February 8, 2007 | Mama Smith

build, build, build

Brighton finally lost himself in something yesterday afternoon instead of just running around the house, frantically trying to gain attention in whatever way possible. He hadn’t really lost himself in anything since Levi arrived. His normal habit of entertaining himself – reading, playing cars, finding new holes to put his keys in – seemed to have vanished in an effort to keep all eyes on him and not the baby.

We felt yesterday afternoon was redeeming and reviving for all of us. Brighton became enthralled in building his blocks repeating “Build! Build! Build!” over and over…for a good hour. Matthew finally pulled out the video camera to capture these early moments with our new family. I sat on the couch with Levi enjoying his warm, sleeping body and cheering on Brighton’s towers. We felt oddly restored by the simplicity of those late afternoon hours that seemed to fly by.

Another shot of the babe – snoozing in his basket in the window. He should be looking at that blue sky, getting his brain oriented around the fact that it’s daytime and not nighttime. But already he’s doing better than little B did at night, so we’ll give him some grace and extra day snooze time.

The big bro, with static-head from wrestling with his dad on the couch…“Um, nobody asked ME if I wanted a little brother!” What you can’t see is the huge scratch he gave himself on the cheek after throwing a fit in his highchair the night before. It was quite telling of what he’s going through :)