oh brother!

first. happy birthday mackadoo.

second. halloween was so nice. we went to our first village function...a chili dinner at the club house. (ps...can you believe colorado?!? it took less than two days to melt away over 2 feet of snow. like i said just when you think you understand weather patterns...move here). then we went to a party and trick or treating in our old neighborhood. thank you so much smiths for a wonderful evening!! last year we tried this same shot. i love that sweet pea prefers this position in almost all group shots...he is definitely his own person...

but that is not the point at all of this post. the point is, somewhere along the way my sweet little beans became his own person too. i blame myself, really.

i can still feel little beans warm and cuddly in my arms. like it was yesterday (and it very well could have been yesterday). somewhere along the way we were trying to teach sweet pea a lesson about having care for little ones and being responsible for and around them. like helping a little guy zip his coat, or teaching him how to play with train tracks instead of destroying them. helping a brother out when you push him on the ground. sharing your snacks. all this time we were trying to emphasize the new feelings sweet pea was developing in terms of empathy and compassion. AND IT TOTALLY BACKFIRED ON US. sweet pea has been influencing our younger son. suddenly there's these two little guys who have totally bonded and have become this....team. brothers. who look to each other first for support and help each other. and play together. and read together. and totally feed off each other when one is naughty. and root for each other when mom is trying to take away the sneaky candy they are attempting to hide. i kind of feel like we're not the ringers on the team anymore....we're the last ones picked for the game. our arms are a little empty, but our hearts are definitely full. amen.