These Two

These two.

I love them and they drive me crazy.

While you {and, what feels like, the rest of the world} are blessed with children who wake up between 7:00 and 8:00, my firstborn has for his entire life felt that 5:30-6:15 was a good time to wake up. He also feels that it's a good time to go into his brother's room and get him up, too.

Four little feet running into my room. The dark, cold, quiet of my room.

And then they're tossing their blankies in my face, elbowing and kicking and punching my boobs, and saying, "Applejuice! Waffles! Sausage!" "I wanna' watch Wild Kratts!" "NOOO! Toy Story!" "NOOOOO! Wild Kratts!"

You get the picture.

My mornings are anything but peaceful.

They're wild, crazy hooligans.

I love them more than life itself. I cover them with prayer every single day. I would die for them.

But good Lord they could not have gotten out of the car in that blessed carpool line fast enough this morning.

Every day is filled with moments of sweet hugs and kisses, precious moments, laughter. And every day has not-so-sweet moments, too. Moments of, "Hurry up! We're late!" And moments of time-outs. Moments of I'm-trying-to-get-my-work-done-and-chase-a-career-and-mommyhood. Moments where I lose my patience.

I want to remember these days because they're hard. And good. They're challenging, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating. They're also rewarding and beautiful.

Last night, after a long, long day, Nathan and Jack hugged each other. "I love my brother!" Nathan shouted. "Brother," Jack said as he nuzzled into Nathan. No punches. No pulling of hair. No fighting over a toy. I guess they'd exhausted all of that from the day.

Just a sweet moment that said, "It's okay, Mommy. We really are best friends. We really do love each other. We just like giving you a run for your money. It's extremely entertaining."

We're messy and loud--occasionally clean and loud. But mostly messy and loud. We're imperfect. We're figuring out life together. I'm so grateful to have these two buckaroos along for the adventure.