In the last couple of weeks the boys have really started becoming independent. They play for longer stretches of time without the need for mommy or daddy to be involved.
One of the things I love most is to watch them sit on their knees and peer into the basket of toys. They might push the toys around or pull a few out and throw them aside. They always stare intently at the toys and then reach in and purposefully pull out a specific toy.
It always makes me smile. They are developing opinions and making choices. They are no longer passive participants in their world. I love that. Even though I miss their tiny baby-ness I love watching them grow up into little people. It is amazing and is one of my favorite parts of being a mommy.
The boys have truly discovered each other. Meaning that they actually interact with each other…beyond smiling and laughing.
Now we push, pinch, pull, crawl over, step on, yell at, and bite each other.
JOY!
They ONLY want the toy the other one is playing with. They ONLY want to stand where the other one is standing. If one of them decides that mommy needs to hold him the other notices and they have a speed crawl race to see who can reach me first. Usually I am sitting on the floor so I always hold them both, but they still want to be the first to get to me and are very upset if they aren’t the first.
Emory has learned to bite Dean with his 6 teeth whenever Dean is doing something that Emory is not pleased with. I knew that biting would come…I just didn’t think it would be this soon.
I must say: Dean, NO!….Emory, NO!…You have to share….Don’t push…Don’t sit on your brother…Your brother was playing with that first….You have to share!…a million times each day now.
They understand no very well and usually cry the saddest cry when we say no to them. Sharing is not a concept we grasp yet, but we are working on it. Not that sharing is age appropriate yet but we don’t have lots of choice in the matter. I refuse to buy two of everything!
They are nice to each other sometimes. One will crawl away and then stop and look back and wait for the other one to catch up. They smile and laugh with each other. But that is about all so far. Oh, and they do get very concerned when the other one is crying and have to crawl up to see what is wrong and then hover close by until the crying stops.
Oh what a life! It is wonderful and fast and chaotic and exciting. And it is perfect in every way!
One missing pearl earring.
I sat down at my desk at work this morning, looked down, and there it was.
So happy! So very, very happy!
There is a song we sing to the boys that they love. It stops tears and produces smiles almost every time we start singing. We sing the song to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”. My mom made the song up and we have added verses as we think of them. She came up with the idea when she was here most nights during May (spring football time) and was watching ALOT of Noggin with us. One of the shows was about rhyming words and that is where it all started. Here is what we have so far. We always sing “clap your hands” instead of “stomp your feet” because the boys know how…well Dean knows how…to clap their hands. We aren’t quite at the whole stomping of feet yet.
Ohhhh…the monkey climbed a tree, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the monkey climbed a tree, clap your hands.
Oh the monkey climbed a tree just to see a silly bee, oh the monkey climbed a tree clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the ape at a grape, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the ape at a grape, clap your hands.
Oh the ape at a grape then he slept from 6 to 8, oh the ape at a grape clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the dog sat on a log, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the dog sat on a log, clap your hands.
Oh the dog sat on a log just to talk to Mr. Frog, oh the dog sat on a log clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the fish went swish, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the fish went swish, clap your hands.
Oh the fish when swish then made a wish, oh the fish went swish clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the turtle jumped a hurdle, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the turtle jumped a hurdle, clap your hands.
Oh the turtle jumped a hurdle then talked to Mertyl, oh the turtle jumped a hurdle clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the bear cut his hair, clap your hands.
Ohhhh…the bear cut his hair, clap your hands.
Oh the bear cut his hair then went to the fair, oh the bear cut his hair clap your hands.
Feel free to come up with more lyrics and share them in the comments. I warn you, this song is addictive and we sing it much too often around here. But the boys love it and it is always worth it to see their faces scrunch up in a smile and a giggle!
Last night I went to remove my earrings as I do every night.
Only one was missing.
I wear my pearl earrings almost every day. We bought them for me to wear at our wedding and I love them.
But now one is gone and I have no idea where it could possibly be. I know I put it on yesterday morning and I know that last night it was no longer there.
I feel horrible. I am searching for it but it is so small and the world is so big…
It is freaking hot. Hot. Hot. Hot.
I hate hot. I don’t mind warm. I like warm evenings and days. But once we hit 95 degrees I am finished. It is the only thing about Texas that I really don’t like. I have NEVER liked being hot. EVER. If it could top out around 87 degrees it would be perfect. But that doesn’t happen here. And this whole myth of dry heat versus humid heat? It is a bunch of crap. Hot is hot. I won’t deny that when the air is super humid and walking outside feels like you are being smothered by a wet blanket it isn’t fun. And I suppose I would prefer not feeling like I am being smothered, but hot is hot is hot. End of subject.
