Sweet brothers...

Gage is starting to occasionally see the benefit of the TV, hence we have more shots of the boys together on the couch lately. As long as Gage isn't falling off of the couch--which, I'm sorry to say, has happened a couple of times--Mommy is happy with the momentary opportunity to work in the kitchen or do any other necessary chore that is made easier without one (or two) sweet lichen on her legs.

So I learned a valuable lesson recently: When you go to buy the kids something, don't choose two different colors. Give them one less thing to fight over, and get the same color, for Pete's sake! Forget the sentimental notion that the blue one goes better with Gage's eyes and the green one is more fitting for Gavin's. But then--even if I had bought two blue chairs--I can't help but wonder if they would just want whichever one was not theirs in the moment, because that's how kids are, after all.

Here's just one more shot of Gage playing "peek-a-boo," which ruins me every time. Today he was playing it with some of my friends between my legs. I love how much fun kids can have doing the simplest---and most repetitive--things.

Is he cute or what?! I can't believe that he'll be 17 months in just a few days! It's gone by too fast, which reminds me to savor every moment right now.

And this guy's a little giant! He's so tall...and coordinated and active and challenging and wonderful and funny and adventurous and fastidious and conniving... How can he be so many things all at once? But aren't we all?! Just a big, long list of paradoxes. For example, you'll never walk into a three-year-old's room that is cleaner and more well organized, really impressively under control. But, on the other hand, Gavin is also in a really destructive stage and is often out of control.

We're not usually all of one thing and none of another, are we? I'm learning this more and more...about myself and about my kids. We are complex, and God has made us uniquely and intentionally so. What a wonderful and profound mystery.