Sweet Brothers

The boys fight alot, but they are also so sweet to each other. Today, Luke told Ryan, "I love you bro." And then he told me and Greg, "I love Ryan." They then spent part of the morning chasing each other around to give the other one a hug. They also went to the playroom together holding hands.


Other things that have been going on:

Ryan saw President Obama on TV the other day and said, "That's Obama." Luke then said, "he's a present." I had tried to teach them during the inauguration that Obama is our new president; however, Luke thought I was talking about presents (which he very much loves).

As I've mentioned before, we've been having bedtime battles lately. Greg and I have both decided that we are no longer going to be manipulated (mostly by Luke) into going into their bedroom every 5 minutes or sitting in their bedroom for an hour and a half until the fall asleep. As a result, we decided we would let them cry it out. Here is a recap of the last few days.

• The first night Luke screamed for about 30 minutes and then he was tired enough for me to put him back to bed and he fell fast asleep.
• The second night he threw another fit but we did not go into their room. Ryan came downstairs and kept saying "bro." I took Ryan back upstairs and started to get a little nervous that something was wrong with Luke because Ryan was visibly upset about him. When I went into the room, Luke had cried himself into complete exhaustion and had fallen asleep with his head on his bed, but still standing on the floor. I put him in bed and he then slept all night.
• The third night, Ryan and Luke decided they would have a party. We went up once and had to turn their light off. We didn't hear anything from them for almost an hour (thinking success, it worked, their asleep). At about 9, I heard beeping and knew it was from the telephone in our bedroom. When I went upstairs, I found both boys in our bed (heads on pillows and under the covers) watching TV and playing with the phone.
• Last night, the boys came out once and tried to pull the same stunt again but were quickly caught. Luke then went sleep, but Ryan screamed for an hour. I gave in with him because he had taken a really late nap and he doesn't normally act like that. I let him come downstairs with me while we finished a movie and he fell asleep in my arms.
• Tonight: no problem with Luke (who was the problem to begin with), but Ryan threw another major tantrum. Greg and I took turns holding the door knob so he couldn't come out, but with him screaming "open the door" on the other side. After only 30-40 minutes, he is asleep. Sounds cruel, I know. But it is also cruel punishment for us to not get them to bed-now everyone can wake up happy. I'll keep you posted on how the bedtime saga continues.

We are all totally bummed that Nana and Grandad couldn't visit this weekend. They had plane tickets and bags packed to come, but Nana got the flu and was uninvited. We all wanted to see them, but we (and the rest of Colorado) are not interested in getting the horrible flu virus going around Lubbock (which hits people whether they got the flu shot or not). Fortunately, Spring Break is coming up soon and we will visit for a whole week. The boys might actually stay a week longer by themselves because Greg is going to be out of town the entire following week and this will allow me to still work my normal schedule and not have to worry about getting them to their school.

By the way-I still have a job. My position was saved for at least another school year. We'll see what happens this time next year-but the registration fee for preschool will not go to waist.

Today we took the boys to the school musical. It was Footloose so there was some hope that they would be entertained enough to behave. They did great the first act - Luke fell asleep and Ryan was mostly interested (in the show and his animal crackers). But by the time intermission was over, Luke was awake and Ryan wanted to get on stage so bad that he started to throw a fit when it was time to sit down. We took that as a cue to get out - but it was a fun and different outing for us and them.

Nothing major is coming up this week-hopefully I'll have nothing out of the ordinary to report. Greg will be gone part of the week and I'm making about 3 dozen cookies for Olivia's 6th birthday party on Saturday (she wants rainbows). Other than that-things will hopefully be quiet. Have a great week.