It's the little things

Yesterday I took the boys to the barber shop to get haircuts. We walked in with perfect timing, the man before us was walking out and no one was waiting! Andrew began taking off his coat before climbing into the barber's chair. He said "Sure is snowing out there." I couldn't help but chuckle how he was making small talk about the weather with the barber just like an adult would. It was snowing here yesterday! Just flurries but still! I wasn't really ready for snow, it is really cold - winter-like, where did fall go?

Both Andrew and Carson did so well for their haircuts. The past few haircuts with Carson have been a struggle, he would cry and grab at me. This time he watched Andrew and I kept talking to him about being a big boy like Andrew and getting his haircut. Of course anything Andrew does these days, Carson wants to do too. "Me too, me too!" Carson didn't want to sit on the buster seat in the barber chair, so I held him. He was great. Quiet, held pretty still, just didn't like the tickley hair in his face.

Today as I took Andrew to preschool, I enjoyed our conversation. It started out by Andrew telling me "When I get big I am going to be a teacher." He wants to be the teacher at the class he goes to. Then we saw the school bus picking up a neighbor friend and Andrew wondered "But the teacher won't know my name when I go to kindergarten." I told him that when he goes to kindergarten they will know his name, they might ask him his name and he can tell them Andrew Kauffman. Then we started talking about first, middle and last names. He wasn't really following, so I told him what his first middle and last names were. Then I said, "James, which is that?" He kind of "uhmmed" around and then said "James is when your bad." I guess when he is in trouble, he does hear Andrew James! from me. I got a good laugh out of this comment too.

Carson is having some trouble going to sleep some nights. We will do his routine and put him to bed. Sometimes he goes to sleep fine, other times he will be quiet for a while but then start crying. We go in and hold him in the chair, snuggle with him and sing songs. He is starting to sing some of these songs with us. Then we lay him back down and usually he is fine and goes to sleep.

I remember last year at this time what a struggle sleep was with him. We would have to hold him until he fell asleep and hope he stayed asleep once we laid him down. For me he would really fight off going to sleep. He would push away, arch his back and cry. I think part of this was we were still trying to figure out his milk protein intolerance and reflux as well as he just could not get himself to sleep. I would dread nap/bed time because of the struggle with him for sleep and dread even more the times he woke up during the night upset. He was almost inconsolable at times.

Now I like going in with him. He is so sweet. He curls up into your arms, wants to snuggle in with the blanket. Enjoys the songs, sometimes singing along or just quietly listens. Then we ask him if he is ready to lay back down and he replies his sweet little "ya" behind his pacifier. Just precious.

The other night I was reading books to the boys before going to bed. Carson was sitting in my lap and Andrew beside me. Carson kept turning his head up towards me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. When I kiss the boys, I tend to give them an exaggerated smooch with a loud smack, just to be silly. Both Andrew and Carson try to imitate that smack but they make the smack noise with their tongue on the roof of their mouth instead of their lips!

It's these little things that make my day. I love being a mom to these two little guys.