Brotherly Love. Or something like that.

Having two boys is wonderful.  

They love each other.  

They play together.

They give hugs and kisses.

They each seem to think the other is hysterical.

They are so cute sometimes and I love to capture those moments with the camera.

So, that is what I did this evening.

They were laying on the couch together, sharing the blanket, and I thought they were adorable.

So I started snapping away.

See? Aren't they precious?

They thought it was funny that I was taking pictures.

"Wha ah yoo dooooig, Mama?" (Tink speak for "What are you doing?")

Hey, Goose?  Where ya goin', bud?

Goose? 

Seriously, where are you going? 

And why do you have that mischievous look on your face?

Ok, Tink is starting to worry, too.  

And he is obviously telling you he needs some space.  

Please move back to your end of the couch...  

What are you doing?!

Oh.  That is what you are doing.

You are reaching down, yanking out your Thomas The Train, swinging it nunchuck-style, and whacking Tink across the head with it.

Yep, this train.

Don't let Thomas fool you.  He is metal.  Not plastic.  

That sucker is solid.

No wonder Tink looked worried.  

I didn't get a picture of the aftermath because as soon as I saw Thomas make his appearance, I threw the camera down and ran.

  

The scene was no longer cute.  

It was terrifying and I knew what was going to happen.  

Unfortunately, Goose was too quick.  

So, twenty minutes and two ice packs later, Tink stopped crying.  

Goose was sent to bed and Tink got an applesauce.  

I tried to get him to just forego the applesauce because his eyes were rolling back in his head (Because he was sleepy.  Not because he was concussive.), but he swore he wasn't tired and needed to eat.

Uh, ok.  

Guess getting clocked by your little brother wears you out.

Someday, Tink is going to get fed up and kick his brother's rear.  

I am glad it wasn't today.  

I'm also glad they are both asleep so I can make myself an adult beverage.

A strong one.

I figure I've earned it since I didn't try to sell Goose on Craigslist after his little stunt this evening.

Ten Things Tuesday

I have some thoughts.  

I'm feeling like sharing.  

And, it just so happens that I had ten things to share this Tuesday.  

I'm just saying... I wouldn't expect Ten Things Tuesdays to become a regular occurrence.

I mean, someday I may need to do a Seven Things Saturday... Or whatever.

Regardless of the day or the number of random thoughts I have, you should feel free to comment and share your thoughts on anything below!  Or anything not below.  
Whatever works for you.  :)

1.  We recently finished making our home more open.  The wall between the living room and kitchen became a half-wall.  And I am in love.  I'll have a post on that soon.  It is AH-MAZING.

2.  McDonalds has these new Chicken McBites and they are delish!  I don't typically do fast food (see this post where I mentioned my attempting to lose the "baby weight"), but I was short on time, I was starving, and I had a moment of weakness.  Well.  Worth.  It.

3.  DO NOT watch The First 48 at home, alone (two small, sleeping children do not count as company), at night.  It will freak you out and you will end up convinced a mass murderer is creeping around in your backyard... Or on your porch... Or in your basement.  Because that noise you just heard surely wasn't your sump pump kicking on.  *Ahem.*

4.  If you come to my home and notice the couple of random birds we have in the house, just ignore them.  No, not real birds.  Bird figurines or statues or whatever you want to call them.  My grandmother collected birds and having them in the house reminds me of her.  We aren't crazy bird people, I swear.

5.  Speaking of grandparents, I miss mine.  It really bothers me that I never had the opportunity to get to know my grandparents on my dad's side.  My grandfather passed away when I was really young.  Although my grandmother passed away a number of years after that, she was in poor health for quite some time and I was never really close to her.  I think her sickness scared me and, as a child, I didn't know how to deal with that.  My grandparents on my mom's side passed away within the last few years, but they lived in Florida throughout my entire life.  I never had the opportunity to spend much time with them.  I feel like I missed out on really valuable time.  There are things I want to be able to ask them, things I want to know, but I'll never have that opportunity.  And that makes me sad.

