Elias and Donovan are almost exactly 2 years apart – the same difference as between me and my younger brother.  Even at ages 3.5+ and 20 months, they are already deep into a love/hate relationship with each other – and doing the same things my brother and I used to do to each other.

5 ways to annoy your brother:

1. Have something (anything) that he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter what it is, but if you just pick it up, he wants it.

2. Touch him. ’nuff said.

3. Be sitting on Momma’s lap. Apparently, this gets to both of my boys equally.

4. Try to take his current favorite car.  Oh my – it’s like the sky is falling when this happens.

5. Try to hug or kiss him. If he’s not in the right mood, it’s the worst thing ever.

5 ways to love your brother:

1. Share. Anything – toys, food, couch space… and it always makes my heart melt.

2. Read him a book. He’s only 20 months old – he has no idea that you can’t read!  In his eyes, you can do no wrong!

3. Just let him be with you. My mom told me over and over that my little brother just wanted to be with me.  It’s fascinating to watch Donovan gravitate to wherever Elias is – following him room to room, doing whatever big brother does – just to be near him.  And when Elias lets him, it’s a huge sign of love.

4. Laugh together. Oh, I love hearing the boys laugh their little belly laughs together… knowing that they are loving each other at that moment.

5. Hug and kiss him. When he is in the right mood, the love that is shown is fabulous!

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For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!

I’m posting this list to keep me accountable.  If my boys are to learn these habits, I need to model these for them.  I cannot preach what I don’t practice…  so I need to practice these habits myself!

1. Patience. Need I say anymore?

2. Loving nature. I love the idea of nature – and I know that I used to love being outside.  But at this stage in my life, I hate heat and bugs, so I don’t like being outside.  If my boys are to learn to love nature, I need to get outdoors with them and not complain about those nasty bugs…

3. Natural musicality. This is not something I’m going to be able to develop in them…  the natural part, that is.  Did you know that I was a music major?  But through all the years of music training, I knew that music did not come naturally to me.  Intellectually, I got it, and I trained myself to perform well.  But it never was natural to me.  My husband, on the other hand, has music oozing out of him… naturally.  So I pray the boys got Josh’s natural musical talent, and my love of music and dedication to hard work.

4. Compassion for others. Something that has been developed in me through the years – and something I hope that if I keep practicing it, Elias and Donovan will develop it early.

5. A missionary’s heart. I’ve never felt called to a mission field, but I know there are opportunities to spread the gospel in our every days lives.  I pray that the boys know this early on, and that they will listen to the Lord’s will for them in spreading the gospel.

6. Whatever the opposite of procrastination is. I’m working on this post Tuesday morning at 10:30.  ’nuff said.

7. Single-minded determination. This goes hand and hand with the-opposite-of-procrastination for me.  A part of my procrastination is not sticking to one task – I flit from one to the next.  That’s why it’s taken me 3 hours to write this post.

8. Neatness. I used to think I was a neat and tidy person. And then I met my husband, who is the neatest and tidiest person – ever.  I have to practice neatness not only for my husband and my home, but for future generations of women who join this family – for them to be amazed at the neatness of certain men in their lives.

9.  Being comfortable in a room full of people. Not the most comfortable thing for me… I’d love the boys to not have to face any social fears like this.

10. Decisiveness. yeah, I think I’d like them to be decisive.

Yes, I definitely need to model these traits and many more for my children’s sake.

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda here!

See our other posts on Boredom Busters here and here…

1. Playdoh. Another crafty-thing that is not an everyday item around chez moi.  So it is a special treat.

2. Sidewalk paint. Buy some or make your own… all I know is this is super fun!  You can even thin down your homemade version and put it in a spray bottle for more fun!

3. Board games. You might have some kiddie games laying around that you play with all the time… so break out some of the “ages 8 and up” games and let your little ones at ‘em!  Closely supervised, of course.  We’ve spent some fun rainy days “playing” Battleship, sorting Scrabble tiles, and just laughing at the noises that the Bop-It makes!  We haven’t broken out Cranium yet, but that could give you some cool ideas – draw something for your pre-schooler to guess, whistle easy tunes for them to figure out…

4. Train Tables. We have a train table, and even a really cool train set to go on top of it.  But Donovan has a penchant for destroying things at this point in his life… so there is nothing recognizable as a train set on our train table.  So when we go to our local Barnes and Noble, the train table with the train set screwed down to the table is a huge hit!  We all get out of the house, the kids get a free play time, and if I hit it right, we get there on time for story time!

5. Playing in the sink. Grab a big plastic bowl, spoons, cups, and whatever else might help make a good “sink soup.”  I remember using apples and toothpicks for my sink soup as a kid – I haven’t broken those out yet, but Elias will play at the sink for hours if I let him.  I fill up the bowl with water, and when the water is gone, sink time is over.

6. Home movies. Oh my goodness – Elias and Donovan get such a kick out of seeing themselves on TV!  Grab your old camcorder or your new Flip and record something fun with the kids – even if it’s 5 minutes of your oldest saying, “Momma, can I do it?  Can I do it NOW?”  Then plug it in to the TV and let them watch it.  It’s so fascinating to them!  And you’ll catch some fun memories, too!

7. Dance party. Turn on some fun kid’s tunes and dance yourselves silly!

8. Rotate toys. I honestly thought that this was an unrealistic thing to try with my kids, because they love all their toys, and they would know if something was missing, and how in the world am I going to remember to actually rotate the toys out, anyway?  I put away some blocks that were driving me crazy by being poured all over the place and never being picked up… and lo and behold, they forgot about them!  And then when I get them out on occasion, the blocks are the best things ever!  Why didn’t I follow that advice sooner?

9. Flashlights and shadow puppets. Even better if they are in your boredom-busting fort!

10. Pop ‘em in the bathtub. So many water activities to help fight boredom… but when the temperature’s 100 outside, I don’t want to step outside even to turn on the hose.  So we play with water inside, and get clean at the same time!

For more Top Ten {Tuesdays}, visit Amanda’s blog here.