Little five year old Mike Johnson was preparing himself.

Just a few months ago his mommy was telling him that he was going to be getting a new little brother or sister, and although he wasn't sure in the beginning, he was now extremely excited. In just a few years he'd have someone to play with and share his toys with. He wasn't fond of having to share his mommy and daddy with the new sibling, because the little guy wasn't even born yet and he was already taking up so much of mommy's time. But he liked walking into the new nursery filled with toys and little baby clothes. From all the blue, Mike knew he was going to be getting a baby brother.

And now he was sitting in a hospital waiting room by himself because his cousin Olaf hadn't arrived yet to keep an eye on him while his mommy had his baby brother. He was too jittery and jumpy to even think about watching the cartoons on the TV that one of the nice nurse ladies had changed it to for him. He had been there for a really long time without a peep from his father or the arrival of his cousin Olaf. Maybe waiting would go by faster if cousin Olaf was there, because he was always really fun to watch even if he smelled funny a lot of the time. But Olaf never arrived, and his daddy finally walked into the waiting room with a soft smile on his usually hard-lined face.

"Mikey, do you want to meet your baby brother?" He asked softly.

Mike quickly bounced off his seat and nodded, grinning. He trotted after his daddy into one of the hospital rooms to see his mommy all tired-looking but smiling. In her arms was a little bundle of blankets, and Mike could just barely see a small pink fist clenching and unclenching. His daddy picked him up and set him gently next to his mommy, and he got a better look at the little baby in his mommy's arms. He was really tiny, with blue eyes and wispy blond hair on top of his head. The fist he had seen had escaped from one of the little mittens he was wearing.

"Meet your little brother, Anders." His mommy said quietly.

"Anders is tiny...Was I that tiny?" Mike asked, leaning over to poke Anders' cheek.

"You were a little bit bigger than Anders, but you were still very small." His mommy ruffled his hair.

When his mommy finally came back home, Mike realized that having a baby in the house could get very, very loud. Sometimes he'd wake up in the middle of the night to Anders crying really loudly, but mommy and daddy would still be asleep half of the time. So Mike decided it was up to him to grab his blanket and walk to Anders' nursery to see if he could comfort the little baby. He couldn't hold Anders, because mommy said that Anders was still too little for Mike to hold properly. So what he would do is stick his hand in through the crib's bars and pet Anders like a kitty. Most of the time that would calm Anders down, and sometimes his little brother would let out a gurgled laugh and grab Mike's finger with his own tiny hand.

And then most mornings his mommy or daddy would find him asleep next to the crib with one hand still caught in the bars and Anders' little fist clenched on one of the fingers. Daddy would sometimes scold him about it, saying that he was going to hurt his arm from falling asleep so often in that position. But mommy would just smile and say that Mike was going to be a very good brother, and that he should be proud that Anders already trusted him so well even though he was only a few weeks old. Mike was proud, and he knew that he was going to try to always be there for him.