Had a 45 minute conversation with N today.  Seems he’s really struggling with the whole concept of being a big brother to L and M, especially L.

For the past seven months, Jim and I have been focused on the gains L has been making.  And how now, he’s acting more like a little brother, and not some strange kid who is living in the same house with N.  And to us, that’s been great news.

To N, it means he’s now got this kid all up in his face, just like you’d expect a little brother to be.  But, and here’s the point of all this, N can’t respond like you’d expect a big brother to respond (smack L upside the head, tease him back, etc) – because that would trigger L’s issues all over again, and set L back.

That sucks.

So now Jim and I are working on ways that N can respond when his siblings are acting, well, like siblings!  We’ll see how this turns out.