Thank You for Small Things (all three!)

It's been a rocky week since all three of the kids have been sick, one right after the other, so it just dragged on and on.  Last night was the first time I slept through the night in a week.  I can't think of a more perfect time to be going away with Bray for the weekend (more on that tomorrow). 

But through the fevers and late nights, I see and hear the sweetest things:

1.  The kids, especially the boys, have lately wanted us to either pick them up or hold their hand, even just to walk in the other room.  "Hold da hand mommy," "up, up, mommy."  I love their version of words right now.  It has it's own toddler spin and I know those days will be few.  Last night while trying to sneak out of their room, I bumped the baby gate against the door.  Both the boys started repeating, "hiddagate, ding-dong." (Hit the gate for those of you not conversant in toddler-ese.)

2.  They each tell me what they want to pray for before meal times.  The little lady never ceases to start with "mommy work, daddy work, Mimi work" - she dutifully prays us off to work each day.  Ahhh.  Ever since Easter with the whole family, we often need to list each cousin and aunt and uncle by name.  And of course the bulls and cows every single prayer.  Lately we've added Doo-Dah. 

3.  I've started making up stories as I prepare dinner to keep them engaged (and out of trouble).  So they come into the kitchen and sit in their chairs and I ask them three favorite things and make a story up out of it - yesterday the favorite things were animal, color, and friend.  The eldest's were giraffe, blue, and John (his uncle!), the girly-girl's were bull, pink, and Emmy (from school), and the baby's were elephant, green, and Doo-Dah (the duck).  So we had an whole story about the kids sailing on a ship to a magic island where there was a blue giraffe named John that could swim and a green elephant named Doo-Dah that could fly and a pink bull named Emmy that could play music out of his horns.  They were entranced. 

4.  They are BIG fans of naked.  The past few nights we've let them run around between changing for bed.  So the pull ups and clothes come off and around and around they go.  I swear, shedding those few items of clothing makes them Olympic runners.  They run like the wind.  And laugh and scream about being naked.  Once one of them is naked, the other two are ripping off clothes and pull-ups like mad people.  Laughing the whole time.  It's the devil trying to get their pajamas on after that though because they're so ecstatic to be free of their threads. 

5.  Even though they're 2 1/2, they still love to hug and kiss.  We still getting running greetings at the door, and up they go, arms and legs wrapped around my whole body, in a full body welcome wrap.  Utter delight.