"It's only an hour. What's the worst that could happen?"

*Whiiiiiiiiistle* 

 That's my teapot you hear. I am brewing up a cup of chamomile right now and I'm fixing to put my feet up.

I just got home from babysitting for a friend. She needed someone to watch her 3 kids and 2 daycare kids while she took her oldest son to school. She had said it would be only an hour and it sounded easy enough so I jumped at the chance to help her out and bless her. I took along my 2 kiddos too. It was an interesting experience. Have you ever watched 7 children under the age of 4 and been able to call it anything less than interesting? I thought not.

The first 20 minutes were good. Everything was calm and uneventful. Then...oh then, it got fun. Her 2 month old needed to eat. I fixed him a bottle and sat down to feed him. Max wasn't liking this a whole lot. He crawled over to me and pulled at my jeans and fussed every so often just to let me know how jealous he was that some other baby had his mama. The bottle was gone before I knew it, but then the floodgates opened and the spitting up started. And kept going....and going...and going. Three bibs and a burp cloth later, I was really starting to wonder when it would stop. Eventually, it did, but only to be replaced with back to back poo-splosions. I felt, heard and smelled him go so we wandered into the bedroom to change him. As I laid him down, he rumbled again. Then the oozing started. Yeah, you know the kind - up the back, out the legs, dripping here and there, oozing. I had started unbuttoning his shirt when I heard his big sister's muffled voice from across the hall. She had gone into her mom and dad's bedroom and locked herself in. Um...not expecting that one. Now, my friend is an awesome laid-back mom. She requested only that the kids be alive when she got back. We joked before she left that it's a pretty basic request and really shouldn't be all that hard. She wasn't asking much. Still, I don't think covered in poop or locked in a bedroom was what she had in mind. Pleading with her in my mind to take just a few more minutes before coming home, I raced through a very messy diaper change and rescued her daughter from her bedroom prison (the knobs unlock easily from the outside). I pulled the children out from under the bed where they were hiding and poking each other, broke up a wrestling match between a 4 yr old and a 10 month old, kissed a boo boo and found some (mismatched) clothes for the baby. She returned at just the right time and all ended well.

That was a very tiring hour. Wow. And the crazy thing is I had fun and I'd do it again. :D

Maximize Your Morning challenge: week two

Today begins week 2 for my Maximize Your Morning challenge. Last week's goal was just to get out of bed. That's it. Just get my booty up. I did alright. I managed to hit my goal of 5:30am five times this week. I slept in until 6:15 one morning and 8am one morning. A holiday week is not the easiest time to start a challenge like this. In the last 4 days we have been to 3 different family gatherings. The boys didn't nap at their usual time on even one of those days. It's taken every ounce of energy that David and I have left to deal with overtired and cranky boys. I can't blame them. I'm a smidge cranky myself.

This week the goal is to create a set of worship songs and a bible study to get yourself on track in the morning. I already have this plan in motion. It was the only way I could keep my butt out of bed once I got up last week. I'm going to keep on with that plan and also add my own personal goal this week. I'm going to limit myself to 10 cups of coffee (or other caffeinated beverages) this week. I know, I know. Ten still sounds like a lot. And it is really. In the last 2 months or so since the weather has turned cold I have become quite obsessed with warm drinks. Oftentimes I find myself reaching for coffee. It's just so stinkin' tasty! I now reach for it at all hours of the day and most days will put away a good 3 cups without realizing it. That is just too much caffeine. It's not healthy for me and it's not good for my poor Max...who is coincidentally having trouble sleeping at night these last 2 months. Hmmm. So my goal is set at 10 cups this week. This gives me one cup every morning and then 3 extras to drink whenever or to use to fight off any withdrawal headaches I may get. Here goes nothing...

