One day even though it was wet and ickyish outside, the boys NEEDED to go out! They chose for their amusement to pull out their camp chairs and watch the gutter drip! Ha! This totally cracked me up, and of course I had to take some photos. Funny funny boys!

It’s just the perfect size for 2 rather rambunctious monkeys. They thrashed about in it in the house for a little while, and then Mommy had a stroke of brilliance and tossed it, and them out into the yard. Kidding… they walked out.

But they ended up having so much fun in their box on the grass that I had to go join them. Not in the box. Not on the grass either. But I sat in a lawn chair and snapped some fun pictures of them just being lads.

These grins are irresistible, but you just know that lurking behind them are boys full of boyness.

Here’s how these box things work…

First you rock forward,

then you rock back,

rock forward again…

then back again….

…. and forward again.

Till you’re all worn out and then you crash in a heap in the bottom of the box.

Got it?

Good.

Myles is a bit too much of the explorer these days. Their stomping ground around the house has gradually been expanding, but for Myles it must still feel to small. I check on them frequently when they’re playing outdoors because we don’t actually have a fenced in yard. Well, several times now I’ve had to walk down our drive (which is more like a road) to the cattle guard to find Myles sitting there on his “bike.” He just takes himself on little field trips and is totally fine with being by himself. Qade’s not much of a babysitter either, so I really have to keep on top of this lil dude.
Myles’ classic response to things right now is sure. Only it sounds more like “sho.” It’s so cute. “Myles will you put this cup on the table?” “Sho!” And it’s always got a very decided and important tone to it. Makes me smile every time even though he should be saying, “yes ma’am.”
His potty train hasn’t really left the station. It’s because the engineer (me) isn’t to excited to get it rolling. But he is doing well when I tell him to go potty. He makes sure something happens every time he goes in there. He’s in pull-ups now so it’s pretty easy for him to take himself potty, and really, he’d rather “do it myself!” anyway. And I like it that way! I have put him in unders from time to time and you should just see this big boy-big head that he gets. He struts around, full of self importance because HE is wearing big-boy unders! It totally cracks me up! I will probably start really and truly training him after we have our spring break. Things are going to be getting pretty busy here quickly, so I hope that he catches on VERY fast and we can get on with life.
The boys were having fun with Daddy’s hats one day. Just so that credit goes where it is due, Stuart took the two pics of them in the hats. The other shots where when they were begging to have their picture taken so the could “see” it right away. I just pointed the camera in their general direction and snapped. The one with Myles and his dinner all over his face/shirt is hilarious!

Anyway, there’s a few paragraphs about the boys to keep ya updated for a little bit. Toodl-oodles!

Qade often brings things up days, weeks, or even months later surprising me with his memory and recall. Yesterday I asked him to turn the light off in his room and he replied, “Because we have to pay money for it.” Which made me laugh! One time several weeks ago I asked him to turn off a light and when he asked why, I told him that it uses electricity and we have to pay for it, and when we don’t need the light on it’s wasting money. Ha ha! Sometimes I go into those technical kinds of answers hoping to head off any further “why” questions. BUT apparently he was indeed listening!

We also had a conversation about camp yesterday and Qade was telling me that he “renimbered” playing with Benjamin at camp. Then he said, “Baby Ella was still in your tummy at camp.” Wow! I guess I just don’t expect those kinds of things from a 3 yr old. I’m surprised that he can “renimber” that Ella was in my tummy and before that, though I shouldn’t be. That kid’s got a fantastic memory!

Myles little conversations keep me humored as well. He came up with this thing that he thinks is SO hilarious, and I admit it is pretty funny! When I’m changing his diaper, after the old one has come off and whatever cleaning needs to be done is finished, he’ll squeeze his legs together SO tightly and say, “No space, Mama! No space down-ere” and he’ll laugh and laugh. Then I have to tickle him to get him to relax enough that I can get the NEW diaper on. Ha ha!

This morning I asked Myles to go find his cup in his room so I could fill it with milk for breakfast. This is a tradition. Each morning he has to find his night time cup before breakfast. Today when I asked him, he piped up enthusiastically, “Yes, I can, Mama!” He has become a great little helper when I give him tasks to do. He needs more specific instructions than just “clean up your toys” but he follows through really well once we get him focused.

