The past couple of weeks...

The face Collin gives me when I say, "Smile!" 

Both boys have had bad bouts with sickness. Weston was first for about 5 days. Just a really high fever and lots of fussiness. Collin got it for a day, but miracle of miracles, was fine by morning. However, it came back the next week to put him out for 3 long, miserable days. I blame myself. He had been driving me NUTS the week before. I mean, I won't go into details, but I had about the most unkind feelings toward that boy as I've ever had in his almost 4 years of life. He was throwing constant, entitled tantrums. Demanding and whining and just acting nasty. From sun up to sun down. I wanted to sell him to the Indians. After a really hard week with him, I could not even handle peeking in on him Sunday night when he was asleep. We do it every night, and usually that's the time where your heart melts and you think, "Oh, but look how sweet he is". And you almost wish they were awake so you could snuggle them. Nope, I walked in with Travis, took one look at him, and nearly shuddered. I know that sounds horrible, and it is! But it's the truth. He had burned just about every bridge with me. I laid in bed, almost in tears and thought, "HOW? How can I wake up and do it again tomorrow?" 

Well, guess what happened in the morning?? He woke up terrible sick. And not really even the whiny, needy kind of sick. He just watched T.V., burning up between doses of Tylenol, occasionally wanting to be held. He was docile and sweet and so so sick. By Wednesday night, he was having hot and cold sweats. He almost seemed delirious, waking up through the night, so thirsty. He hadn't even hardly anything in 3 days.

By then, I was regretting my previous feelings, with fervor. I felt so bad for him. I was starting to get really worried. I laid in bed Wednesday night, thinking if he didn't wake up any better, I'd take him to the doctor. I would fast ...I would do anything for him to get better. I prayed and prayed that he'd get well. I told Heavenly Father how sorry I was. How much I wanted the "old" Collin back. Just let him be terrible and nasty to me again. As long as his body didn't scorch with heat, he could throw all the tantrums he wanted. I was truly repentant. 

And Thursday morning, Collin woke up better.

I was beside myself, happy. 

 I know it sounds crazy. Heavenly Father doesn't make our kids sick to teach us lessons. 

But maybe he does. It was certainly a lesson I needed that week. 

And it worked.

On his last sick day, he wanted to take a picture to send to Dad at work.

This might have been something that happened during the "naughty" week of Collin's. I don't see everything that happens between these two. But when Collin comes crying to me that Weston bit his bum, it doesn't take much coaxing to find out the reason why. And the reason why, is always that Weston has suffered some sort of abuse at the hand of his older brother.

He'll only take so much, you know.

And he doesn't have much at his disposal to fight back with.

I hope Collin learns this early.

At any rate, the Spiderman band-aid made everything better.

When Collin was sick, they took baths in different tubs, since when one was having a bath, the other just HAD to have his too. 

Weston was done with his, but he was not going to be left out of the fun! 

He seems to have thought a horsey ride was being offered. :)

Someone's teething. Canines on their way!

Collin's friend, Elizabeth, came over to play one afternoon.

I went to check on them and found them both in bed, playing with the blankets. This is will only be humorous for a limited time, Collin.

On Sunday, during Sacrament meeting, Collin fell asleep in my lap!!! Seriously, people, this happened. And he wasn't sick, or drugged. I was reading the Friend to him. Apparently the sedative effects of reading church materials is not lost on children. :)

This cracked me up.

We were at the bounce house place and these two boys walked by us. Collin immediately turned to me and asked, "Mom, are those boys Jefferson's friends?"

Haha! I guess when you have that "look" you must know Jefferson! :)

Weston's very fine {bed head}.

He has now turned the corner from being fine with getting his hair cut, to likening it to getting his arm chopped off. I really don't know what the contributing factors were. But now it takes both Trav and me to cut his hair.

Thus, it got pretty long before his latest trim. 

Cute stuff.