A somewhat grumpy morning

I hate mornings. There I said it. I don't like leaving my comfy, warm bed and I don't like pulling myself away from wonderful sleep. I'm really sort of mad at morning for coming today. Grrr. Yesterday was such a big day. I was busy all morning then we were gone all afternoon and evening. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade that time with family for anything, but I'm just a little worn out today. The boys didn't get naps yesterday either so I'm sure they will wake up in very similar moods. Blah. I'm not really accomplishing much this morning. If I can be honest (and I can with you, right?), waking up in a funk has made me want to skip my Bible reading and serious stuff altogether and just do mindless things like blogging and facebook. I'd much rather read status updates than 1 Samuel this morning. I'm just being real here.

Alright, it's time to end perk things up and quit dwelling on how miserable I feel. Mind over matter. If I think a better mood, I'll feel a better mood. Happy thoughts....happy thoughts....happy thoughts. You know, I'm going to jump over to Pandora radio real quick like and start my worship playlist. That'll help. *jeopardy music* Ok, I really hated the first song it picked for me this morning, but the second is much better.

"There is none like you, no one else knows my heart like you do.
I could search for all eternity long and find there is none like you."


So true. He is like no other. He made this beautiful, cold and snowy day. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I will be happy.

Thank you, Lord for Friday November 26th and all it will bring.

Turkey craft

David's been super into crafts lately. While he was eating breakfast this morning he asked to make a craft. I didn't have anything planned so I was a little put on the spot, but I still wanted to come up with something for him because he was so sweet as he was asking. I scoured the house and came up with the supplies to make this beauty:

I really wanted David's handprints for feathers, but he was uncooperative. I think he got a little nervous about putting his hand down because he was unsure about what I would do to him. He kept telling me the pencil looked sharp. :) After a while he volunteered Dog to put his hand down. He held Dog's paw very still while I traced around it. When it was all done and Dog was out of danger, David picked him up and gave him hugs and "shh"ed him as I cut out the paw print feathers. They look sort of round and paw-ish don't they? Turkey, Dog and David are now watching the Radio City Rockettes in the Macy's parade. :) "Ooh! Pretty dancers, mommy."

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Enjoy your turkey, family and football. I will be.

(and for those who have to work - enjoy that holiday pay!) :D

Letter D

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you."

Isaiah 43:5

Do not be afraid. How much do you love this verse for a little kid?!? It's perfect. In an adult sized world, little kids can so easily feel overwhelmed and scared. David is not a fan of thunder, extremely loud trucks, the dark or being away from mommy and daddy. I'm really hoping this verse helps him in some way. It creates a good foundation for knowing that Jesus will never leave you.

For our little craft, we made a dinosaur(on a side note, David actually asked me to do a craft for this. He said he wanted to glue something. Hehe.). Do not judge my dinosaur. I really wanted to use the letter D for a body. David was asking me what I was doing so we started chatting about our dinosaur and what it would look like. We talked about the colors and I showed him the body piece and asked what the dinosaur's head should look like. David said "happy". Um, ok. One smiling dinosaur coming up. I started cutting out feet and David said he wanted it to have skater shoes (that's what he calls his sneakers) like David. Um, ok. One smiling dinosaur with shoes coming right up. Believe it or not, that dinosaur looked a little goofy...and somewhat like a turtle. Yeah, I know. Can you imagine that? Huh. In an effort to look a little more mean and dino-ish, we gave our smiling, shoe wearing dinosaur some duct tape spikes. David was all about this craft and wanted to do it, but as soon as those spikes were on he was done. He picked up the paper, said "all done" and put it on the fridge. I guess you can't mess with perfection. You just have to walk away. :)

Letter C

"Children, obey your parents."

Ephesians 6:1

You already know that we went to the cow farm and had cookies for the letter C. When we got home we made a picture of the cow farm and colored it. We also did another coloring page with cupcakes on it.

I chose this verse for pretty obvious reasons. Obedience. Plain and simple. We've talked about how it makes Jesus happy when David obeys mommy and daddy. When he's disobedient we sandwich punishment inbetween trips to the fridge door to read our Bible verse. So far, so good. I think he's actually getting a better picture of how we'd like him to act.

We are still hanging out on letter C, but I'll post again when we move onto D!

