might as well blog . . .

I had to get up from my attempt at a nap alongside the boys because I had to sign one more page to get our house on the market by this weekend. So since they'll be up soon and it takes me forever to calm down and fall asleep anyway, I might as well stay up and blog. :)

It's raining here which means the people putting in a new deck/porch on our rental home are not working. :( It's only really a pain when I have to let Gayla out, because the back door lets out on the second story and there are stairs on the deck leading down to the backyard, but if the deck isn't there, no stairs. In fact, they nailed a board over the door because there's a big drop off there right now! Fun, Fun, especially since Charley just figured out every step to unlocking and opening our door. He mastered the hard-to-turn knob, the safte latch on the screen door, the tiny doorknob and almost the deadbolt!! How are we ever going to keep this kid inside?! :) He knows how the deadbolt works, he just can't quite turn the keys so we're going to have to start locking the door and hiding the keys because he's also pretty quick about grabbing a chair to reach anything he wants on the kitchen counters. He hasn't tried climbing onto the counters yet, but I'm sure that's next. It all started when he wanted to watch, then help us cook. I guess that's just next in the path of a growing toddler, endless exploration, with a dash of danger! :) Of course, he wouldn't be a boy without the danger part :) I keep thinking that it will me a miracle if he makes it to age 5. Oh the countless moms who have said something like that, yet, somehow, most make it and are just fine. If he get's too ambitious, we will start with discipline, but might just put the baby gates back up, although he knocked one of those down the other day too. :)

One thing he's doing a great job at is playing with his little brother. Charley loves being a big brother and is very good at it. He brings Ben baby toys from the correct bin and offers them to him lovingly and gently. It's very cute to watch. Then, Ben inches towards them and grabs them to suck on and play with. For me, the cutest part of the whole scenario is the tone of Charley's voice when he's talking to Ben. It completely changes . . . it's sweeter and gentler, and oh so cute!! He is usually a very kind big brother, but this morning he decided it would be fun to sit on Ben. Ahhh! :) No, Ben was fine, but it just means I have to keep a closer eye on them while they're playing and keep disciplining Charley for being too rough. It's a constant battle especially with Andrew (the 20 mo. old that I babysit a couple of days a week). We're working on it, but I think it's the age. More about that later, I've been meaning to post a discipline blog for awhile, but haven't gotten to it yet. Coming soon though : )

Well, I think the kids are finally awake, so gotta run :)