"I knew she would be scared."

That was the response I received from BigBoy when I asked him why he climbed in the crib with BabyCakes.
Let me back up a bit...

Neither of my children likes the vacuum.
It's big. It's loud. It freaks them out.

I heard BabyCakes talking to her seahorse so I knew she was up from her nap. I thought it would be a good time to vacuum since she was still calmly contained.

BigBoy was huddled in the corner of the couch covering his ears when I began.
Because of his speech delay he's had his hearing tested twice in the past. Both times he scored as high as they could measure and I was told he had "super-human" hearing (their words, not mine). When he says his ears hurt because something's too loud, he means it.

After vacuuming the living room I moved on to the kitchen and that must have been when he made a run for it.
I saved BabyCakes' room for last and when I came in, there I found him.
He was covering her ears with his hands and she was chewing on Rex' tail -- two things that don't usually happen. Usually she would fight to keep his hands off her and he would fight to keep her hands off Rex. I guess they both knew what was best in that situation and accepted it.
BigBoy "knew she would be scared" and didn't think twice about putting his sister first.


My son may be a lot of things, but a bad big brother, he is not.