Letter B

"Believe in the Lord Jesus"

Acts 16:31

I don't know if there's anything I want for my sons more than them believing in Jesus. I've prayed for their salvation and relationship with the Lord since they were born. Obviously, at this point David doesn't get the whole "being saved" thing. I left that out of the verse so it wouldn't be distracting. Our trimmed down version still gets the point across though.

Since I have little boys, bugs were naturally what popped into my mind when I thought of the letter B. I cut out little bug parts the night before we did this craft and put them in an envelope. After laying down newspaper to protect my table, I gave David a glue stick and the envelope and let him have at it. I helped a fair amount on this one, but he still had a lot of fun.

Letter A

"A gentle answer turns away anger."

Proverbs 15:1

For the letter A, I chose Proverbs 15:1. I paraphrased a little bit to make it something David could say and understand. The NIV version says "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." He doesn't quite understand wrath, but he definitely gets what it means to be angry. We talked about how we need to use gentle kind words with each other so we don't make each other angry. When he used a sassy tone, talked back or yelled at me, we were quick to find our Bible verse on the fridge and talk about the importance of gentle words. I pointed out that he didn't use gentle words and it made me angry. It turned each and every defiant moment into a teachable one.

Apples are sort of the only way to go when talking about the letter A so we made apple prints on our paper. I cut the apple in half and let him pick out the seeds. We talked about the really neat star/flower hiding in the middle of our apple and then we pulled out the paint. I was using pretty thin paper and didn't want giant globs of paint on it so I let him paint the apple with a brush instead of dipping the apple in paint. He was so thrilled. He really had a good time with this one and we got our ABC's off to a good start.

The teachable twos

So many people (myself included) have referred to the late toddler years as the "terrible twos". I am just about fed up with this title. It's negative connotations have done nothing in the way of helping me or my child adjust from the baby years to the much more independent small child years. Without realizing it, I've allowed the "What are you going to do? He's two" and the "Oh my! Just wait until he's two!" mentality to set my child up for failure. I look for him to disobey or misbehave before taking action. The idea is not to sit back and wait for your child to do something wrong before you explain to him how you expect him act. I don't have to put up with misbehavior and brush it off and move on explaining that he's just two and will do it no matter what. I want to be more proactive than that. I want to be more hands on and have a bigger impact on my child than that. The Lord entrusted these boys to my care and I need to give them more than that.

As language skills and independence are forming, kids can get frustrated from time to time. I get that. Whether it be that they can't find the words to make you understand what they are saying or they don't understand why they can't pour the brand new and very full gallon of milk by themselves, frustration will come at some point. It's what David sometimes chooses to do with his frustration that I have an issue with.

I've resolved to call this phase of life the "teachable twos". I've recently been asking the Lord to show me my calling or purpose as a mom. As my boys move out of the "basic needs" baby stage and into very impressionable years, I'm really relying on the Lord to reveal to me what my course of action should be in raising them. As he always is, the Lord was faithful to answer. He lead me to a website that I'm absolutely in love with called Impress Your Kids. It was founded and operates on the principle of impressing God's word into your children's hearts as described in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Within a week of finding this website and it's mission statement verse and with a lot more prayer, I also ran across this verse 3 more times. I really felt like the Lord was laying it on my heart that this would be the next step in raising my little guys to be young men of God. It is time to make a stronger effort to impress the word of God into their teeny little hearts. It's time to toss that "terrible twos" concept out the window and focus on the "teachable twos". When is a better time to introduce ideas like patience, love, obedience, kindness and the like?

In order for a mama to make her child a better child she needs to first make herself a better mama. Instead of letting the boys be my alarm clock and waking me up between 7-7:30am, I am now setting a real alarm clock and getting out of bed at 5:30am to meet with the Lord and have quiet time before the boys get up. This gives me 1.5 to 2 hours to do my bible study, work out, eat breakfast, shower, have a cup of coffee or get things done with out the boys. When they get up, I am ready to greet them with a happy attitude and get started with the day. Let me tell you - mornings go a lot smoother around here now.

