Tarantulas and My Best New Year's Kiss EVER

Oh, the depth of a brother's love. And, the sweetness of a four year old child. Both are amazing to me. The other day the family was driving to Applebees to grab a bite to eat and I overheard Caleb telling Jonah that he didn't like going to Applebees because he was afraid there would be spiders in there.

I, of course, being the Super Mom that I am, put on my proverbial cape and responded, "Oh, Caleb. There are no spiders allowed in Applebees. Isn't that right, dad?" looking expectantly to Mike to help sooth our nervous son.

Before Mike could respond, Jonah said, "It's OK Caleb, anytime you are afraid, you just tell me and I will get those spiders! I will make them go away. Even big ones like tarantulas. I will GET THEM brother!" Mike and I looked at each other and our hearts just melted at how sincere he was about protecting his brother from those spiders. It was so, so sweet. I wish I could have just bottled that moment in time. Truly precious.

On to New Year's...as we approached New Year's Eve this year I was really bummed. I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Well, scratch that. I had a great party invitation but it required finding overnight childcare and additional childcare for the day after if any recuperating would be required. And, with a husband in the restaurant industry, that leaves him out. Which means, that left me out of the uber fun par-tay. No one that I invited over to hang was able to come and so I finally resigned myself to a night at home with the monkeys.

However, a bright idea hit just in the nick of time and I found an awesome spot to go and celebrate with the kids. Think Chuck E. Cheese but if cool people made it- so, overstuffed leather chairs and a Starbucks counter with food that actually tastes good. So, the boys and I headed over there and played glow-in-the-dark mini golf, ate pizza, played arcade games, dodge ball in the indoor gym, rode plasma cars and toasted the New Year at midnight! OK- so it was the Eastern time zone, but who was counting? The most fun they had BY FAR was dancing to "I like to move it move it" while the air blowers blew confetti everywhere! Then they gathered it all up again so they could see it blown all over again! It was a blast.

They were home and asleep by about 10:30 and I quietly welcomed the new year in our time zone watching Kathy Griffin curled up under a cozy blanket. When the clock struck 12:00, I relished two soft, gentle, sleepy head kisses planted directly upon the heads of my darling boys. Truly, my best New Year's kisses EVER. And I have to say, I did appreciate that I didn't have to wonder if I'd be getting them! ha ha

This week I was reminded of two things that had completely slipped my mind. So, I thought I'd blog them before they left again. My beautiful cousin, Cassie came to visit this weekend and we had a good laugh about Caleb watching the Diego Christmas special last year well into April of this year and calling it "Diego Critmas" "I wanna watch Diego Critmas mama!" It was so funny. I think he may have a little "Critmas" obsession! He was SO upset when we took our tree down on Saturday that we had to go out and buy a very small tree (fake of course) to put up in the boys' room so he wouldn't be so sad. So, we'll see how long that needs to stay up. Any bets?

My friend Joy, from Los Angeles called and reminded me that the boys used to call hotels "hotowns" which brings to mind a whole other set of humorous images that I'm not touching in this G - PG rated blog! *LOL* OK- I think I have blogged enough for one night...time to go see what those wild little apes are up to!

Whoever you are, whatever you are up to, Welcome to a New Year...I hope it is amazing!