Tyler's back!

For the past...oh, 3 or 4 weeks Tyler has been under the weather. I didn't realize how much it was affecting his personality at the time, but I couldn't help but notice how whiny he was. There were days when he literally just moaned "mama mama mama mama" over and over until I thought I would pull my hair out. Then a couple days ago, it was like he woke up a new boy. He had a smile on his face when he got out of bed, and just continued to bring joy to the household all day. Brian and I both immediately noticed the change, and even now, a few days later, we keep saying, "wow, it's great to have Tyler back!" Right now he just told me, "I stand righ' here an' talka you" in the cutest voice ever. I forget he just turned 2 sometimes by the way he talks. He even ordered his own grilled cheese last night at Red Robin, and the waitress had no trouble understanding, "I wanna grill cheese." Although, he refused to say please. Working on that! Anyway, since he's finally in good health, I hurried him over to the pediatrician to get his flu shot. He didn't even whimper or wince. As I told a friend yesterday, our kids ain't no pansies. I think he had his eye on the lollipop. :)

Speaking of Red Robin, Colby almost surprised us by departing from his tried and true order of mac & cheese. He was on the verge of ordering grilled cheese, but decided at the last minute to get one more mac & cheese so he "could say good-bye." And he literally did. We'll see if he can bear to abandon his cherished mac & cheese next time we go. I'm betting not; he's a pretty sentimental guy.

And lest you think the only thing I have to blog about is my kids, I shall tell you of our date last Friday. The boys stayed over with my parents and Brian and I drove to Santa Barbara for a Chris Tomlin concert. It was outdoors at the Santa Barbara Bowl, which is a really unique and beautiful venue- the ideal location to praise God and contemplate His greatness. In keeping with the "How Great Is Our God" theme, speaker Louis Giglio gave an awesome talk about how awesome God is by using the universe and stars to show his point. Did you know that if the earth were the size of a golf ball, the largest *star* we know of would be the diameter of two golden gate bridges laid end to end? And that's one star in one galaxy in all the vast universe. Amazing. And if you want to hear something even cooler, check out this video-