To get our new habits started on the right foot, I have found a couple of things on the internet that we can use to get ourselves on track. Mine is the Maximize your Morning challenge from Inspired to Action. It's a step by step month long challenge to get moms out of bed in the morning and get them ready to face the day. It gets them making (and reaching) goals and praying for their children. Sounds like exactly what I needed, huh? I've downloaded her free eBook and gotten started. Good stuff! For the kids we've decided to do something along the lines of Impress Your Kids' ABC Scriptures. It's exactly what it sounds like - a mix of the alphabet and scripture. You take the alphabet - one letter per week - and do a craft, scripture memorization and read books corresponding to that letter. Since David is so young we've tailored it down some. We do a very simple craft (mostly coloring), learn a Bible verse (I don't use a lot of hers from the website - I've found my own that fit our needs better) and a coloring page with our letter on it. For us it's not about memorizing the scripture. We're focusing more on exposing David to scripture and trying to teach him the concept behind it. We've been speeding it up somewhat too. We are doing a different letter about every 4 or 5 days.

We are really excited about the changes this is bringing to our family. I can't wait to share our new experiences with you guys! I'll be posting David's ABC scriptures later in different posts so you can see what we're working on.

November 19th

Pop quiz: What awesome thing happened on this day in 1986?


ME!


It's my birthday! It was a fantastic day I have to say. My family really is just the best. Max slept all night last night which is something he hasn't done in about a month. It felt so great to wake up and realize I slept ALL night. I really wish he'd do that more often. David was in a great mood when he woke up. The first 5-10 minutes with him really sets the tone for our day and today it was good. I really couldn't have asked for more cooperative kids. Yay me! We started our day off in a very special way by eating cookies for breakfast. Yeah, my birthday is that special. We fore go all rules and eat cookies and milk first thing in the morning. Max was so dog-gone cute sitting on the kitchen floor when I gave him his cookie that David and I joined him. We sat in a circle with our knees touching and polished off what was left of the sugar cookies (ok, that makes it sound like a lot, but really I think we had 2 or 3 mini cookies a piece) that my mom made for us a couple of days ago. In between bites, David and I had spinning contests to see who could spin around on their bottom the best. My bathrobe didn't allow for very good spinning and I'm apparently a tad more bothered by the dizzying aspect of whirling in circles first thing in the morning because David beat me hands down.

We had only just finished our cookie breakfast when David surprised us by coming home an hour and a half early from work. Without my knowing it, he had gone in an hour early to work so he could come home and have breakfast with us. He stopped by Sweetwaters and got a box of donuts for us to share. He had also gotten a latte for me from Starbucks. Is that the best breakfast or what??


After breakfast I was given the chance to go and take a long hot shower while David watched the boys. Of course, I jumped at the chance have the bathroom to myself...and to take as long as I wanted to boot! It's just too much. A dream come true really. While I was in the shower David did all the dishes, cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed the whole house. He knew it needed to be done and didn't want me to have to do it on my birthday (I'm sort of pampered like that). Have I mentioned lately that he's the best?? He really is. Along with not having to do the dishes, laundry or cleaning I also didn't have to cook. He ordered my favorite pizza in the whole world for lunch - Papa John's ham, bacon, pepperoni and extra cheese cooked well done and almost burnt with extra garlic butter dipping sauce. At the risk of sounding redundant I'm going to say once again how awesome my husband is.

Once we got the boys down for a nap, David and I laid down for a nap too....at least I thought he was sleeping too. Turns out while I caught an hour or two of sleep he was up doing homework (to free up his evening) and secretly putting our evening plans into action. He'd arranged for a babysitter behind my back and planned to take me out to dinner....at my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden...because he's awesome. After a tasty and very filling dinner, he surprised me with a trip to the mall to buy a new winter coat. He knew I'd been eyeing a red wool peacoat online and wanted me to have it. The only winter coat I have that still fits post-babies is my maternity one. It doesn't look all that bad I guess, but it is pretty baggy. I've really been wanting one that fits a little bit better than that one. We called after our stop at the mall to check on the boys. They were doing fine and not missing us a bit (but we didn't expect them to right? They were with Grandma) so we made one more stop before heading home. Last Tuesday on David's way to the hospital for an appointment, he noticed they were setting up Christmas decorations in Bronson Park. He knows how much I love the candy cane lanes at the park entrances so we stopped for a stroll. He is (I'm sure you can guess at this point) awesome.

