Jeeze

My mother in law takes great pictures -she snapped this shot of Thomas
last weekend. Looking at it just melts my heart. I can feel his little
head asleep on my chest, hear the funny way he says 'hello' and holds
his hand to his ear like he's talking on the phone, see the way he
toddles around the room with his hands out in front of him like a drunk.
He's unlike t2 in that he's not ok with just anyone - and more often
than not he only wants me. Oddly it's never occured to me to mind.

Happy days

Tayloe made it home safe from Africa last weekend. It takes us a few
days to readjust to life all together again, but when we do it seems
like we're always better than before. It's hard to be without an
essential member of our team for any length of time (2 weeks this
time) but in the end I always feel a little stronger and a little more
confident. Sorta like running a marathon I'd guess, although I
certainly can't speak from experience there.
In the time that he was gone Thomas started taking his first real
steps alone and in the last week seems to be deciding that maybe
motoring on feet rather than knees is the way to go.

Go to sleep baby

Tayloe pretending to put Thomas down for a nap

Chubby yummy goodness

As far as kids go, this is my favorite age. Communicating but not too
much, sleeps through the night, eats, plays and gives lots of
unconditional love. Of course ours isn't walking yet ... Surely by
Christmas, I said. I'd say it's just a matter of weeks because he
really is so close, but I've said that before. It doesn't matter that
my back is breaking in a million places from carrying him around.
Let it be known that Thomas isn't going to do a single thing until he
decides he's ready to do it. And if that's the way he lives his life,
good for him.

It'd help if I added the picture

Dih. See previous post

Christmas wishes

I remember getting Christmas wish books in the mail when I was a kid
and pouring through them for weeks. I'd circle things I knew there was
no way on gods green earth I'd get, like a trampoline or a battery
powered Barbie car or later in the delicious neiman and Marcus
catalogue, makeup. I'd read the descriptions over and over again,
imagining all the fun I could have if the Barbie car really could run
for up to four hours without a charge. It was good to dream and to
this day I still prefer them to the Internet.
So here's Tayloe, starting young with the dollar general wish book.
It's taken it's place among his favorite bedtime reads. The other day
he tried to comfort Thomas with it. 'Read this Thomas,' he said
through his brothers wails. There's nothing so wrong that a picture of
a $3 remote control tractor can't fix.

My family

Tayloe came home from school last week with this picture in his
backpack.
He was so excited to show it to me and quickly told me that the person
in blue is daddy, the person in pink is mommy, the big kid is Tayloe
and the baby is Thomas.
"Looks like you had a good time coloring Thomas," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "He was cold so I covered him up."
(or decided to suffocate him, either way).

asleep at the wheel

that's kinda how i've been feeling. does my lack of posts make it obvious? the busyness of this time of year always my head swim anyway, but lately i've just felt like i can only get the basic stuff done. i tried to take a photo of the boys yesterday for a christmas card. i should know better by now, but sometimes i just can't help myself.
instead of the happy, gleaming image i imagined i got two screaming kids, one with juice spilled all over his head. i took a picture of that, thinking maybe reality would be better, but even it didn't come out. one's crawling away so fast he's a blur and the other ducked out of the frame just as i pushed the button. so it's basically a picture of a chair.
i can't even seem to get the advent calendar stuffed. three days in a row i've had to distract tayloe so that i could get the treats in before he saw. no way i can keep that up.
i gotta wake up and get with it or we're going find the family truckster cruising east bound at 80 in the west bound lane. hhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnk.