Big Brother is Growing Up

Everywhere we went this weekend, people who knew us asked if Casey had grown a lot lately.  And I think he has - he looks taller and all his shorts that went to his knees last summer are more mid thigh this year.  This kid has some legs on him!  He has come a long way from his very long waisted toddler days.
But he is growing in other ways too.  This is a long story, but I want to record it.
Last weekend, the boys were scheduled for a long anticipated sleepover at a friends house.  This family has two older boys who are so good to our guys - Casey and Sam look up to them so much and love playing with them.  They had been asking since Christmas and when I booked it in March for a night Jeff and I would be away this weekend, I made the mistake of telling them about it.  So for about 8 weeks we have talked about the sleepover and how many days until it happened about once a day.  Ahem.
Finally it was the night before the sleepover - we talked about what we would pack, what they should bring and the schedule for the next day to ensure maximum time at the sleepover.  Jeff headed out to his conference expecting me to join him the next day.  In the middle of the night Sam woke up crying in pain holding the side of his head.  We have always discovered ear infections by accident so I had not really experienced this before.  I gave him some Tylenol and he was able to get back to sleep.
But the next morning he was still in pain so after we got Casey to school I got him to the doctor.  It's never a good sign when the doctor looks in your child's ear and says "Woah!"  Pretty bad infection in one ear and one getting started in the other ear.
After talking with Jeff and the sleepover host we decided I would stay home with Sam.  But knowing that Casey would probably punch me in the face if we cancelled the sleepover, we kept the plans for him to go.
I waited until it was almost time to go get Casey to tell Sam about the change of plans.  He was sad but agreed that he would rather be with me while his head hurt.  As an attempt at some consolation I let Sam ride a big wheel to the school.  The deal with the big wheel is that if he rides it over, Casey gets to ride it home.  The last 2 times I let him ride it he refused to let Casey ride it home which means I end up carrying a big wheel while dragging two crying boys home.  So we haven't been riding the bike over :)  This day seemed like a good time to let him bring it.
When we got to Casey's classroom, Sam walked right up to him and said "I have an ear 'fection and I cannot go to the sleepover"  Casey glanced at me and I let him know that he was still going.  He wrapped his arms around Sam and said "I am so sorry Sam."
We got outside and Casey saw the big wheel but did not even ask about it.  He let Sam ride it home with no fight.   As we rounded the last corner, Casey challenged Sam to a race and they flew down the street, Sam pedaling like mad and Casey running like the wind.  They turned up the driveway at the same time and Casey was poised to take the lead.  But he didn't.  Honest to God, he let Sam win.  And then went on and on about how fast he was pedaling and how he never could have won because Sam was too fast.  I almost cried.
We got everything in the car and headed over to their house - when we got there, Casey was totally calm about it and gave us hugs and went inside.  I imagine he was pumping his fist and jumping around when he got inside the door.

Who is this empathetic, emotionally aware little person?  Casey is very kind and thoughtful most of the time and if I had told him to do any one of those things, he would have.  But to come up with it all on his own was truly remarkable.  We are so proud of the person he is becoming.  Just a couple weeks and he will be 6, on his way to first grade - wow.