Comfort

Today it was a tad cold in our home. Our townhouse is a bit older and the heaters are in the walls. The walls. So it takes a while to warm up our open bottom floor. Anyways, I was chilled and I started rubbing my arms to get some warmth into them. I was sitting on the floor with the boys close by. All of a sudden I feel a rather uncoordinated "rub" on my arm. Little Jack-Jack was imitating me and trying to rub my arm. Though the meaning of my rub was lost on him, he sure was proud of his imitation. 

Later, I was trying to do something important on the computer. And, of course, that means that everyone goes into hyper-drive and sonic level of noise. Sigh. I got a tad terse and Gavin was immediately next to me, patting my shoulder, saying, "It's otay, Mommy, it's otay. You better? It's otay." Gah. So sweet. These boys sure know how to get me to calm down (even though they are the usual cause of me not being calm. but let's not split hairs on that one).

Good Friend

Gavin picks up on the oddest things. It's usually things that I have to think about where they came from. Lately, whenever we ask him something that he doesn't want or he just doesn't like he answers back with, "No! I just want to be a good friend!" Huh?? I was wondering if maybe he had picked up on me giving them their pre-playdate talks about how we need to be nice, not yell, share, etc. But I don't mention being good friends (but is a good idea, come to think of it). Maybe nursery? At our church, we meet for three hours. Two of those hours Gavin goes to nursery with the other kids, ages 18 months to 3 years. They play, they snack, they learn songs, and they have church lessons. When church is over, I pick up James first and then we head over to nursery to pick up Gavin. By the time I make my way over there, he is usually the last kid and they are ready to head out. Or Brad has already gotten him. When James was in nursery, I tried to talk to the nursery leaders a little bit to see how he was doing and what he had learned. I don't really get to do that now with how late I get over there. Maybe I'll have Brad ask this next Sunday...

Scratch Your Back

Tonight was one of those fun, goofy nights. We had a pretty successful Family Home Evening and once we were done, waited for the right time for bath and night-night. While we waited we played this or that, just enjoying one another and being silly. 

I was sitting Indian-style, in front of our couch just watching Gavin and Jack-Jack play near me. All of a sudden, something that wasn't a hand was rubbing my back. I then hear James' cute little voice, "I scratch your baaa-aack!" He was so happy to be scratching my back. "I'm scratching your back, Mommy!" He then stops (and I see he was using a jagged toy saw to do the job) and comes next to me on the ground. He says, "Let me see your hands!... Oh! They are dirty... I think James can help you wash them up." He then takes me by the hand, helps me up and guides me to the bathroom. "I can turn the water on for you, too" We turn the light on and he starts the water. He grabs the soap and tries to pump some into my hand... I secretly helped a little. "I think I will wash mine too". We wash our hands together and I am done waaay before him. He washes and washes and washes his hands. I have to tell him he's all clean and to rinse rinse rinse! He does and we go back out. He acts like nothing happened. I ask him if he wants to see my hands. "Yes! Oh, they are aaaalll clean! Mine too!" He shows me his hands and I give him a kiss. He is such a sweetheart.

A little James tidbit on this matter- he is obsessed with washing his hands and drinking the water from the bathroom faucet. Like he will stay in there an extra 5-10 minutes drinking water and washing his hands. It is so funny. He is now taking it upon himself to bring us water in our own Dixie cup. How thoughtful. It's sad that I am starting to put my foot down on him for not using up the cups (he goes through a ton) and the water... I'm hoping we find a happy compromise :)

Potty Time

I really want Gavin potty trained. Really want it. He was so interested when James was learning last year, that I thought he'd be a piece of cake when the time came... but he's turned out a bit more opinionated and stubborn than I thought. Which isn't bad, just a tiny little wrench we need to work through. We tried right before the holidays- bad, bad, bad idea. It was scrapped within an hour. Now... now we are buttering him up for it. 

