goodnight moon

At night, we read Nate a couple of books and then we talk about his day, say a prayer, and sign him a song.

Usually the trifecta must be there: duck, blanket, and bink.

Tonight, there was a new addition to the mix: Nate fell asleep with his baseball mitt on.

Adorable.

Things that make us laugh

Today, thankfully, was relatively tame: minor tantrums, but mostly great listening from Nate - and really excelling at being a helpful (genuinely!) big brother - good walks to the park, and plenty of playing in our cool air conditioned house.

But, there were somethings that we just bust-a-gut down right funny.

Like:

Brooke has started transitioning from her usual la-la-la chatter to a tyrannosaurus growl. It's hilarious. Our sweet little blue-eyed, dainty little love so happily plays with all kinds of toys (and kitchen products...) and then in glee open her mouth to laugh - but this awesome dinosaur growl comes out. It's fantastic.

And Nate has a terrible diaper rash, so he wandered around the house tonight diaper-less (but with shorts on, he insisted). I thought "what a perfect time to give the whole potty training thing a run for the money!" Literally, three minutes after sitting on the big-boy potty with no result, Nate was in teh living room winding up to bat (the bat today? a funnel. The ball? A foam golf ball. Yep, we improvise around here, and Nate uses everything - I mean everything - as a bat. Yesterday, it was a dustpan), when a tiny little trickle came down his leg and he annouced "Uh oh. All wet."

Greg swooped in to clean him up - and Nate's timing was perfect, we were heading to the bath anyway - and on the way to the bathroom, a little nugget fell out of Nate's shorts.  Yep, a little nugget of poop.

Greg freaked out. And all I could do was stand there laughing.

This all was made more laughable because of this: in our house with one bathroom, somehow the door got locked. With all of us outside.

So while Greg is maneuvering Nate and poop - and trying to keep Brooke from curiously checking out said poop - I am scrambling to unscrew the door knob (because these door knobs don't have that clever little trick of just punching the lock undone by twisting a hanger through the middle or something).

Truly a comedy of errors. And thank goodness. We all needed a little mid-week laughter to get through the rest of this week.

Remind yourself to Relax

Today, I went to the grocery store (really, this is not news. It's almost a daily occurrence. SO much so, I think the tag line on the receipt from the store "Come Back and See Us Tomorrow" is actually intended for me. The store clerks know my kids. Really, we are there a lot. I digress.) and I spluged and bought a back of Dove chocolate.

And on the inside of my chocolate, it said "Remind Yourself to Relax."

I needed that today. (Apparently, the Dove chocolate was also intended for me. Does this mean I can devour the bag? No... wait, don't be silly.)

It's night week, and I really vehemently hate night week. I actually spoke that word today. Outloud. It's just such a spin cycle of... ugh. Greg goes in at around 1pm, has a night flight around 6pm, gets home around 1:30am, and then sleeps. When the kids get up (at 6am!!!) we quickly usher ourselves out of the house so that Greg can keep sleeping, stay out until he wakes up to study around 10, and then he leaves around the same time the kids take a nap. It's a yucky cycle. And I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.

Also: it rained tonight. And the ground is already dry. Again. It's so hot our sweet little Brooke has a heat rash, and Nate is happy to have a water break from playing baseball after about 20 minutes. We are making near-daily trips to the pool - because it's necessary. And - I've started drinking my beverages with ice in them. (You should take note: this is a huge deal. After a decade in Europe growing up, I really grew to enjoy a room-temperature beverage. There's nothing like living in 100 degree weather every day to shift your idea of what is room temperature!)

One more thing. We bought a new camera. And I'm so excited to play with it and take some (hopefully amazing!) pictures. Don't worry, you'll see some too. =)

Happy (almost!) weekend to you!

warp speed

Sometimes, when things seems to be spinning out of control (that happens a lot around here), it's good to keep this in mind: everything will be ok. 

 But, sometimes, when we all need post-it-note with such a reminder, a good tune helps me recall that this craziness - this hectic whirlwind - shall pass. 

(But, in the meantime, it's also a good reminder that this [that hectic whirlwind] is our life. So, it should be enjoyed, maximized, lived-to-the-max. Crazy and all.)

At the end of the day, we all just need to get lost in our minds to reflect on really how great things are.