We chatted for a bit with my mom when we got home. She left soon after that and David went to bed to get a measly 4 hours sleep before getting up to go to work. I got the boys settled down off their Grandma high and sent them to bed. I then spent 3 hours giving myself a pedicure, reading my 38 happy birthday notifications on facebook, eating cherry brownie ice cream (my fave and another bday gift from the hubster) and watching Grey's Anatomy online. What a perfect end to a perfect day.

My birthday rocked and I have the best husband in the history of husbands. End of story.

Naked Chefs

They made me breakfast this morning...

Shh...I don't want Mom to know I'm beating you up.

I was just over on Facebook doinking around and stalking people when I heard little David jump into Max's crib and start picking on him. Max started shrieking almost immediately. In a very loud whisper, David said "No screaming, Max. Mama will hear you." Big brothers are so....big brothery. :)

Megamind

Little David got some quality one-on-one (or would that be one-on-two) time today. Grandma stayed home with Max while Mommy and Daddy took David to "Daddy's" movie theater and watched Megamind. David was so excited he could hardly sit still! It was really fun to do something with just him. For the last 9 months, we've been balancing our time between 2 wee ones and he's had to share Mom and Dad a lot. You could just tell he was thrilled to get time with just us again. Daddy held him as they waited patiently in line for our tickets. He got down to stand by Daddy when we got our pop and popcorn then he skipped down the hall to find the number 9 theater. He helped Daddy pick out our seats then we plopped down and waited for the show to start. Thankfully, we had been running a little late and didn't have many trailers or previews to watch before the show started. He giggled when all the lights dimmed and the movie started. He watched the whole 96 minute movie without a single wiggle. He sat very still and started at the screen. Gigantic screens are sort of mesmerizing I guess. He laughed at the parts that Daddy and I laughed at and, from time to time, glanced at us to see what we were doing and how we were reacting. Every time he'd look at us for a minute then grin and turn back to the screen. When the end credits finally started rolling he clapped and cheered. On the way home he told me it was the coolest movie he's ever seen. :)

C is for Cow (and Cookies!)

Little David and I are taking a trip through the alphabet right now (the complete story on that another time). Today was letter C day. We made cookies and went to a cow farm. It was so fun! One of David's friends (and his mama) was able to join us. The boys had a great time running around outside. There is something so refreshing and fun about a chilly day outdoors. :) David and Max slept sooooo well this afternoon!

Our letter C sugar cookies:

Max and his fuzzy green slippers getting ready to see some cows:

We took a self-guided tour of the dairy. All we had to do was follow the hoof prints from barn to barn...

...where we saw cows.

He was really into the baby cows. I think they were a little less intimidating since they were smaller and more at his level. He was much more interested in them than any other cows there.

It's cheeseball season!

My husband loves Hickory Farms Original Cheeseballs. I mean LOVES them. Not a "Oh gee, these are tasty. I think I'll have a bite or two" kind of like. We are talking a half a cheeseball and half a box of triscuits in one sitting, just about every night kind of love. L.O.V.E. Love. ...And they are only sold for about 6 weeks a year. Thankfully, it's right around his birthday and Christmas so gift giving is always easy. But only for 6 weeks?!?! Come on Hickory Farms, come on! Here he is with his inaugural cheeseball of the 2010 season. And *gasp* he SHARED!

Same day and also worth noting, little David "fixed" a mini flashlight for me. Ok, so he broke it into 8 tiny pieces first, but he did get it back together by himself. That's pretty impressive. It didn't work once he got it pieced back together, but it was only so-so in the first place so I'm not sure it would have worked for anyone. He sat for more than 30 minutes working those pieces back in place. What a handy little dude. :)

Bring on Christmas!!!!

