I'm in Love

We've had a fun, but sickly, two weeks as a family. Gus has been battling an ear infection and sinus infection and BJ spent most of last week sick with a "full head infection" - hopefully we'll all be on the mend soon.

Its been an amazing two weeks watching my two little ones grow.

We kicked our roommate (i.e. Carson) out two weeks ago and reluctantly started an adaptation of the Baby Wise schedule. We've been projectile free ever since and she's getting up once a night and taking her full bottles during the day, which makes life a lot easier on everyone (the grazing had gotten to be a little sanity rattling).

Carson is as laid back as Gus was as a baby, but she is much more of a snuggle bug, which I'm admittedly enjoying. She found her thumb and her satin lovie and she puts herself to sleep without a fuss - true bliss for me!

We've been working on manners with Gus, and he says please, thank you and your welcome pretty much unprompted now. He defaults to "Yes Ma'am" when he's not sure what he wants - melts my heart. He is a smart, funny, and loving little boy, I am so enjoying this age with him.

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks, love my kiddos!


Gus loves going to Carson's room and chillin' in the crib with her


Carson loves her bumbo - she doesn't want to miss a thing!


Pajama Day at preschool


Snuggling with Daddy


Playing Pirate while helping do the dishes


Making Valentines (foam hearts and stickers - he loved it!)

Valentine's Party at preschool


Carson's first Valentine's Day


Saturday Morning cuddle time with Mommy


Love this little peanut


Gus reading to Carson (he got the books from her room too, he loves to try to read on his own these days, it usually goes something like this "Once upon a time....the end" - hilarious because I can't name one book we read to him that starts out "once upon a time" - kid cracks me up and he is truly a sweet big brother)


One of Gus's classic faces


And another...


And another...

12 Week Video Comparison

Carson at 12 weeks



Gus at 12 weeks - such a chunk!

Take Pause for Your Children

I copied this from an article my dad sent me this morning, it really made me stop and think about how fast our kids really do grow up and how much we really should take pause and embrace the ups and the downs, the good the bad, and most of all their worldly innocence (especially on days of late when my 2 year old seems more mischievous than good):

To The Boys In Our Backyard,

I know someday I will glance out the window to check on you, my sweet sons, and I won't see a crowded patch of grass filled with neighborhood children. I won't see the determined, innocent bravado of confident prepubescent boys. In a flash, in a blink, unbelievably, I will see young men with beards and overhear stories of locker room antics, weekend parties, or casual relations told by unrecognizable deep voices. I wonder if you'll long for your boyhood, the way I will. Or if you'll only look ahead, to what's cool, to what's happening, to what's next.

I wonder if you'll remember the times you would stop an intense game to let your sisters pass through to the swing set. I wonder if you'll remember how beautiful of a gesture it was to allow the youngest boy in the game to be a hero on the last play. I wonder if you'll remember the day you suffered a cheap shot, and cried, sobbed, howled, drooled like a baby in front of your buddies. If you'll remember how they ran to you, picked you up, dusted you off, and silently vowed to never bring it up again. I wonder if you'll remember the honesty, the "tell-it-like-it-is-ness" of childhood. How there is no sugar-coated euphemism for "You're too slow to be a running back" or "We had to have him on our team last time."

I wonder if you'll know just how many apple slices, fruit snacks, or crackers you all really ate. And if you'll remember on the rare occasion that our house was too neat for loads of children to eat and drink, you all made do with just the hose outside. I wonder if you'll remember there were no referees, no coaches, no written rules, no adults involved. I wonder if you'll know that the backyard code of ethics you learned were developed instinctively from your own common sense, competitive spirit, and natural ability to be reasonable. I wonder if you noticed that there were no fancy uniforms, expensive cleats, or lines on the field. I wonder if you recognized that you were inches from slamming through the old wooden fence in the end zone, centimeters from being tackled on a brick walkway. I wonder if you knew, like I did, that each day there would be an injury, an argument, quitting, then reconciliation. Long before leadership courses, sensitivity training, and peer counseling, if you'll remember that you learned fairness, justice, and teamwork in our backyard.

Someday, forever from now, I'll be making dinner, folding laundry, or hustling in from work. I'll be focused, determined, consumed with worldly adulthood. And something will stop me. Perhaps a passing glimpse of the backyard, the distant sounds of children, or the smell of mud and earth that will draw me toward the window. And with the fierceness and honesty of life, there I will be, with no you.

And I hope and pray, that if I've done this right, the memories that will flood my body will be those of your playfulness, your innocence, your childhood, forever etched on my soul. In this moment there is only deep peace, for I have always known that it is the everyday and the ordinary that make life real.