Unfortunately, Dan's work has been extra stressful and busy lately. We usually enjoy his great schedule and the fact that it's pretty easy for him to leave his work at work. But these past weeks have brought our daddy home a lot later and a lot more stressed.
It's kind of terrible timing for a busy streak, because I'm not really in a situation to compensate for him, but we're making it. And no matter how tired he is, he always finds enough energy at the end of the day for rousing game of "Find the Zombie" which we all appreciate.
Max asked for "fwosted wee-weets" the other day, which I finally figured out was Frosted Mini-wheats, and as with so many of my kids mispronunciations, I find I enjoy them more than the actual word and I don't correct them. That one, and his calling of the missionaries who live at my parents house, "the merries" will hopefully be long-lived.
After reminding Max repeatedly of proper store/public place behavior, he now regularly repeats the following mantra to me whenever I unbuckle him from his car seat,
"No cwhying, no cweeming, no whining."
But today as he whined on our way into Ikea, I prompted him, "Remember Max? How do we act in the store? No whining..." I paused for him to continue. Instead he stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry,
"Pppppffffftt!"
I contained my giggle and continued, "...no crying."
"Pppffffffftt!"
"No screaming."
"Ppppffffffftt!"
Apparently he's in the process of finding a new mantra.
A few nights after we got home, Luke was so scared of the noises in his room, that he insisted with huge crocodile tears that he sleep in Max's room. I was really skeptical how that might go, but felt so bad because I could tell he was genuinely frightened. I told him, "No funny business or its right back in your bed." Cause I'm not messin' around these days. I don't have a drop of extra energy to spare on repeated reminders to be quiet and go to sleep.
But he went right in and laid down, and without a peep, both boys were asleep in minutes. And it's been that way ever since. That went way smoother than I ever anticipated. In fact I was so doubtful of a good transition, I had accepted the fact that the when the baby came, it would sleep in Luke's room with him, because that was more likely to have a decent outcome than Luke and Max in the same room.
They proved me wrong and I liked it.
In fact, it has brought about endless opportunities to enjoy one of my favorite, newly-discovered phenomenon. I discovered it when we went camping the first time. This is very mushy, by the way, but I'm not making any apologies, because I love it. When we were all asleep there, together, in our tent, it's like the proximity of ourselves created a thick cloud of sweet love that filled that tent right up. I sat in the early morning light, peering through the love fog and felt like heaven was right there where we were. Sleeping children exude their own kind of sweetness and this was a version of that, to the 100th power.
And then it happened again on our drive to Utah. Nobody was even asleep. But I looked in my rearview mirror and caught sight of each precious person and that filled-up feeling clouded up the whole van.
And then once more, when we shared our room in Midway. Again, the sleeping child aura was at play but really, that is only part of the equation. I think it has to do mostly with proximity.
I like being close with my family in peaceful situations.
So now, when I check on the kids before I go to bed at night, having those two boys bodies there, together in one room, fills it a little fuller with my favorite love potion.
And it makes me happy.
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