A Weird Wednesday

Today was probably the single most challenging, frustrating, and exhausting day in my life as a stay-at-home-mom. We stopped by my mom and dad's house before our Wednesday storytime and the boys played outside for a little while before we left for the library, which is only a few blocks from their house. Everything was fine until it was time to load up into the van and head out. Carson threw a massive fit about having to sit in his carseat which lasted until we got to the library. We walked in okay, made it over to the kids area okay, but then Carson decided to throw another MASSIVE fit (I still don't know what set him off) and was screaming at the top of his lungs. He wouldn't let me hold him, but just continued to scream and cry and was trying to run away from me. To top it off, I swear the library was at its capacity as there were moms and kids everywhere. Then poor Nolan started getting upset (probably thanks to his brother) and I just called off the whole storytime and carried two screaming (SCREAMING!) kids out of the library, one in each arm. It was the walk of shame getting out of that place...I got so many stares and glares. Like I told my mom, at that point, the only thing you can really do is smile!

Since a park is right behind the library, I decided to take them over there. That was good for awhile, they were both playing and having fun. But probably after 45 minutes of being there (and it was packed by this point) Nolan decided to throw a very big temper-tantrum. He was screaming at me, bawling, and hitting me repeatedly. I gave him warnings, the behavior continued. After 2 warnings, I told him we were leaving. This made him extremely upset and he screamed even louder and bawled even more. It didn't help that the van was parked probably a half-block away and up a hill. I had to tote Carson in my arms while Nolan lagged behind yelling and screaming at me. It wasn't even noon at this point!

Needless to say, I was beyond ready for naptime and foolishly thought they would surely sleep for at least a couple hours. Well, they barely made it past an hour and were both up. Thank goodness the rest of the afternoon went okay. I'm just so happy that today is over! I really don't know what the problem was today, but thank God this isn't their normal behavior. I wonder if there was something in their bathwater last night!! It does make you wonder.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Another wonderful day! The boys and I were out in the backyard for an hour this morning and then after nap we went to the park for about an hour and a half. It was so nice to get them outside!!

We started off our day by pretty much digging into the Valentine candy. These boys have had so many sweets today, I'm amazed they're both sound asleep right now! Oh well, that's what Valentine's Day is all about in my book.

I attempted to have the boys hold up two hearts that said "Happy Valentine's Day!" and then take their pictures...enjoy the results below.

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A couple cute things Nolan has done/said:

1.  Today after nap (he was still so tired and grumpy, but never went back to sleep) he came out of his room in a pretty grouchy mood. Carson and I were already in the living room and Nolan stumbled down the hallway saying, "I want to hit," "Mom, I want to hit." I told him that was not a nice thing to say and he better stop saying that before I put him in time-out. He then said to me in a very sweet voice, "Mommy, can I please hit?" I couldn't help but laugh out loud, which really ticked him off, and he hit me anyway! It was pretty funny.

2.  Last night when we ate dinner outside, Nolan wanted to get down from the table pretty much immediately so he could go play again. At this point, he just had a couple bites of his brat and hadn't yet ate his blueberries or corn. When he was trying to get down I said to him, "Nolan, you haven't even touched your blueberries yet." He looked at me, climbed back into his chair, and literally touched his blueberries with his finger! It was so cute!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day today!



The cereal helped a little bit...not much.





Nolan decides to lick his heart...




Carson at the park.





You can just see Nolan's big grin...he was loving the tire swing!





Carson pretending to call dad. "Hi Dad." he says.




I love the ears!




Teeter-Tottering



Swimming And Other Stuff...

Noah got home early on Friday so we took the boys swimming. They haven't been in a swimming pool since our vacation last September, so it was a lot of fun for them. At first Carson was scared out of his MIND, but he warmed up to it within 15 minutes and then didn't want to get out!

It was such a bee-utiful day today...mid 60's in February! We spent the entire afternoon outside once the boys woke up from their naps. They had so much fun running through the yard, swinging, catching spiders, and digging in their sand and water table...all without coats! It was great. We also ended up grilling out for dinner. Noah fired up the grill and cooked us up some yummy brats and we all ate outside.

And on a sad note, after the 3rd person referred to Carson as "the little girl," Noah ordered for me to cut his hair. He said if I didn't do it, he would. I'm the furthest thing from a barber, but that scared me. Saturday evening I had the heavy task of snipping those beautiful locks. So sad. Goodbye, my sweet Goldlilocks.

Special thanks to both the grandparents... the boys have definitely enjoyed all of the Valentine goodies you got for them. Thank you!! :)

Hilarious Video of Carson's Tee-Pee Crash



Swimming!





Carson literally laid like this for 5 minutes while Noah rubbed his back before bed. He clenched his sippy cup and did not lift his head the entire time. Noah said his leg was covered in drool!





Ahhh...now that's how you say good-night!




Before church photo!




Carson with his Valentine sucker.





TWINS!




Nolan busy tending to the yard.




Bama Jean and Papa Steve dopped by to deliver Valentine goodies!!




It's been a long time...





Bama Jean helping the boys locate spiders.




Check out the difference in that hair color!




I love this shot! Caught them both in the moment of watching a spider along our house.





Nolan examining his new bug vaccum...thank you, Fiedler's!!





Dinner time!




"Hello, over there!"



Back In Business!!

Finally I'm back with a new post!! I've devoted so much time this past week focusing on my stories and figuring out what both of the publishing companies require for submission entries. It's been exhausting, but I reached my goal and put together both of my manuscripts, created my cover letters, and on Wednesday officially kissed everything good-bye at the post office. Now I wait...

It's almost been a week without any updates, so I'm going to include lots of pictures in this post. We've pretty much been up to the usual thing this week. Monday we tried a new storytime at a different library, but Nolan didn't want any part of it. We actually left within a minute of it starting. The room was really small, there were no windows, and there were tons of kids and parents. It was a bit stuffy in there, so I can't really blame him for wanting to leave. Tuesday we went to the McDonald's playcenter for lunch and got the place to ourselves for the 1.5 hours we were there. Wednesday my mom met us at Corey Eiseley for storytime and then we visited her and my dad afterwards at their house. Today Carson had his 18-month checkup and he looks great in all areas of growth and development. He weighs a little over 25 lbs and is 33" tall. He's doin' good! Enjoy the pics!! (Videos are at the way bottom).

Nolan and Dad examining his collection of Micro Machines.

Nolan in Noah's shoes!

Love these pics!!

Swinging outside.

Carson about to go down the slide...his favorite thing!

Nolan...looking like a handsome little frat boy here!

Static!

"Hi Mom." Carson peeking through a tunnel.

Carson singing "The Wheels On The Bus"

(all through town, all through town, all through town...)

Little Boys, Big Shoes

Super Bowl Half-Time Dance Party!!