'brother loves me.'

here is what is good. these two together. yes, they sure do have their squabbles. lucas is living up to 'pesky' younger brother and certainly giving caleb some frustrations! i have to laugh though (most of the time i am able to hide it) as i give caleb the words so he doesn't hit lucas (and he's gotten a lot better about just moving his body and his toys away and using his words first, before he hits lucas now) but lucas wants to do everything big brother does. his face lights up when caleb is in the room. and caleb really is so gentle and sweet with lucas (most of the time) lucas can always cheer caleb up when caleb's in a mood. today we had a one hour melt down with caleb. in between tears lucas crawled over on top of caleb and started kissing him, or well, lucas' version of kisses. he put his mouth right on caleb's and smiled big. this made caleb smile big back. and the tears were forgotten about until lucas had to go down for his nap and then my last exhausted attempt to get caleb to come out of his spiraled melt down was a call to nani where she sang kookaburra on repeat until caleb's eyes started to drift shut. so i'm kind of going on a tangent here, but yes. these two together are so good for one another.

lucas is so good for caleb. and caleb is so good for lucas. i think they must have known in heaven they'd be together down here on earth.

it has been really hard over here with caleb. for the past few days his 'sad and frustrated' moods have been so frequent and so unexpected that we just never know what will cause a melt down. he has so many good moments in the day, but so many hard ones too...and the hard ones seem to just spiral out of control more than usual as of late. (do they get 3 yr molars?) i'm pretty close to calling the dr just to chat and see how much is normal two year old behavior and if we're doing everything we can to help him. the littlest things cause a melt down and while we have strategies that work for him, i feel so emotionally drained that i didn't even want to get out of bed this morning. i know work is causing me to stress more and i think that is affecting the day so i am trying to let work stay out of my mind while i am home with the boys. night times have been wakeful for lucas. 3 teeth are coming in so we are choosing to wait until they are in until we can help him learn to self soothe, he's only nursing once really at night, but dave is in there a lot. i can't even tell you how much since i am sleeping through it :( probably 2-3 times. needless to say all the day time melt downs and night time wakefuls are causing exhaustion in the parenting department. i'm dreaming of a date away with my hubby...of a weekend away just the two of us....it is the little things in life. moving on though...

this is a bad quality picture, and it really doesn't do justice to the moment, but it still shows the love these little boys have for each other. they make life better just by the way they are with one another. they have such different personalities. lucas is a mover. caleb is a talker. not much can make lucas get upset. caleb can get upset at the drop of a hat, but that sensitivity spreads onto his little brother and he is so gentle and concerned with him. they delight in one another. i am so glad they will have each other through life. they bless us daily and i'm so glad i get to go through these daily ups and downs with such a wonderful and supportive husband.

Happy Wednesday!!