Brothers

From the day after they were born, when they were together, Andrew snuggled right into Ben.  He got such peace from being near his brother.  He was such a miserable baby.  The funny thing, though, is that as soon as Ben had any sort of a say, he'd push Andrew away.    Ben really "appreciated his space", so to speak.   Didn't want too much cuddling or loving or snuggling.  And he'd push Andrew away.

That lasted until ...  well...  I guess when Ben became mobile, he had a lot more interest in his brother.  Andrew started crawling at 8 months and Ben not til 12 months.  So around their first birthday, Ben really started to love his brother. 

This love, it manifests in "Dives" onto brother, and brother sandwiches, tackling, tickling, trying to spoon feed brother, trying to wake him up.   Ben doesn't even want to leave his room in the morning unless Andrew's coming, too.

Andrew's love of cuddling Ben was dissolving around then, as then, as Andrew became more isolated as his autism took over, he really didn't even seem to notice that Ben existed.  

Only in the last couple of months does he glance over at Ben's tray, what Ben's eating.
And then the last couple of weeks, glances over at Ben, if he's being loud, or to see what Ben's eating.
And then this week: Smiling.  At Ben, when Ben sings or smiles or runs, or who knows what.  He sees Ben and he smiles, for who knows what reason, except that they're brothers.