We went to the Annual Holiday Parade downtown this morning. How fun are parades, people?!?! It was the greatest thing. Both of the boys really seemed to enjoy it. Max got super excited when the marching bands passed us. He's a total music boy. He danced and bounced during every song. Can you blame him? There's something so peppy and cheery about a marching band Christmas carol. :) David was happiest about the motorcycle group that went by and the firetrucks. Oh, and the candy. It was a pretty low candy parade, but he was happy anyway. If only we could all be content in life with 3 tootsie rolls and a dum-dum...

Despite the large crowds, we were able to find some family and a few friends. We had plenty of people to sit by and banter with during the parade. I was once again impressed with how long the parade was. It lasted just over an hour and a half. By some sort of Christmas miracle, both boys were happy and content the whole time! It must be parade magic. We had a few meltdowns on the way home, but it was an hour past lunch so I was pretty forgiving. I had packed cheerios and crackers for a snack. Both were completely gone before we made it out of the parking ramp.

I'm in a festive mood now! I can't wait for Christmas shopping!

Honesty

I love little kids' honesty. I really do. They are so unreserved. They just tell it like it is. If they feel it or think it, they say it. If they did it and are guilty, they tell you. My case and point - our conversation from yesterday. I was folding laundry in one room, David and Max were off playing by themselves in another. It was relatively quiet when I heard David start shrieking and giggling. That's never a good sign. I called to him and it went something like this:

Me: David are you being a good boy?

David: Nope.

Me: David what are you doing that's naughty?

David: David poking Max's eye.

Sometimes, he's almost too cute to be mad at. Almost.

P.S. Yes, he does refer to himself in third person. Is that weird? It's never "I want.." always "David wants...". Whatta goofball.

A sick boy?

Last Thursday, Max was diagnosed with an ear infection. They gave him antibiotics and sent him home. He got only somewhat better so I called the doctor and took him back on Monday for a recheck. The doctor said his ear infection was gone and any symptoms he had left (uncontrollable crying, not eating, nursing or sleeping as usual) were from a cold or possibly new teeth coming in. I'm not convinced. This is just a glimpse as to what we've been dealing with. He cries like this all the time. It doesn't matter if I sing, dance, bounce, rock or cuddle him. I can be holding him or he can be down playing. Day or night. Alone or with people. It does come and go, but seems to have no pattern. He wakes 2-4 times every night (unusual because he's been sleeping solid 11+ hour nights since 2ish months). He has gone from two 2 hour naps per day to 3 irregularly timed 30-50 minute naps.

I've known this boy for 9 months now. This is not his normal personality. This is no phase he's going through. Something is wrong. I just can't for the life of me figure it out. Tylenol and gas drops don't help worth crap. He's got a slightly runny nose, but nothing that a suction ball has been able to help.

I'm tired. End of story. I'm done complaining now.

This happens ALL the time:

And often escalates into this:

"Smile, Max..."

It's a smile. Really. I promise.

Back porch beautification day

It's back porch beautification day at the Sagers'! I've let some of that junk lie around for far too long. We still have leftover sidewalk chalk strewn about from the summer, there was trash stuck in the bushes and the corners were packed with leaves. I just couldn't take it anymore. Armed with a broom, 2 trash bags and a camera little David, Max and I rolled up our sleeves and got to work. (read: I picked up trash and organized junk while David played with landscaping mulch and Max ate sidewalk chalk). Overall, it was messy, but it was a success. I don't have an after picture, but it looks much better!

Rearranging stuff:

Like I said, it was messy. He's got leaves on his shirt, dirt on his face and chalk dripping from his chin. :)

They got a surprise for helping so much - finger paint!

Ok, mostly David painted and Max ate paper. Not gonna lie. Apparently, flour/water finger paint is TASTY stuff!

Shoes

I was picking up the house last night and straightening things up when I noticed our shoes. Little David had picked up the shoes for me and lined them up on the door mat. Every shoe was lined up in order from biggest to littlest. Daddy's shoes, of course, were all on the left, Mama's shoes in the middle and David's on the far right nearest the wall.