6.  On a totally related note, tell the people you care about that you love them.  Life is short. Don't risk leaving this world and having someone you love not know how you felt about them.  Friends, family, lovers... Tell them all.

7.  It is supposed to be almost SEVENTY DEGREES on Thursday.  Holy goodness!  While I am excited for the not-freezing temps, I will admit I am afraid the warm temps will bring tornadoes (See this post for my feelings on such).  Lord help us if we end up in the basement, in February, again.  I am likely to lose my mind.

8.  Then.  Than.  They are not interchangeable.  PLEASE figure it out.  It makes my skin crawl.  I won't mention the others (you're vs your, their vs they're vs there, too vs to, etc.).  I mean, I know entering "ur" on a cell phone can auto-correct to make it "your" when you actually meant "you're."  It happens.  But, then and than? I'm not putting that off on autocorrect.  You are responsible for this idiocy.  If you are unsure of which word you should be using, check this website.  Super simple.  Be mindful of your grammar and leave the world a better place then you entered it.

I kid! I kid!  Leave the world a better place *than* you entered it.  See? You are learning. ;)

9.  The Voice is back on TV!  Whoot-whoot!  I fell in love with Javier Colon and Dia Frampton last season.  I can't wait to see who my favs will be this year.  If you haven't seen it, I'll gift you these gems:

Uh, yeah.  American Idol, who?

10.  I ran across this video today.  Although it was evidently inspired by the death of Whitney Houston, I think the bigger message (and the reason I am choosing to share it) is one of making the choice to write your own story in life.  Decide to do better, be better, love better.  Enjoy.

Happy Tuesday, guys.

  

This One Is Dedicated To The Ones I Love

It is Valentine's Day!

And I am a super lucky girl because I have three handsome, loving men in my life who have stolen my heart.

And, I want to share how much I love them with you!

Tink and Goose are my world.

They are the little pieces of my heart I keep outside of my body.

And their Valentine's Day cards are possibly the cutest things I have ever seen.

Goose:

Tink:

Seriously, how cute are they?!

I can't wait to help them hand their cards out to all of their little friends at school today.

Maybe this will help Goose overcome some of those 

aggression issues he has with his fellow toddlers.  

Or at least it may help the other toddler parents from 

wanting to kick his 16-month-old butt for beating up their kid.  

Whatever works, you know?

And then there is The Hubs.  

I totally heart that guy.

Not that he doesn't make me nuts sometimes, 'cause he does.  And I am fully aware that I make him nuts fairly often sometimes, too.  

But, I've said more than once that I no matter how crazy he makes me or how irritated we can get with each other, I know, with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, that my worst days with him are still better than my best days without him.  

For serious, I love this guy.

We do "I Love You"s regularly.  

Like, all of the time.

Sidenote: I am a big believer in the idea that, if you love someone, TELL THEM.  You never know when your time with them may end.  

Don't leave your love to be questioned. 

Make it known.  

Friends, Lovers, Family.  

Tell them all.

 I love The Hubs.  

He is my rock, my best friend, my confidant, my equalizer.

The yin to my yang.

The ketchup to my french fries.

The deodorant to my steamy day.

Don't tell him I compared him to deodorant. ;)

Bottom line is this: 

He is everything I never knew I needed.  

I figured out I wanted him, but didn't realize  how much I needed him in my life.  

Not in the way that I can't survive without him, but in the way that he is able 

to keep me grounded.  

He reminds me of what is important and makes sure I keep my priorities straight.  

He gets me.

And that is why I love him.

This is for you, babe.

So, we're going to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day.

We made reservations for 9:00pm at Global Gourmet, the local restaurant where we eat for every wedding anniversary.  

It is AMAZING and we only go there for special dates because it isn't cheap.

I just can't justify $85.00 for dinner on the regular.

Ahem... So $85.00 encompasses dinner AND drinks.  Whatever.

I have a present to give The Hubs at dinner.  And I am pretty excited about it.

