-16 degrees and other things

As promised, I finally got our cute picture of Matthew and Mason. I always think that Matthew is so cute all dressed to go outside. Not that this is what I picked for him to wear for a picture, it's just that we were getting ready to go somewhere. And Mason, as I said, looks just like a guy that works on the railroad, at least in the old days. I don't know what guys look like now that work on the railroad. And me, well, I would have rather not been in the picture, but someone had to hold the two together and Kai wasn't going to do it.
Who gave the weather permission to get down to 16 below? Holy cow was it freezing last night! I came out this morning to the kitchen and looked out our window at the thermometer and said, "Where did the red stuff go?" Yeah, the mercury or whatever it is that is in that thermometer was like near to the bottom. Made me pretty upset. Oh well. One of these days I will be writing about how blasted hot it is. I just can't be happy I guess.

I've decided that sometimes Caroline (my sister) and I are on the same wave length even though we hardly talk to each other and we live like 500+ miles apart. But as I was reading her post tonight she wrote about the little things. And what have I been thinking about? Yes, the little things. Maybe not exactly the same little things that she is thinking about, but still. I was just thinking about how we get so excited over the little things our kids do. I suppose it is a good thing to get excited over. Like this morning when I went to get Mason out of bed he started coughing a little bit. Well, as Matthew has been sick and everytime I heard him cough (which meant he was going to throw up) I would shove the "puke bowl" in his face. So, when Matthew heard Mason cough he ran out to the living room and got the puke bowl and said, "Here Mason." I just smiled and said, "Oh, he is just coughing, he's ok." Still he insisted, so I shoved it under his chin like I did Matthew and then I said, "He's ok, thank you." Matthew took it back and said, "You're welcome." I have noticed lately that if I leave Matthew alone long enough, or maybe if I am busy doing something else long enough he will start to play with Mason. It is the cutest thing to watch ever! Matthew can get him to laugh so easily. In fact the other night at the dinner table, Matthew wasn't even really doing anything but Mason started laughing hysterically at him and then of course Matthew started to put on a show for him which made him laugh even more. It's so cute.

Also, another little thing that I have noticed, again with kids. Their laughter can ease a lot of tension. For those of you who know my nephew Simon, he has got the greatest laugh and he laughs so easily when you tickle him. Poor kid will probably be tortured to death cause everyone loves to hear him laugh. But then the other day when Matthew was sick, Kai came home and started playing with him. After a minute I thought, "You know what? I think that is the first time he has laughed today." It made it a lot more joyful throughout the house after that. Another instance is when I was just stressed out or having a bad day or something I was making one of them laugh and it felt like all my stress just was released. So I guess what they say is true..."Laughter is the best medicine." Even if you aren't always the one that is laughing.

Sorry to bore those who read this. It has just been some thoughts that I have been thinking about and I guess I wanted to share them or record them.