Kurt

Brody was helping me make a list of classmates to invite to his 5th birthday party. He had the genius idea of going through his class valentines to see who we'd forgotten. He ran to get them and came back saying, I know! We forgot Kurt! And he showed me the valentine signed by Kurt. He's been learning to read for a few months and can work his way through books with simple words, but I couldn't help being extremely proud of him at this moment.

*mama...*

The boys are supposed to be upstairs sleeping right now. If they're not sleeping, they're supposed to be having quiet time alone in their rooms. Instead, I hear running, jumping, talking, singing. Clearly neither of them is asleep or will be going to sleep. And clearly, they're not alone in their rooms anymore either. As long as they stay upstairs and I get quiet time downstairs, I'm fine with them playing together.

But then one calls out to me. I hear a whisper from the top of the stairs *mama...* Then I hear, a little louder but still in a whisper voice *Mama!* I respond, "That better not be one of my boys calling for me when he's supposed to be sleeping." The whisper responds *mama, I just want to talk to you for a second.* It's two year old Logan, and the fact that he put together that sentence is pretty suprising. I'm not impressed enough to go upstairs, but it was worth walking to the office to type up a blog post about it while they continue to wrestle and play upstairs.

Heaven

One of the best aspects of the Harris Teeter grocery store is the balloon corral, where kids are welcomed to take a balloon on the way out of the store. Brody and Logan know the balloon corral well. At the grocery on Friday, Logan chose a red balloon and picked a yellow balloon for Brody. We were visiting with the Weavers following Uncle Rick's death and hanging out in Rick's log cabin. Within a few minutes, Brody's balloon caught a rough spot on the wood and popped, startling everyone. Logan's balloon was more resilient and made it until nighttime when we were loading up the car to go back to the hotel. Logan let it slip from his hand and up it went, through the tree branches and into the darkness of the sky. I told the boys that it was going up to heaven to see Uncle Rick. Logan pondered that while Brody said "and it's going to see the guy who's birthday is on Christmas!" Yes, the balloon is going up to see Jesus *and* Uncle Rick.

I was taking the boys back to the hotel myself that night so Jacob could visit with his cousins a little longer. Brody noticed that with Dada gone, he was the oldest boy and took the role of Mama's protector very seriously. As we were going into the hotel and walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor, Brody said "I'm going to go first to make sure it's safe." And he ran up ahead to check around each corner. When we made it back to the room, he used the key to open the door and held it open for Logan and me. He's going to make some little girl very happy one day.

The Bodyguard

Brody places an angry bird in his doorway every night to scare away anything bad that might come and try to get him. We have a house full of boy stuff, supported by a comic-reading Dad. We have spiderman, batman, ironman, wolverine, superman... you name the superhero and we have it in abundance in our home. But Brody puts all of his trust in those angry birds. I have to admit, there is something creepy about seeing the bird in his doorway when I come to bed. Maybe he isn't so crazy in his selection after all.