playing ball

Every day I am so thankful for the beautiful relationship the boys have with their baby sister.  Some people think that the further apart in age children are, the less likely they are to be close.  I completely disagree!  To watch Sam or Luke interact with Olivia is such a beautiful thing.  Her face lights up, arms and legs move wildly, and a huge grin appears on her face the second she receives attention from one of her boys.
It's usually Sam who pays so much attention to Olivia- he walks right up to her, sits or lays beside her, and talks to her in an animated voice, tickles her, touches her foot or her belly and he grins from ear to ear.  If I could describe the look he gives her in one word it would be joy.  His teacher, Ms. Swing, said that next to the word "adoration" in the dictionary there should be a picture of Sam looking at Olivia.  What a treasure! 
Luke enjoys Olivia too but doesn't spend quite as much time with her right now; he is pretty busy himself :)  But the past two nights have been so much fun watching them play ball together.  Luke sits across from her and gives her the ball and says "Can I have it? Throw the ball, Olivia" and then makes the sign for ball- all on his own.  He is also trying to make up signs for "Can I have" and that's so cute!  When she tosses it to the side or hugs it he just laughs and laughs, which then makes her giggle and kick her legs with excitement or clap.  Their laughter is the best sound in the world!  Luke sat for about 45 minutes with her last night and about 30 minutes with her tonight, just playing and laughing and talking to her over and over again.  Sam joined in the fun and it was so fun to watch Olivia soak in all of the attention and love.
What a perfect way to end the day, with a smile on everyone's faces!

I took some video and photos with my phone and will have to figure out how to transfer them to this blog :) 

i love mondays

I don't know why, but for some reason I really like Mondays.  Mondays to me are always a "fresh start".  On Sundays when I think about my week ahead and start my lists, I think of all of the things that I want to accomplish starting on Monday (and the list is never completed).  It goes something like this... "Starting tomorrow I'm going to start my diet/go to the gym every day/get organized/catch up on laundry/get stuff on craig's list/catch up on photos/call & connect with friends/have quality time with each child/work on house projects/etc etc."  I end up often frustrated that I don't complete near what I want to complete, and I haven't learned the secret on how to do just that. Maybe plan less so that I can execute more? Maybe be stricter with my time?
When do you decide either 1.) you need help getting organized and need a better plan or 2.) you're just not going to be as organized as you want to be and embrace that?  Often I get frustrated with my lack of focus and my fantastic ability to get distracted. Hmmm I wonder where Sam gets it from?
Even though I only accomplished a few things on my very long list today, I did some very special things on this Monday that were not necessarily on my list: had quality time with my baby girl, took dinner to a friend who recently had a baby, cheered for Luke in Spanish class after school, helped Sam with his NC project (and didn't get frustrated!), played Guess Who Extra with Luke, read books to Olivia, caught up with Kent on the phone (he's still at the studio- late night for him), emptied/filled the dish washer, and did two loads of laundry, cleared a lot off of our DVR, loaded 2 photos on Shutterfly, and filmed the boys playing ball with Olivia.  All in all, a wonderful day. 
Oh, and I made my bed and only lost my cell phone once.  Yes, a wonderful day!