Today we were watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (I swear my kids don't watch TV all the time!) and it was the potty episode. I talked to Gavin as much as I could while it was on about how he could be like them, did he want to go sit on the potty like Prince Wednesday just did?? "Yes!" Whaaaat??? I've been trying to get him interested in just SITTING for at least a month now!! We went into the potty and he stood in front of the toilet, trying to figure out how to get on. I told him to wait, and I rushed to the garage to get the froggy potty we have for him. I put it down, pulled his pants down, removed his diaper... and he sat down. For at least 10 seconds! He said he was done (and he tried to pull his pants up with no diaper... sheesh) and we went back out. I tried to see if it was interested off and on later, but he insisted he was done. 

Gavin may say "no" a lot to the idea, but he says no to everything. He does seem to be warming up to the idea of being potty trained more and more. We're prepared for the day when I am brave enough to do this thing... another little wrench is the one-year old. Cute little devil who is obsessed with the bathroom. 

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...

Brothers

The other day, I actually got my camera out. Mommy points!! James and Gavin weren't being totally against it, so I asked if they would hug each other. Third try, this gem:

Gah. Brothers, man. So dang cute.

Shatter

I am honestly surprised that this happened today, and not much earlier. Today, the floor lamp that we have had since getting married, was shattered. Culprits: two little boys, one of which was quite scared and the other one could care less (guess which ones!). The littlest one was sleeping snugly in his crib, thank goodness.

James decided to have art time today (which went really well and we had such a great time!). I attempted snowflakes (FAIL), Gavin colored beautifully on any piece of paper within his reach, and James cut cut cut paper and used markers. Once they were all done, I had the wonderful job of cleaning up all our messes. I was almost done, and was taking almost the last of the paper to the recycling bin (so seriously, like two seconds in the kitchen), when I hear a loud SHATTER. I thought to myself, "What in the world could have made that noise?? How did they get to a picture frame??" I take the two steps out of the kitchen to look into our great room, and behold this scene: James on his Buzz car, Gavin standing next to him, both near where the lamp should have been, and the lamp on the ground, the top shattered into lots of lovely glass pieces. I wasn't happy. I put the boys far away from the glass and started to pick up all the glass. I look over and James is just tense and looks like he is going to burst into tears. I went over to him, and asked him if he was ok. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I'm scared!" and just started crying. I felt so bad- a large object shatters right next to him and his mommy gets upset at him for it happening. Poor guy. I held him close, telling him that it was totally ok. It was an accident and I would take care of it. I wasn't mad at all. Calmed him down so much. I then let them watch a Tinkerbell movie on the computer, which they thought was such a cool treat. I got the great job of making sure every last shard of glass was gone. Joy.

I have been trying a lot lately to be softer with my children. I find myself getting too caught up in the non-perfect behavior and the craze of errands and whatever else will cause me to get too anxious and be too stern with my kids. Today, even though I lost my cool for a little bit, I was really happy with how awesome it turned out in the end. I really felt like it was a big milestone for James and I understanding one another and both of us listening. He is still apologizing for it happening, but then quickly adding on, "But we'll buy a fixed one!". Yeah, let's avoid the brand-new broken ones, little buddy. I love learning lessons from my kids and seeing the efforts of mothering paying off. 

Let Me Correct Myself, Mom

It's so funny when kids are learning to talk and use proper grammar. They start off by mimicking whatever you say. "You're so funny!" is followed by "You're so funny!" then comes the lesson of who "you" and "I" are and it's different for everyone. There are so many different things to teach them, and they don't always get it, and that's totally cool. For goodness sakes, they are just small little human beings learning a language!

The other day, I said something to Gavin. I can't quite remember what, but it went something like this:

Me: Gavin, you are so sweet!

Gavin: Yes, I are... am!

What now? My two-year old just corrected his own grammar? I busted out laughing (and I just remembered what it was about... it was not about him being sweet... it was about him being stinky... ha!). I don't know how their little minds process all that they have to learn, but it certainly does. They are amazing.