So many things about this are precious to me. I love when I see giant, big Daddy shoes next to little teeny kid shoes. Size comparisions like that are always fun, but I also love the way this photo captures the personality of our shoes. You can tell so much about us. Daddy's shoes are beat up and scuffed. You can tell they've seen a lot of use and they've done some dirty jobs. That's a hard working pair of shoes right there. Then there's my shoes. Pretty plain, but somewhat stylish. Nothing too fancy. They match everything. Functional and well maintained. They get the job done without drawing too much attention. Lastly, David's shoes. They are tiny and new. The graphic print on the side and overall skateboarder feel is fun, but the velcro is the tell-all. They are easy and uncomplicated. They aren't hiding how simple they are. The velcro is right on top for all to see. They don't need laces like other sneakers. Too many adventures are missed by wasting time with laces.

I only wish Max owned a pair of shoes...

Halloween pictures

I can't believe I forgot to share Halloween pictures! Geez. They were all sorts of cute. David had a super fun time with dressing up. I told him if he wore his bee shirt then he got candy...he was so excited I'm pretty sure he would have dressed up like a fairy princess just to go trick-or-treating. But he didn't. He was a tough, manly bee. :)

My squishy penguin:

My bumblebee:

Early Morning

The boys decided to get up at 5:30 this morning. Oh....my....goodness. I'm trying to be a morning person lately, but I'm just not. We just got our breakfast and I've got my coffee brewing now. Mmm...I love the smell of coffee in the morning.

David just asked me to turn on music and have a dance party. How random. And how unfortunate for him that I have a strict "no dance parties in the kitchen until 7am" rule.

They wrestled

They wrestled. I know it's the brother stereotype to wrestle and fight, but my boys are little more than babies. And they wrestled. Why are they growing up so fast?!?!

We've had many time before where David would attack Max and pin him to the ground and call it wrestling. We've always been strict about not doing that type of thing because Max never liked it (the tears were a dead giveaway). Last night though, Max was cracking up and David was being gentle. I was shocked. We sat in the living room with them to watch and supervise. They wrestled and tumbled their way around the room for a good 20 minutes. I'm still not clear what started it...I'm pretty sure Max was just itching for a fight or searching for attention or something. He started it though. I saw it with my own two eyes. My baby - not even 9 months yet - picked a fight with his 2 year old brother. David, being the big brother he is, did not disappoint. David almost seemed to know that he needed to be gentler than normal. Usually, his wrestling opponent is Daddy so he can really get rough, but it looked like he knew wrestling with Max was different. He'd advance with a gentle tackle or two then sit back and let Max get him. Max giggled so hard when he flopped on David's chest. David really loved how much it meant to Max to get him. He was so good about pretending to take a long time to get up while Max crawled over to him. Max would come charging as fast as his little hands and knees would take him then lunge at David. They'd tumble around laughing, growling and grunting for a minute or two then seperate and start all over.

As expected, David won hands down, but I don't think Max minded. He was really happy just to be playing with his brother. There is something so special about the bond between brothers. Looking at their teeny little faces light up with excitement last night was just about too much. They love each other so much already. Watching my husband's face was almost as fun. He had an expression I've never seen before. It was definitely love for his kiddos and amusement at the spur of the moment fight, but there was something more too. Reminiscing about the fights he had with his own brother? Pride over his boys hitting the milestone of their first wrestling match with their brother? I don't know. It seemed almost like a right of passage for Max and David. David put Max in his place by beating him so easily, but he was quick to show Max love by helping him up at the end. Pretty classic example of brotherly love if you ask me.

I did it!

I did it, I did it, I did it!!!

I made it through this weekend! Whoo Hoo! So glad it's over now. David was able to make it home by 9pm or so last night and we got the chance to chat for a little bit. While he did want to hear about the night I had with the kids and the halloween party we'd been at, all he could talk about was the game. It was one of those" dream come true, check it off your bucket list, I can die a happy man" moments for him. He had a great time.