I've talked before about how Child 2 is the best possible "social skills" teacher for Child 1, and every day I see Child 1 becoming more and more verbal about his feelings and opinions. Have I mentioned that's awesome? Because that's awesome.
Last night Child 2 was having a hissy fit about something or other, I don't even remember what it was about, does it matter? He's very dramatic. And loud. Did I mention loud? Because he's loud. At the time Child 1 was in his room on his computer, an activity that they often share, usually against Child 1's objections. As Child 2 is crying and carrying on, I hear Child 1 yell to him from the other room "HEY! CHILD 2! COME HERE AND LOOK AT THIS!"
Child 2 continues to cry and whine, and so Child 1 tries again: "CHILD 2! COME HERE AND CHECK THIS OUT! IT'S REALLY COOL!" This gets his attention and Child 2 stops his tantrum and goes into the room to see what's going on. Within seconds they are both laughing at whatever it is they're looking at on the screen.
That has never happened before; Child 1 has never invited Child 2 to come and share his personal space. Usually what happens is that I'll hear "MAMA! Make Child 2 leave me alone" and I did hear that about 5 minutes later, but not before the tantrum was ended and Child 2 was laughing and feeling better. Child 1 intentionally went outside his comfort zone in order to make his brother feel better, if even just for a minute or two.
Lack of empathy, huh? I don't think so....