Pretty Flowers

This morning I was determined to get Eli to nap in his crib instead of the swing. He woke up around 7:45 and we hung out in bed for a while and then went downstairs around 9 and he had a bottle. By 10 he was clearly exhausted so I took him up to his room. He was screaming at the top of his lungs and acting like there was no way he was going to go to sleep, but he couldn't even keep his eyes open so I refused to give in and I just held him and rocked him and after 5 minutes he stopped crying and fell asleep, so I put him down and he immediately woke up and started screaming again. I tried to comfort him without picking him up, but that didn't work, so I picked him up and rocked him again and this time it took almost 10 minutes but he quieted down and I put him back down and he slept for 45 minutes. I took that as a victory.
Since it had finally stopped raining, Eli and I walked to school to pick up Simon. Simon didn't want to go in the stroller, so he walked the entire way (a little over a mile) home. It took us an hour to get home because Simon stopped a million times to look down every sewer, walk on every wall that I would let him, examine every stick and rock that he saw, and then we also had to wait to watch the trains go by. We watched one train from about a block away--Simon watched the doors open and people get on and then the doors closed. He looked at me very concerned and said "why the man not say ALL ABOARD?"
At one point during our walk we passed some pretty yellow flowers. Simon said "ooh, look at those flowers Mommy. They are prettier than you." Nice.
We got home and ate spaghetti for lunch and Simon got mad when I called it noodles instead of spaghetti and he said "you called it the wrong thing" and wouldn't eat until I said it was spaghetti and not noodles. After lunch we went to Joshy's house to play. Simon loves playing with Joshy--he is the nicest kid and shares so well and has great toys. He and Simon didn't have any fights at all.
Eli fell asleep in the car on the way home at 4:30 and stayed alseep in his carseat until I woke him at 6:30 so that he could have a bath and go to bed. He was in bed by 8:30 so we'll see how long it lasts. David put Simon to bed and then came and told me that Simon was waiting for me to come say goodnight, but he was waiting lying down with his eyes closed. He was definitely asleep but I went in anyway and he woke up and asked me to pick him up and sing a song, so I did and then I put him back in bed and told him I love him. He said "and I love you. And also baby brudder and Dada."