Watching My Boys Together

Brings pure joy to my heart!

As some of you might know from my other posts, my older son is autistic, so for him to show interest in his little brother, who I might also add is his half-brother, it’s a huge deal! Honestly, I’m sitting here watching them interact and it is so long overdue! It brings tears to my heart.

You see, when we told our older son he was going to have a baby sibling, he showed no interest. Partially because of his autism, but also because the only baby he has been around is his cousin who to be frank is and always has been out of control with no guidance or discipline. He runs the house and his parents let the behavior slide because he is overactive and autistic. So, my older son had no idea what a well-behaved child was like no matter what we told him. So, for the entire pregnancy, he had no interest.

Even after his baby brother was here, he would show very little interest. He’d walk by the living room where his brother would always be playing and while his brother got super excited every time he saw his older brother, my older son would look at him and keep walking. Almost like he wanted nothing to do with him.

It wasn’t until the baby was around six months that our older son started to “talk” back to him when the baby would yell or giggle when he’d walk by. So, seeing these two playing dinosaurs together now, just a short six months after my older boy first showed interest, it is what I think all “step” moms wish for when they combine a family and decide to grow that family. It’s priceless and shows them things will work out after all, nothing to worry about!

I put “step” in parentheses only because I don’t see myself as a step-mom to my older kids. I see myself as a mom whose kids happened to be born before I met them. I knew when I met my husband that he came with two additional gifts from his previous marriage, and in my wedding vows I vowed to love and treat them the same as our future kids. And I will never break that vow!

So, when my older son showed interest in his baby brother it brought me to tears the first time and now, as I’m sitting in our living room watching them play dinosaurs, it brings pure joy!