Cutest things ever!

The other day, Hank was screaming his head off for his own supper while I was trying to fix a meal for all of us in the kitchen. Hank could see both Quint and I, but this was not enough. I asked Quint to go talk to him or play with him or give him a toy, or just tell him its alright. Quint calmly sat down beside Hank's bouncy seat, took Hank's hand in his and said, "It's alright, Thomas." I nearly cried that was so cute!! This surprised Hank for about 5 seconds of quiet. Then Quint said, "brother cwying" again to me. Like I can't hear him... I said, try a toy. Hand them to him one at a time. And Quint DID IT! He handed him about three toys in a row, each good for about 5 seconds of quiet, but still, it helped ME!

Outside today, I had Hank laying on two thick blankets on the ground while Quint and I played in the leaves, pulled weeds, whacked things with sticks, played with bubbles, etc. After a while, Quint went over to Hank, carefully crawled over him and kissed his forehead. Then he gently laid his body down on Hanks, squeezed Hank's shoulder and sat back up. Hank smiled, giggled, and kicked his feet (a sign of contentment for Hank). Then Quint saw I was watching and said, "kiss and hug brother". Sooooooo pweshus!

Hank has started reaching for my face when I am close enough. Sometimes he pats gently, but other times he grabs that thin, floppy neck skin of mine and twists like a demon!! But mostly he's smiling and coo-ing while he lovingly does this. I still think it's sweet.

Hank is all smiles

Here's my Smiley Boy at Nannie's request.

New first for Quint

Well, it's official. Quint can finally get out of his crib. The loud thump woke us all up this morning, but there was no crying. He just came to find us. This only comes about a year after we expected it, so I'm kinda relieved that he's learning to be brave and try new things. You just watch, I'll REALLY regret saying that shortly.

Clean a living room in 4.5 minutes

This video shows how you can make a room look remarkably better in just a few minutes. This is neatening as opposed to cleaning. Cleaning involves removing dirt. Neatening is what you do to either restore sanity, or start to actually clean. But a quick neatening job can make you feel better so you can maybe tackle the next room in a similar fashion, and then maybe the kitchen, and the satisfaction of seeing one thing done can just snowball until you've got the whole house neat or clean. Or until the kids wake up from their nap...