Myles has this funny way of assenting to information with a nonverbal “mmmm.” Because usually his thumb is in his mouth, but it cracks me up because once again if Stu or I go into some detailed explanation that we know he cannot possibly understand, he’ll often just say “mmmm” or “yes, Mama” as if he knew all of that all along. ;-D

It’s so fun to have verbal kids! I remember when Qade was born and how I just couldn’t wait for the day where I could really talk to him! Now it’s here, and I love it! His strong will can be a super challenge at times for me, but it’s tempered with the fun times of just chatting with my lads! Since we’ve put up our Christmas tree one of Qade’s favorite things to do, he asks nearly every day, is to lie on the floor with pillows by the tree and talk about our favorite ornament and the lights. It’s one of those big Ahhhhhhhh moments in parenting that just feels like a huge comfortable sigh.

We’re super excited about Christmas tomorrow. Qade associates Christmas with the tree so to him it’s been “Christmas time” for weeks now. I’m not sure if he fully grasps that we’ll be opening all the gifts tomorrow, but I’m super excited to see both the boys reactions to their gifts!!!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families and celebrate “Jesus birthday” as Qade has been saying.

Recently one of their favoirite things to play is “building” a house or even a gas station once. What this usually entails is finding some piece of suitable furniture and draping it with blankets and stashing it full of toys or animals or pillows as the case may be. I don’t usually find it to be too disturbing since it’s generally the game of choice while they are in their room in the morning before I’ve managed to get them “out.” I typically will walk into a room that has the rocker tipped forward, because the back makes an excellent roof! And blankets and animals everywhere!

The gas station one was a little more difficult for me because they chose to build it on the recumbent bike and fill it with all their little random toys that usually live in the cabinet in the kitchen. Still, that was tame compared to what happened here just 2 days ago!

We’ve been fighting off colds more or less successfully in our house this week. So while Stu was out for the count I was manning the ship solo and that takes a lot out of mommies. Anyway, by Friday night I was tired of taking care of people, and problems and issues, and I was also trying to get some Christmas projects finished. Too much on my plate at the moment, I should have just chilled, but I didn’t. And I really didn’t want little people hanging all over me. It had ben one of those days. SO, when I finally tuned in enough to realize that the lads where happily running back and forth between the living room and their bed room with fist-fulls of toys, I simply sighed and decided that it was worth it for the few moments of peace.

This was what I bought those moments with.

This time the lads weren’t just building a house… Actually I have no idea what the object of the game was other than to randomly toss their treasures all over the room.

It was contained to their room though, so I just let it go for the time being.

Believe it or not I didn’t even bother to have them pick up the mess before bed. The room was a health hazard to anyone trying to walk through there though, so our bed time routine changed a little in that I didn’t turn the light out before singing to them! Miraculously they stayed in their beds that night and went to sleep without getting up to play with the scads of toys. Ha!

Along comes the next day and the lads decide to play “airplane” which meant that they took the big bucket their stuffed animals usually stay in and put it ON the dining room table. They filled it with all of the toys from the cabinet and added the little alphabet magnets from the fridge. They then climbed in and were merrily airplaning away. Ha! Later that bucket got dumped of it’s contents all over the floor as well. That meant that last night every toy they possessed, within their reach, was strewn about our house. Oh and many of the books were as well.

Now comes the time for me to be a good mommy and help “teach” the boys responsibility and have them clean up their own messes, right? Ha! I wasn’t about to go there with that last night. Generally the lads are required to clean up their messes. But like in the cat and the hat book “this mess is so big and so deep and so tall we cannot clean it up, there is no way at all!” Stuart took Qade to his classroom with him and Myles and I cleaned up the mess. (Read: I cleaned up the mess and tried to keep Myles out of the way!) I knew it would have been the biggest most miserable time had I insisted that they clean things up. Because this is the way we keep toys around here.

Each basket has it’s own designated toys so it’s not like you can just randomly scoop up toys and it’ll be “okay.”

Believe me I was overwhelmed by the mess, it would have been a meltdown central trying to get the lads to sift through that stuff. But once I got it all put back together I informed them that it was not to happen again, and hopefully I’ll remember that next time I need to buy some peace and quiet.

