caring {&} loving {&} giving

We have a rather lengthy bedtime routine {for Coleman and Caden} in our house. While I love my little guys dearly, I dread bedtime. After dinner, baths, brushing teeth and jammies we read. Jim initiates baths while I finish up dishes. He usually asks which I'd prefer; I generally opt for dishes. Reading is the one part of bedtime that I really do enjoy- I love books and I love to read to them. Then, it's {another} drink of water and lights out. Since we never figured out how to get these two to sleep {and ruined them as babies} we lay with them until they fall asleep then slip out of their bedroom on tip toes as to not wake them up. I'm sure we do everything exactly how Supernanny and every other child expert says NOT to put children to bed. We know this, but it works for us.

One last thing we do before they fade off to sleep is tell a story- something that Coleman reminds us to do every, single night. Jim is the expert- making up the most creative stories usually re-capping something that happened in our day. Caden likes horse stories {of course} and Coleman is all about StarWars. He LOVES StarWars- the movies, the light sabers, the thousands of little Legos that he puts together on a daily basis. Building perfectly symmetrical ships are his absolute obsession these days. The other night, we started telling a story and Caden screamed, "I told you I don't ever want to hear a StarWars story again and that's it." When it something that he doesn't want- he throws a fit {still} and makes it be known. He is one strong-willed little spirit who is teaching me patience. Beyond frustrated, I said {trying not to raise my voice and cause a complete meltdown} to Caden, "This is not about you. The world is not about Caden ALL the time." Surprisingly, he didn't respond but Coleman did.

I will never forget what he said in the calmest, most matter-of-fact tone as if he'd read it in a book.


"Caden- this world is about caring and loving and giving. That's all."

Oh, our sweet little guy- how did we get so lucky? Four boys with four totally different {and very distinct} personalities that we love.