An evening with two of my favorite boys.

The Alford boys are three very special boys and I love keeping them. William, Henry, and Andrew always make me smile and they are a joy to "hang out" with. So, when their mom, Stephanie, called me about a month ago asking me to keep them tonight, I was more than willing to say yes.

William is spending the night with a friend, so it's just me and the younger two. When I arrived, Andrew immediately set to informing me of his love for John Deere (Of which I was acutely aware), what we were having for dinner, and the whereabouts of his big brother, William. Henry followed shortly thereafter.

After Stephanie and Bryan left, the boys and I headed outside for some playground action. As I sat there watching them play, I started to drift away into my own thoughts and before long I realized it was a little more quite than before. I looked back over at the boys and their gaze was very intent on a specific object. A small bird was hopping across the yard. Andrew started to tell Henry to go after it. Henry said "Shhhh." Andrew mimicked his older brother and Henry said "I was talking to you. Be quite." Andrew remained silent as Henry crept across the yard, head bobbing back and forth in an Egyptian way. The bird continued to hop until it was safely in a bush and out of reach from two curious little boys. We moved on to swinging and the next thing I hear from Andrew is what sounds like a college football fight song. Nope. "Bob the Builder" theme song was coming out of this fella's mouth. However, when I asked Henry who is favorite football team was, he quickly replied "Aubrin." With this mention, Andrew burst into "War Eagle! Fly down the field!..." Awesome.

Bathtime and bedtime followed shortly. After I had both of them in the bed for good, I hear "TWEESA!!!!" coming down the hallway. Andrew continued to yell his variation of my name as I walked from the kitchen into his room. I stood in the doorway and he got very quiet. "Yes?", I asked. "Is there a problem?" Calmly, Andrew replies, "I ter-sty." Off I go to get water and the rest of the evening was fairly quiet.

I love these boys and I love how much I get to laugh when I am with them.