Leap Day Love

In honor of Leap Day, I'm going to blog, since it's a rare occasion these days and it's been forever since I posted anything!! :)

Today we enjoyed beautiful weather, so rare for a February day in the Midwest - low 60s, SUNNY (seriously, sun?? I hadn't pulled out my sunglasses in months), and very windy. We spent the morning at a park for playgroup and then after school spent more time outside, playing in the back yard. February is my worst month for taking pictures of the kids, partly because we're cooped up inside so much of the time and it's so dark and gray. 

But today I had no excuse, so I pulled out the camera and started shooting. And offered a peanut m&m to them if they would sit for a few minutes and actually take some pictures. 

I love these boys.

This wonderful day made up for all of last week when Eli had the worst croup and had a few nights with terrible coughing and bad breathing (and sleepless nights for all of us). Or the fact that Charlie has been throwing monster tantrums and fits every day for the last few weeks. Eli's OT therapist told me I shouldn't be afraid to bribe. So I tried that yesterday and today and it worked. 

"Boys, you can have a small treat if you get in your car seats quickly and happily."

They did it. Hustled into the garage and into their car seats multiple times. Eli doesn't need a bribe, but I'm happy to reward him too. 

That was 100x better than Monday when it was time to leave for occupational therapy and Charlie screamed and wailed on the floor for 20 minutes, making us very late and me extremely frustrated. Or when he screamed and wailed on the floor of the checkout aisle at the grocery store while I paid for our groceries and people tried not to run him over. Now that Charlie doesn't nap, I'm realizing it's a baddddd idea to run errands anytime after 4 p.m. because he is way too tired to be rational and any little thing will set him off. Sorry Charlie, but ramming our grocery cart into the man in front of us in line is not okay :) ohhhhhh he did not like that. 

Tantrums make my blood boil when they happen every.single. day. Threes. Gotta love them.

So bribery it is. M&Ms, gum, a fruit leather, piece of popcorn, whatever is exciting to them. Whatever it takes. Mother of the year right here. :)

Enough of that negative stuff though. On the whole, I'm really enjoying my kids' ages and phases. Charlie talks more and more every day and is really funny. He is constantly asking why some cars have their lights on during the day and others don't. Charlie is mainly potty trained now, but prefers to poop at preschool and not so much at home. So we need to work on that some more, I guess. 

Eli has gotten a little better with his potty issues, but still has an accident a few times a week. Ugh. He has been very focused learning to count by 10s, so we do a lot of that in the car when we're driving around. He is also building more and more complex towers, pyramids, structures, etc. with blocks and whatever other materials he can find in the house and then sets up his army guys all around them.

The boys play fairly well together and love to pretend and make up stories about pirates or ninjas or spy cats or Eli's many imaginary dogs. They climb over the family room couches and pretend they are riding horses. And then tumble off and go back to being pirates. They have plenty of fights and tears and competitive moments. But I think they are pretty lucky to have each other!