The next day Stu, Mom and Dad brought the boys to meet their baby sister. I was waiting for them all morning, but was still surprised when I heard Qade in the hall. The door burst open and he sprang in with all the energy a 3 and a half year old can muster. Instead of running to ME and giving ME a big hug, the words that came out of his very excited mouth were, “MOMMY, where’s my baby sister!” Ha ha ha! He couldn’t see into the bassinet from the floor so he quickly scrambled up on the bed to see this new baby! Myles followed suit though at a slightly more sedate pace. He gets caught up in Qade’s excitement, but at that point I still don’t think he really understood what it was all about.

The boys promptly fell in love with their new baby sister. Once we got her home they both clamored to be as near her as possible. They want to touch her and kiss her, and hold her. Qade insisted one time that he could “give her to me” when she was in her swing. Believe me, I nixed that one right away!! One evening before Qade went to bed he was standing at my elbow as I rocked Ella. He put his cheek against her soft little head and rubbed one cheek against it then turned his head and rubbed the other cheek on her head! Baby heads really are too irresistible! Myles is constantly identifying things in the house that are “baby sisser’s.” Qade frequently asks where she is, if she’s not in plain sight. I’m thrilled with both of their reactions to our newest little one!

I was mostly concerned with Myles when I thought about bringing a baby home. Qade, I figured would do fine since he is used to having a younger sibling already. However, I’ve been so pleased with Myles reaction to Ella! Both boys are, of course, going through some adjustments. A little more whining, and acting up is taking place with both of them. Still it’s nothing like what we went through with Qade when Myles was born! I think that having my Mom here for awhile really helped them. And I also think that having each other has helped them both a lot as well! They really are good buds most of the time. It’s so fun to watch them play together. They can certainly push each other’s buttons, but they are also caring and concerned for each other, and that makes me happy.

I know that Ella is going to have 2 big brothers who adore and take care of her, and I’m sure that she’s going to be smitten with them as well! We’re enjoying our little family of 5 and learning to find our new “normal.” It might be awhile to feel normal actually, but we’re enjoying our new “limbo” as we adjust anyway!

Enjoy the pics of brotherly love!

Ella with her 3 heros!

My sweet little girl! Still can’t believe it!

Peach Fuzz!

Teeny “feeners”

The lads helped Grandma decorate for Ella’s homecoming!

Brother Love

Myles has been my snuggle bug lately. Almost to the point of being too much, if that’s possible. I’m actually eating it up though because I know it won’t last. I don’t know why he’s been so clingy but many many times a day now he’ll just want “up” in my lap and he nuzzle down and pop in his thumb and we’ll just sit together, or sometimes read a book. A friend of mine told me that when she was expecting her 3rd the other two suddenly wanted more snuggles as well. I can’t imagine that Myles has a concept that something is changing, but I’ll take the extra cuddle time anyway. Qade does frequently talk about the “baby in your tummy” to me, and since he went to the last OB visit with me and heard the baby he sometimes asks, “Does your baby feel better, Mommy?” I think he figured since the baby had to see the doctor it must not have felt good. Cute what their little minds can come up with.

Qade has been mr. thankful recently. Some of his common ones are “Take-you for my wunch (lunch) Mommy” and “Take you for my happy birday, Mommy!” Awww, just melts my heart! One that I NEVER expected to hear popped out a couple of days ago, “Take you for my nap, Mommy!” WOW!!! Where did that come from? Pretty sure I have to practically wrestle him to bed every day for naps…. maybe not physically, but mentally for sure!

Because this week has been a little “off” and our schedules thrown out of whack the lads have had a couple really grumpy mornings. It’s amazing to me how affected they can be by slight changes like that. Not that we have the same ridged schedule every day, but things progress in a usual way in our house. When that gets interrupted more than once, like for church on Sunday, then they start to go a little bonkers. Right now Qade is playing quietly in his room and Myles is occupying himself in the living room. We needed some separate play space today for sure.

Anyway, still brewing that post. I actually think it’s done I just need to write it out. I’ve been thinking about some stuff lately and how things can change quickly on ya. It’s interesting when we watch God work because in our own “perfect timing” sometimes it feels like we wait FOREVER for God to move and then when he suddenly does things seem to happen in a whirl wind, and you come out the other side wondering what in the world happened. I’m not saying that things are happening in a whirl wind for us right now, it’s just a general observation. Still things ARE happening, and I’m thinking about some possibilities for after summer. I’ll keep y’all posted as things progress, no worries. Just pray for God’s will and his timing to be perfect for us. Thanks!