Paulette and I had a little bit of trepidation at first over how Alexander might receive his baby brother. Nolan arrived a mere three weeks after we moved into the new house, and Alex had already had to adapt to quite a bit of upheaval.

Fortunately, Alex took to his brother much more easily than he took to the new house. He is very affectionate and gentle with Nolan. He loves to make sure Nolan has a toy to play with, and he often goes up to Nolan and announces "Smiles! Smiles!" Whenever Paulette and the kids leave and I kiss Alex goodbye, he insists that I make sure to kiss Nolan goodbye, too. That kind of thing.

Perhaps the transition has worked easily with Alex, in part, because we make sure to spend a little bit of quality time just with him. When we go for our evening walks each day, Nolan (and Paulette) may or may not join us, but Alex leads the delegation. The bed time ritual, with reading and tooth brushing and changing clothes and all that, is one-on-one time between Daddy and Alex. Paulette, likewise, has a number of activities that are very much Alex-focused.

Nolan, to be sure, gets his own time with Mommy and Daddy. Nursing aside, Nolan gets Paulette's exclusive attention at bath time and in the early mornings and late evenings before Alex gets up and after Alex goes to bed. Nolan gets tummy time and air time and time to enjoy the mobile in his crib. He also ends up sleeping in our big bed most mornings after his 5am feeding. I don't get as much exclusive time with Nolan as I do with Alex -- very much to my chagrin -- but as my schedule gets a little more sane (which *is* happening), that, too, shall improve.

And as far as brotherhood goes, Nolan is absolutely fascinated by Alex. I'll often catch Nolan staring at me or at his mother intently, but even more frequently he'll focus all of his attention upon his older brother. When the television happens to be on for Alex (we're not really putting anything on for Nolan just now), Nolan studies Alex, not the TV.

I realize that what is happening now has no real bearing on how the future will play out. Paulette and I both grew up with siblings and our respective relationships with the sibs have varied wildly over time. Continue to vary. I'd like to think that we both currently enjoy good, healthy relationships with our sibs as adults, but there've certainly been some interesting rough patches along the way. I harbor no illusion that today's affection means that Alex will never have any issues with his younger brother, and visa versa. But we'll continue to encourage Alex's being a good big brother, and we'll continue to give both of them attention separately as well as together.

I'm fascinated to watch how all of these dynamics develop.