Little Giggles & Grins

Today as we were playing on the pool deck Ella wanted to throw all the rafts into the pool. With no time to mess around I had to put Bradley in Ella's swing so I could run over and help Ella. To our surprise, Bradley really liked the swing and Ella was so excited that he was big enough to be in the swing. Ella quickly let me know that she was going to push Bradley and that I should watch. I'm sure Bradley would have preferred the opposite scenario, but I think he still enjoyed the ride. When things started to get silly, as they always do with Ella, Bradley started to laugh really hard. I never caught a good laugh on video, but I did get a few good pictures of Bradley smiling! I have attached the video of us trying to make Bradley laugh. However, my husband will remind me that I once again held that camera the wrong way for video, he'll say, "haven't I told you about holding the camera this way for videos?......you did it again." However, I give myself a big pat on the back for Ella not falling in the pool, Bradley not falling forward and busting his mouth on the swing, and for me not dropping the camera on the tile while trying to multi-task. I consider this a job well done, minus the fact that we didn't capture the big laugh and you have to watch it sideways!

Okay.....for some reason I am having trouble getting the video to load, so I'll have to keep working on that.....sorry. In the meantime, however, I showed Scott the video of Bradley laughing when he got home from work and he said, "why is it sideways?"..."did you hold the camera the wrong way.....again?"

Night Night Mr. Moon, Night Night Mommy!

As most of you know....when a child reaches the age of two, they try to procrastinate their bedtime. One night Ella said to me "I want to see night night." So, I took her outside to see the stars and Mr. Moon. This has now become a nightly ritual because Ella won't go to sleep without seeing it! If the moon is behind the clouds from the front yard view, then we have to go out and look for it in the backyard. Our night time routine now consists of pj's, brushing teeth, books, seeing Mr. Moon, pulling the cord on the light up butterfly that hangs from her ceiling fan, pulling the moon that hangs from her lamp to turn off the light and finally songs and a kiss. I know this sounds like a lot, but we have actaully learned to cram all of this into 20 minutes. As I leave her room every night she says, "night, night mommy" as many times as she can as I lay her down in her crib and walk out of her room. I don't know what it is about the way she says that, but it is definitely one of my favorite parts of the day.

Bradley, on the other hand, is not interested in Mr. Moon at all. At about 7:10pm, Bradley says, "Waa, Ehhh, Waa." That would be baby talk for....who cares about Mr. Moon. just swaddle me, give me a pacifier and turn off my light on your way out! He sleeps from 7:30 to 6:30 like clock work, but you never know when he will wake up and want his pacifier...some nights it is once and others it can be up to 10. I am debating wether or not I want to wean him from it. I know it is a comfort for him, but when your child wears a clip on their shirt so their pacifier can hang from a string and never get lost....you start to wonder if you have a pacifier junkie. There are not many pacifier junkie hotlines, so we must figure out our own 6 step program for this addiction. We are debating wether we should take it from him in the next month or so. However, we don't want to deal with him waking up Ella in the middle of the night when he wakes up and cries for it! However, we have been having some construction right outside Ella's window for the past month or more. So I always tell Ella when she lays down for her nap that she might hear the workers and their trucks. I then ask her what she should do if they wake her up. In response, she closes her eyes as tight as she can and says, "close my eyes...go back to sleep." Surprisingly, she must do just that because she sleeps through the loudest construction possible. If she can do that, surely she could sleep through some pacifier withdraw.

In all honesty, I think you always want to do what is best for children, but you always second guess if what you chose was the best. Things are never easily decided without mentally questioning the decision you made or the way you handled a situation. I guess in the end I just pray that I will be the type of mother that God wants me to be and that my children will grow up loving Him and being the type of people that make this world a wonderful place. If in the end, I have been successful at this, I have done my job!

I have attached a few pics of the kids. Ella is loving being a big sister and is so good to Bradley. Watching them together and knowing what fun they will have as they continue to grow is a wonderful feeling. Lately, Bradley has been cooing conversations very loudly, so I think he is preparing to be able to hang with little Ella! Ella just laughs at him and copies everything he says. Notice in the above pic how nice Ella is being to Bradley, but doesn't realize where her hand is!

I hope you all are doing well and enjoy a few quick updates here and there from us! My sister says I have too much time on my hand if I am blogging, but I believe she just started her own blog. Hmmmm?

God bless. Good night. Night night Mr. Moon!