing all the air out of his week-old lungs.  Cunning little psycho..

In truth Liam did plant a kiss on his brother.  He wasn't really trying to kill him, he's just inherited his dad's tendency for overbearing affection.  Just ask his mother whose safety word for me is "easy Lenny".  As for the hitting, it's toned down already and frankly I couldn't blame him for wanting to take a swing for one second.  The poor guy!  He's been the center of his parents world for his entire life and suddenly he's sharing the spotlight?!  Who wouldn't act out?  And the kicker is it's all my fault.  Erin obviously has her hands full so it's up to me.  What does that mean?  It means that maybe instead of staying up late finishing off a bottle of wine I should go to bed, get well rested (quit my goddamn whining), and get up early so I'll have the time and energy to show my son that I love him more than life itself.  Right?! Right!!

But just to be safe I'm still not leaving those two alone...