Random Thoughts

MAGICAL MORNINGS

I LOVE my mornings. They start earlier than I'd probably choose, but as I continue to learn, it's in getting what I don't want that I actually find what I do want. And it's always a greater, infinitely richer blessing. Anytime between six and seven in the morning Gabe's cute voice starts cooing at me. I look over at him sleeping in his bed next to mine and get a huge smile. I lift him out and place him next to me on my pillow and give him a little breakfast. It's nice that I can feed him without getting out of bed. Then we talk for a while. We literally spend 45 minutes to an hour talking, laughing, gurgling, cooing, squeezing, kissing, and playing. I cuddle that boy like nobody's business and he just lets me while he smiles and laughs, then eventually falls asleep in my arms and I pull him close while we both fall back to sleep. Our cuddly sleep is usually soon interupted by child number two, who wakes up next. Anytime between seven and eight, Cameron wakes up. He calls to me "Mommy!" and I unsnuggle from Gabe and go get Cam. At first I'm slightly disappointed as I was so warmly and cozily cuddling with Gabe, but by the time I make it half way down the hall I'm thrilled to get to see Cameron.

We have a morning routine that started when he got his new toddler bed. He kept wanting to get out of it and watch one of his favorite shows at night. He loves Wild Kratts and Ni Hao, Kai Lan and could watch them both all day long if I didn't limit him. Every night when I put him in bed he says, "I want to watch Wild Kratts and or Kai Lan". Then I tell him, lay your head on your pillow and go to sleep, then in the morning when you wake up call "Mommy!" and I'll come get you and carry you out to the couch and you can watch your favorite show. To my surprise he always remembers and does exactly that. He calls to me, I come get him and he looks at me with his sleepy little eyes and says "Carry me to watch Kai Lan?" And so I do. We snuggle tight on the couch and sit in silence for a bit while he takes his time waking up to his favorite show. I sit with him holding him close. He is also very cuddly and so fun to sit with. I love holding him while he slowly wakes up. I couldn't ask for anything better.

Ty is last to wake up. He is such a good sleeper. In fact he often asks to go to bed before bedtime. Last night we went to see his cousin perform in her class opera and on the way home he said, "Mom when we get home can I just go straight to bed?" and so he did. The sun hadn't even gone down yet. When Ty wakes up I hear his cute little feet running on the wood floor trying to find me. When he does he wraps his skinny little arms and legs around me like a spider monkey and tells me to hold him. While I do he tells me how much he loves me. It goes something like this: "Mom I love you more than all the dinosaur bones in the museum!", I reply, "I love you more than all the stars in the sky", he replies, "I love you more than all the stars in the universe!" and we go on and on until one of us gets bored or has to go to the bathroom :)

Mind you, these magical mornings can end rather abruptly depending on how soon the first major melt down of the day emerges. Sometimes it happens pretty quickly...and other times the magic lasts a little longer. Every once in a while it lasts all day long, but that's pretty rare.

I love my magical mornings and if I got to choose between sleeping in or cuddling with the most adorable boys I know....I choose the latter. Am I lucky or what?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I love celebrating the major holidays. I love them even more with children. I love the holidays for what they represent: Love, our Savior, and all the powerful, important and true meaning behind them. But I love them second for the excuse they give me to make adorable and delicious treats with my boys that we share with friends and family. I've always been this way, even before children. I like finding some cute and creative way to manipulate food into something fun to share. It's just what I do and I enjoy it so. Cookie spiders for Halloween, Christmas cookies galore, candy turkeys for Thanksgiving, cake pops for Valentine's day. For Easter, well I couldn't decide which of these adorable goodies I wanted to make, so we're doing both. Take a look:

These little Easter buttons are going to be so fun. It's our project for today. I'll let you know how they turn out!

And we did these bird nests last week to celebrate spring. The boys LOVED them. Both eating and making them. They delighted in adding sticks (chow mein noodles) to mud (chocolate and peanut butter) and then adding the eggs. It was so fun and these nests are the cutest things ever. We'll do them again this weekend to celebrate Easter with our families (and because we still have all the stuff to make them).

I love the holidays. They are bad for my figure, but good for a fun experience with my boys. And hopefully they brighten the day for the the family, neighbors and friends who are often the recipients of our fun treats!