Kidletts.

For, like, weeks now...perhaps months, I have been saying "Gosh I need to blog about this moment!". And there have been literally hundreds of moments that have all been blogworthy and posterity would love to read about them and laugh and giggle about all the cutesie things my kids do. But my brain is sleep deprived. I walk around in a half maniacal trance most days so I forget my camera, I forget to write things down, and I most definitely forget to blog. SO out of those hundreds of awesome moments I will blog about just a few that really stood out and got through that zombie fog in my brain. Also, can I just say that how is any mom able to function? I mean I see all these moms doing awesome projects and cooking amazing meals and going on dates with their husbands and I think that there has got to be some secret I am missing. So I am ready to know the secret guys...please tell me.

Here are some things you should know about Caius right now. He is sweet. He is adorable...and I have it on good authority that it's not just his mom that thinks so because Dr. West (his pediatrician) said at his appointment yesterday that Caius has the most perfect features. And yes, he used the word perfect. So there. Proof that he's cute, but not that I needed it because, gah! Look at this:

That's his "blue steel" look. And Atrion, man he is adorable. He looks so much like his daddy, but he's got some Silvester in there...I just can't quite pinpoint it. Okay, back to Caius and then Atrion, because the last post was all about him and I need to be fair so they don't grow up and accuse me of having a favorite.

Caius got his first tooth in finally. His two bottom, front teeth were in a race to see which would erupt first and the right one won. It's incredibly sharp and super cute. I WILL get a picture of it!

Caius does not  refuses to crawl. He does a sort of army crawl around the living room, while whining woefully at anyone who will listen. He gets up on his hands and knees like he is about to make crawling a serious business and then right as you think he's going to do it he slumps his belly back on the floor and cries to be picked up. He says "bababababa" and "mamamamama" when he has conversations. Those have become more frequent and more adorable. He will sit with us at the dinner table and just chat all day about "Bob" and "Mom" and add in a delightful, but sometimes frightening, squeal. For effect. He is a conversational wizard, I tell ya.

He loves to eat. The best thing is when anyone around him is eating and he has his bink in his mouth. He sees food and "plop!" the bink is spit out and his mouth is open waiting for a bite. Totally hands free too. This kid.

He is 9 months now. He is 30" long and weighs 18 lbs and 10 oz. He seems so big. I look at him and marvel at how much he has grown. He has soft, feathery, blondish hair that sometimes has red. He has the most deliciously kissable baby chunk. He gives kisses. He gives bonks. He waves. He tries to make me laugh by blowing raspberries or pulling my hair. Man, he does love to pull my hair. When I carry him around he grabs a big handful as we walk. Sort of like a reign or something. It's pretty cute until he gets excited and flaps his arms and my scalp feels like it's missing a piece. But sometimes he just puts his arms around my neck as we walk and to me, I just melt.

One other thing I don't want to forget about him ever is his feet. Whenever he wants something or is excited about something or angry about something he rubs his feet together while kicking his legs really fast. It sounds weird when I try to explain it. But it is endearing. If he is in his crib and I think he asleep but it turns out he is awake, the only clue is that I hear his little feet rubbing together once he sees me. Or he will be contentedly sitting on the floor playing with a toy and I will get up to do something and he sees me and starts rubbing his feet together because he wants me to pick him up...priceless.

Okay, on to Atrion! He is something, this boy. He is going to be 5! FIVE! As in going to kindergarten. As in, I might be a complete mess in a few months when I have to send my sweet boy out into the world.  He is so innocent. Granted, all children are innocent. Except this boy, he has a tender spirit and the world has no hold on him yet. Although he does love McDonalds...which is all my fault. But I digress. He LOVES Lord of the Rings. He LOVES Harry Potter. He DOUBLE LOVES superheroes and Star Wars. He loves these things because he and his dad play the Lego games for each of these categories and his dad tells him stories about them and talks to him about the good guys and the bad guys and the guys who aren't sure if they want to be good or bad yet. It's pretty philosophical really, but mostly just adorable and makes me love his father even more. Yes, they bond over video games. Really AWESOME video games. Don't hate. I promise we do other things too. Like this:

We build whole worlds. Actually he builds them all by himself most of the time, but sometimes I jump in add to it. He has an incredible imagination and he always wants to play. I have incredible mom guilt and sometimes lose sleep over the fact that he will ask me 1,000 times a day if I can play with him and I usually last for about 20 minutes and then tell him it's time for him to play by himself for a little while. This goes over as well as you can imagine for a kid who was the only child for 4 years. He usually says he will wait to play until I can play again, and I try to explain that that probably won't happen today, but he insists on waiting. Eventually though he forgets he is waiting and starts to play by himself...until he remembers he is playing by himself and then he will come over and ask me to play. That's our main struggle right now. I want to do other things, or I have to do other things and all he wants is for me to play. *sniff* I feel horrible but that's how it goes. I am told other moms go through this too. To top it off, if I can't play with him he will go around to everyone else and ask if they want to play too. Dad, Grammy, Bompa, Sierra, the cat. And if every one of them says no, then he has just gotten rejected by 6 people. So if I see that happening I have to play with him because I would die of heart break if I didn't. There is that quote that I am trying to remember off the top of my head that goes something like this: "If you tell your kid no enough times, eventually they will stop asking." Now this can be taken many different ways but I see it as a bad thing when kids stop asking you if you want to play with them. They know what the answer is and that is sad. So I try my hardest to, first off, want to play, and second of all to make time to play with him.

I am excited for the warmer weather because that means OUTSIDE! We love outside. Parks and the zoo and going for walks and sprinklers and swimming and picnics and bug catching and gardening and digging in the dirt. That's the kind of playing I can get in to.

Here's the fact sheet on Atrion: he is 4 years old. He is 43" inches tall and weighs about 37 lbs. He is learning to read and probably would be able to if I could work with him a little more. He can work the microwave. He can shower himself. He dresses himself. He refuses to admit that he can put his shoes on or wipe his own bum because he is just lazy when it comes to those things. He spills everything. I mean it. EVERYTHING. Now, I know he gets this from me. I spill everything too. But it doesn't stop me from being annoyed with him which then turns to mom guilt late at night when I should be sleeping. When he eats, he leaves crumbs everywhere. This is from me too. Cody never has a crumb. Not even in his beard or mustache. He admitted the other day that Atrion and I probably enjoy our food a little more than he does though. We eat with vigor! Atrion's favorite thing is to have a snack (yes, anything food related he gets from me). He could be clearing his plate from dinner and say "Mom, I'm hungry. Can I have a snack?". He knows this never goes over well but it never stops him from asking. At one point, we realized that he was sneaking out of his room after bedtime and pulling one over on Grammy by claiming he was starving. The only way we found out was that his bed was covered in crumbs from the ill-gotten pb and j. Grandmas....he's got them wrapped around his finger.

His favorite question is "Why?" or "How?". "Why do I have to wear underwear?", "Why isn't it a good idea to stick my finger in Caius's eye?", "How did you know I didn't flush the toilet?", "How do you know I spilled buckets of bathwater onto the floor?". He is inquisitive as well as suspicious as to how I know every time he does something wrong.

I may have told Atrion that hobbits live in the hills by our house. And I may have told him that Ninja Turtles live under the sewer grates. And I may have told him that when he lies, the lies pop up in his eyes and I can see what he is thinking about and that's how I know when he does something wrong. Again...no judgments.