Too Cute to Miss

OK, so my children were SUCH boogers when we went out to dinner last night and they must've known they were headed for a behavior crack-down, because they've more than made up for it today! I just had to go ahead a blog so I wouldn't forget! 

This morning I unpacked 2 boxes of books that we'd had in our garage forever and when I was finished I let Kate and Graham play with the boxes. So they decided to turn them into drums. After a few minutes, Kate got tired of drumming and stood back to watch Graham play. They were just laughing and giggling at each other (which was cute enough) until Graham drummed a few times and stopped to look at Kate, at which point she ran over to him and patted his little belly (they were both just in their underwear) and said "Good job, Gray!" in this sweet, sweet little mommy voice! He just thought that was the best and so for the next 5 minutes, Graham would drum on the box, then stop and Kate would run over to say things like: "I'm so excited!"and "I love you, Buddy!" She'd get down right near his face to say it and pat his belly or give him a kiss or rub his head. 

Just a few minutes ago I was putting sheets on Graham's bed before nap. He'd been fussy and was ready to sleep, so when I finished he crawled right up to the pillow and lay down. Kate wanted to play on his bed, but I told her that Graham was ready for his nap, so then she walked across the room to get his special "night-night" (blanket), crawled into his bed, and just so gently covered him up. Once she got the blanket just right, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. So I handed her his paci, which she put in his mouth, then she crawled off the bed and left the room. I was standing in the doorway just watching and when she got to me, she looked up and said "Graham's so cute." Graham fussed for just half a second as I shut the door and when I was tucking Kate in for her nap, she was just SO concerned that he woke up, like he was her personal little baby. (He didn't, by the way, he just rolled right over and went to sleep.)

Moments like these are the reasons we decided to have that second child after all, right? I can't think of many things that melt my heart more than when my two little ones love each other so much! 

And while we're still on the topic of cute things children say, the other morning as we were getting ready to leave the beach, I told Kate to put her shoes on. At first she didn't want to, so I said "You need to put your shoes on now, but you can take them off when you get in the car." So then she said "I love you, Mommy..." and I just immediately jumped in and said "I love you, too, Kate, but you have to put your shoes on." So she looked up at me and tried again, same thing: "I love you, Mommy..." and I said " Sweetheart, I love you, too, but you really have to put your shoes on." So then she stopped putting her shoe on, took a deep breath, and tried one more time. The almost-frustrated deep breath convinced me to stay quiet just to see if she had anything else to say. So finally, she gets out (in the sweetest, softest little voice): "I love you, Mommy, but I don't want to take my shoes off in the car." She absolutely knows how to melt my heart. 

I really, really love my children.