Brothers



Romans 12:10

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

 When I first told Kai that he was going to be a big brother, his response wasn't the one I was hoping for.  I read to him one of his Shimajiro the tiger books.  In the story, Shimajiro's mom was pregnant and Shimajiro was talking to her belly and was so excited for his baby sister to come out and play with him.  After the story was done, I pointed to my belly and told Kai, "Look at mommy's tummy.  There is a baby in there, too."  Kai looked quickly away and screamed, "NO!"
Since then, we have included Lukas in our bedtime prayers that Kai and Lukas would love each other a lot and be the best of friends.  I have continued to pray for the brothers that they would have an affection for each other, that they would LIKE each other, be interested in one another, take care of each other, be positive influences on one another, be great friends.  I fear them being envious or competitive and hope that they will have a great relationship.  We have read different stories with Kai like Berenstein Bears' New Baby, Little Critter Just Me & My Little Brother, and Best Ever Big Brother.  Kai has really enjoyed the books and when I talked to him about life with his little brother, we'd talk about how Kai can teach his brother all sorts of things like ABCs and hiragana, how he can sing to his brother and teach him about the parachute, how when brother gets older they can sleep in a bunk bed.
When Lukas was born and Kai first met him in the hospital, I had listened to different sensible advice.  We bought a gift for Kai from his brother (Cars 2, Kai's latest obsession.)  When Kai first came into the room, we wanted Kai to come to us first and then we'd bring him to his brother rather than him walking in on us holding Lukas and Kai feeling replaced.  Kai had fallen asleep on the way to the hospital.  When he woke up he was grumpy and didn't care about his gift.  He didn't want to see his brother.  When we got home, he only loved the attention of visitors because they were extra playmates.  As long as Kai has someone who will play with him, he is happy.  I think he is waiting for Lukas to get bigger.  It has been very helpful to me to have Ryuta home and Ryuta has been keeping Kai entertained and taken care of.  I'm a little nervous about how things will go when he returns to work.
We took some family pictures yesterday.  Kai briefly kissed Lukas's head and we were able to get him to lie/sit down with the help of Mickey Mouse on my i-touch.