Hero Worship

As the oldest child in my family, I never had a big brother or a big sister. Therefore, I do not completely understand the older sibling "hero worship" thing. However, I am experiencing it firsthand right now. Nicholas is completely and totally enamored of his big brother, Lucas. It has gotten to the point of sheer lunacy. This morning, I woke up to find myself in bed with Lucas, Sophie, AND Nicholas. At some point, Ruanita had moved to the chair in our bedroom. Lucas was being his usual obnoxious, giddy, borderline deranged early morning self...he is WAY too much of a morning person for my tastes. He was smacking himself in the head, making silly faces, faking fart noises, and otherwise acting like a complete lunatic. Nicholas was the one and only person in the entire room laughing at Lucas. He laughed hysterically every time Lucas so much as looked at him. Come on Nicky...can't you find a less asinine hero? Unfortunately, there is no avoiding it. There is no talking him out of it. Nicholas absolutely worships his big brother. Lately, any time I ask the kids a question...ask their opinion about anything...Nicholas will glance at Lucas to see what he should say. He waits until Lucas answers and then his pat response is, "I agree with Lucas." That's all I hear from Nicholas anymore. "I agree with Lucas." I suspect that all children worship their older siblings at some point in their lives. Then again, I don't recall ever feeling any love coming from my younger sisters and brother. As a matter of fact, I am pretty certain they despised me growing up. If the knock-down, drag-out, full-on fist fights were not an indicator of complete contempt, I don't know what would be. Somehow, I seriously doubt they were secretly veiled signs of love and affection. So...maybe it's not every child that adores their older siblings. Perhaps it is just Nicholas? In that case, I am going to have to seriously doubt his judgment when it comes to heroes. Lucas? The king of fart jokes? The boy whose hand is permanently inserted down the front of his pants? Really, Nick?