Here it is:

Alright, so it isn't that exciting.

But, I'm still stoked about the premise of the gift.  

It is cheesy and has Hallmark Holiday written all over it, but that is besides the point.

The Hubs and I have only been married for about four and a half years.  

It is rare that we run out of things to talk about.  

Regardless, it isn't a bad thing to have random conversation initiators every now and then.

And that was my point for getting him Conversation Cards for V-Day.

No matter how well we know each other, how much we think we've learned all there is to learn, there is always some bit of information we can surprise one another with.

That is what helps our relationship to continue to grow.

I plan to take to take them to dinner.  It will make things different.... lively.

(Save your judgement if you think it won't make things "lively." If you've never been with someone for years, you may not understand my definition of "lively."  Or, if  you have been with someone for a long time & think there is nothing new to learn from your partner, try it.  You may be surprised.)

Whether you believe me or not, I have to say I am SO excited for tonight!

It has been way too long since we've gotten a real date night, just the two of us, alone.

And, since it is V-Day, I'll leave you with this gem.
 This is my boys, loving one another:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tink: The Coal Miner

Tink likes to read books.  

He has always liked books.

Even when he was younger & had a hard time hearing, he still loved to read.  He just wouldn't sit quite as long with each book.

He will read them to himself:

Or he will sit and let someone else read to him:

He will read on the toilet:

He likes to read when we go out:

Hey!  No judging the reading material!

For a bit, he seemed to think he needed reading glasses:

Thankfully, it appears as though he does not.  

He has also passed his love of books on to Goose.  I love that Goose will go grab a book, head over to where Tink is sitting, turn around, and back his caboose right onto Tink's lap.  Then, he hands him the book and yells and grunts at him politely says, "boo" (book).  

He wants Tink to read it to him.  :)

You can see how they work their way through the books:

And that is the beginning of it.  Typically, they will pull ALL of the books down.

All.  Of.  The.  Books.

And they then conveniently seem to forget how to put them back on the shelf.

Figures.

Guess it could be worse; I could have two boys that hate to read.  I'm pretty lucky in that respect.

Tink is often known to take a book to bed with him:

In fact, he typically takes multiple books to bed.

I usually have to go pull them out from under him before I hit the sack myself.

MaMaw and PawPaw gave him this aquarium thing for Christmas:  

It lights up and rotates images of fish and whatever else is typically in an aquarium. You can tell from the two pictures how it changes.

It is actually pretty neat. Tink really seems to like to watch it.  

He also likes to use it as a reading light when he goes to bed.

However, it isn't always enough of a light.  It is semi-bright, but, being the sometimes worrisome mother I am, I am afraid he is going to strain his eyes, give himself headaches, cause blindness, or whatever other ill can (or can't) come from reading in too dark a room.


So, enter the headlamp.


It seemed like the perfect answer to his need for additional reading light.  Not enough to keep him awake (as a table lamp or the ceiling light would), but enough by which to read.


And it is so stinkin' cute.


This is what he looks like when he is reading his book with his head lamp:

I was able to sneak in for the first picture, but I was busted after he heard the camera.

This little light makes him so happy.  I can't even explain it.  Here is the evidence of that:

Does that picture not just make you feel good?! 


That kid is a shining ray of light in my life.  


And, I do mean he is the ray of light, not the head lamp....

Little Bit of Awesomeness On This Wednesday

So, I don't have one major thought in this blog post.  

Rather, there are a number of things that have happened, been said, or whatever, that I am going to mention.

1.  I found out in a meeting with Goose's teacher yesterday morning that he has some issues.  Evidently, he has become really aggressive at school.  Not that he has malicious intents or even realizes he is hurting someone, but that he is just generally too rough and, in part because he has super human strength is kind of strong, he is hurting the other kids.  Like, the fact that, at 16 months, he can pull his three-and-a-half-year-old brother down to the ground (with ease and while giggling uncontrollably) is fine at home, but when he is tossing a 20-pound toddler to the ground at school, it becomes a problem.  Or, hitting a student teacher in the forehead with a wooden block and sending her packing with a bruise and a goose-egg.  Did I mention it was her forehead?  Definitely. A. Problem.  I said I will probably need to start baking "Sorry My Kid Unintentionally Beat Up Your Kid" cookies.  Even if "your kid" happens to be a 20-year-old college student......

