Entertaining brother and being helpful.

While the boys are certainly a handful and a half at 2.5 years old, they are also so much fun and really precious. They do sweet things like hug each other mid-cartoon watching and JH says "momma, we got two friends!" (we are friends) or H taking the time to entertain JH with his guitar playing while he was getting his diaper changed. Preciousness oozing out of their pores. I don't want you all to think that it is all sunshine and roses and have an unrealistic view and somehow let that make you question your children's behavior or something. People get tired of being painted a one-sided picture. It's not sunshine and roses all of the time, but I will make a choice to focus on the preciousness and not things like the 35 minute tantrum/fit one of them had last Wednesday night because he didn't want to leave his Mimi's house and her iPad. I won't focus on the kicking and screaming that occurred on the car ride home and in his bedroom because he didn't want his diaper changed or to put on his pajamas. I try to focus on the preciousness because it helps make getting through those over-tired tantrums more bearable. I am so grateful for the brotherly love and preciousness.

This weekend we went to the zoo with my aunt Sharon, uncle Ira, my cousin Laura and her new husband, Warren. It was so nice to spend time with them now that things have settled down post-wedding. Laura and Warren just moved to Birmingham from Nashville and my aunt and uncle just got back from a 10 day cruise on the Aegean down the coast of Turkey and Greece. I really enjoyed having them all back in Birmingham, and I'm excited for more time together in the future. After the zoo we headed to Urban Cookhouse at The Summit and then back home to get our wild turkeys in bed for nap. After they got up from nap, Josh, the boys and I went outside to pick up sticks in the yard. (Josh and I are making more of an effort to keep our house less cluttered and our yard prettier.) We have a big, fabulous tree in front of our house that really adds to the curb appeal of our yard, but is a pretty big pain in the Fall months when it drops all of its leaves in our yard. Poor Josh spent all of nap time blowing the leaves out of the yard on Saturday and after a windy Sunday, the entire yard was re-covered with leaves! We just laughed and said "seriously??" when we saw it :) The boys are at a very big helper stage and ate up getting to help out in the yard picking up sticks. It was so pleasant to be outside with them and not have to watch their every move. They are really growing up. While I'm sad that their baby days are getting farther away, it is also so enjoyable to be able to have more fun with them and allow them to do big boy things like helping with yard work on Saturday or cutting their own bananas with plastic knives this morning at breakfast. They are definitely growing up entirely too fast. Since it is inevitable, I am determined to enjoy it and them as much as possible. :)