I suppose I don’t like the heat because I seem to be super sensitive to it. I get dehydrated easily. And it isn’t because I don’t hydrate myself. I drink more than enough water all year long and my intake during the hot summer months only increases. But I sweat buckets of sweat. I don’t glisten or perspire. I sweat like a man. It is horrible and gross…mainly because I am not a man. I have been like that my whole life. My body likes to overheat and pass out. That’s not fun either. I have had heat exhaustion and sun poisoning. It is miserable.
So all of this is to say that I really don’t like being hot. Summer is not my favorite season. In fact it comes in dead last as far as the seasons are concerned.
But then I read a blog written by one of my friends from high school. We reconnected through Facebook and I have enjoyed getting to know her as an adult…as a mom. Anyway, she is writing some posts about her 100 favorite things of summer. And so many of the things she lists are things I do enjoy about summer. I thought about making my own list but decided against it. There is very little chance that I could come up with 100 things I like about this time of year. So I would probably just end up repeating the things that I do like.
But to counter my dislike and negativity of summer I am going to list 10 things that I do like about summer.
- Nathan is home.
- Shaved ice from Bahama Buck’s
- The sound of an oscillating fan
- Hamburgers from the grill
- The sound of a sprinkler (not the in-ground kind but the kind you attach to a hose)
- The sound of a summer night
- Sliding into cool sheets after a long hot day
- flip flops
- The sound of cicadas
- lots and lots and lots of ice water
So that wasn’t too bad. Although by #8 I was really having to think!
I don’t remember how I came across the blog Shutter Sisters. But I endeavor to be a better photographer and I love their site. Today there was a post about living a bigger life and there was a link to a video by Dane Sanders. I don’t know anything about Dane Sanders. But his video moved me. You should take a few minutes to watch it.
Why settle for a little life from Dane Sanders on Vimeo.
Did you watch it? I hope you did. But if you didn’t that’s okay too. You know how you can KNOW something but never really know it? That is how I felt after I watched the video. There is nothing shocking or new about what he is saying. But the way he said it clicked with me. I have watched the video three times and will probably watch it again. The idea of choosing whether to live a big or small life really made sense to me. I also liked the part about having everything you need already inside and that only you can change you. Like I said, these aren’t new ideas. But ever since I watched the video for the first time late this afternoon all I can think about if living a big life.
And I have so many reasons to live a big life. But the most important two reasons are Dean and Emory. I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and watch them grow up. I want to be right in the middle of it, helping them, loving them, encouraging them, and supporting them. I want a big life so they will learn to live a big life.
This whole idea is still swirling around in my brain and I haven’t had time to digest it all yet but I needed to get it down. I wanted to share it with you. I am sure that I will write more about it after I have some time to think on it and roll it around in my head and decide what it means for me.
I have a magnet on the refrigerator that I bought years ago that says, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” It was said by Abraham Lincoln. I always feel drawn to the magnet. And I feel like the message falls inline with this idea of living a big life.
Oh I feel so excited. I have a million things to say but they are flying around my head so fast that I can’t make them all line up into coherent post. Watch the video if you haven’t.
Saturday we took the boys to SAMS club for some things we needed. At SAMS they have shopping carts with double seats in the front. You can’t put your seat covers on them so I was hoping they would be so intrigued at sitting next to each other and looked around that they wouldn’t need to lean down and chew on the handle. They seemed to have a good time and I snapped to pictures with my camera on my cell (so the quality isn’t the best).
But my this is my favorite and what actually prompted me to figure out how to actually take a picture with my phone in the first place. It looks like Emory has his arm around Dean. And he does. But not because he is being all loving. He was grabbing the buckle that attached to the shopping cart.
As you can tell they weren’t overly excited about shopping. I guess they take after their Daddy!
They weren’t much into taking their 10 month picture. I picked this one because you can see Emory’s bottom teeth and the big story between month 9 and 10 has been teething!
We haven’t watched much of the Michael Jackson coverage. To tell the truth I was never a fan of his music. His Jackson 5 stuff is okay but I can’t claim to be a die hard fan.
The thing that strikes the most about is death and the stories and coverage is that it is just so sad. He clearly wasn’t a happy man. I can’t say he wasn’t a little strange. Who knows if he was actually guilty of all the things he was accused of. But to me it doesn’t really matter. No one will ever know the complete story or the absolute truth anyway.
What I see is a man who wasn’t happy. A man who was searching for something. It doesn’t matter if he died from an overdose or from his body finally giving up. I feel bad for him. He had fame and money (at least at some point). He had what so many people wish they had but it still didn’t fill some void in his life that needed filling.
In the end he was just as human as me or any of us really. I hope that whatever comes after this life will be good for him. I hope that he finds what he is searching for and I hope that he finds happiness. We all deserve to be happy.
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