This is so not the face of a vicious bully.  

Or maybe it is. 

*sigh*

2.  Tink is a booger, too.  I walk him to his room to tuck him into bed the other night and, after going through the NEVER ENDING somewhat lengthy bedtime routine, we finally get to the point of him crawling into bed and me tucking him in.  I pull his blankets back and what do I see?  

This:

Here is the conversation that followed:

Me: Tink, are those oranges in your bed?

Tink: (all enthusiastic-like) Yeah!

Me: Did you get oranges out of the refrigerator?

Tink: Nope (I'm not sure where he picked up "nope", but he never says "no" anymore).

Me: Well, then where did they come from?

Tink: Maybe you got them out of the refrigerator.

Me: Speechless. With an incredulous look upon my face.

I'm going to have to kick both of my kids' butts.  

Maybe I do know where Goose's aggression comes from.....

3.  It is unseasonably warm in The So Ill right now.  Like, 60 degrees and people are wearing shorts in February, warm.  This makes me nervous for two reasons.  A) I am afraid there will be more tornadoes. Please see my last post regarding my feelings on tornadoes if you are not already aware.  B) I am now convinced Al Gore is probably a genius, global warming is causing the Earth to bake, and I am going to die a sad, scary, blistering death by being fried alive (or dead?) in my driveway.  60 degrees in winter. Seriously, people, the o-zone is obviously really mad at us for our overuse of Aqua Net in the 80's.  We're done for.

4.  We have construction going on in our house.  The one thing I have said I wanted since we've lived here is an open floor plan.  That is tough to accomplish when your house was not originally built that way.  However, with a little imagination, you can make it happen.  Plus, I'm persistent when I want something.  And by persistent, I mean, I think it is now happening just so no one has to listen to me talk about it anymore.  There will be a full blog post on this when the process is complete, but for now, I'll leave you with this:

This wall will not look anything like this the next time I show it to you.  And, for that, I am incredibly grateful.  I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be able to watch my boys play in the living room while I am cooking dinner in the kitchen.   SO.  HAPPY.

5.  I'm trying to lose "the baby weight".  I gained 65 pounds with Tink and 45 pounds with Goose.  I thought 45 seemed rather reasonable compared to the HOUSE I became with my first pregnancy (Note: I did lose the 65 pounds I gained with Tink, but that sucked, too).  Reasonable or not, it is a pain in the butt (and hips... and thighs...) to get rid of and I'm not enjoying it.  Plus, now that my "baby" is a "toddler", I'm going to have to just start saying I'm fluffy, big-boned, healthy-ish, thick, chunky carrying more weight than I am comfortable with, as opposed to calling it "baby weight".  Thankfully, about a month in, I've lost 10 pounds.  I still have about 15 or so to go, but I'm already feeling better (more energy, not getting sore or worn out from activities that shouldn't be that tough).  However, I can't honestly say I am loving the process.  I guess I just have to keep repeating that old adage to myself, "No pain, no gain."  Maybe "No pain, No loss" would be a better fit for this one....

And, no, you aren't getting a picture.  Refer back to the oranges above.  That is as close as I'm getting to posting a weight loss photo.

There are a ton of other things I could talk about, but I'm going to call it quits.  It is kinda late, I'm pooped, and all I really want to be doing is snuggling up with The Hubs and relaxing.  So I'm going to do that instead of rambling about a lot of nothing.  

This last one is just in case you can't remember what the hunk of hotness waiting for me on the couch looks like.  Yep.  And I might even be able to talk my way into a back rub.  He is good like that.  :)