Tornado Season

{Photo from Lex18}

This spring has been pretty wild so far. 
We have had several Tornado warnings - not watches. Actual warnings.

It has been very interesting this year with Case, last year he could care less about the Booms (aka thunder). This year though, it has scared the you know what out of the boy. The first thunderstorm of the year he screamed bloody murder the first time it happened - and to see his face when it happened was absolutely heart breaking. After that, we talked about storms a lot, reminded him that it was just a loud noise and there was nothing to be afraid of. There was a storm while the boys spent the weekend with Nanny & Poppy and Nanny taught him to clap after the thunder, that has helped, and it's pretty cute! He has gotten a lot better, especially if he's around us. If he is in sight of Mommy or Daddy he doesn't have a care in the world. If it happens when he's in the other room or sleeping, however, he runs as fast as he can to our open arms.

Last week, was the first threat of a tornado in...I can't even remember how long.
It was all over the news, it was expected to get pretty bad around 2 am. We were in our front yard talking to a bunch of our neighbors earlier that evening, and since we don't have a basement they told them we were welcome to come over if it got bad. Matt downloaded a Weather Radio on his phone (ha!) and we went to bed. Right around 2 am we woke up to his phone going off. Then came the thunder. The house rattling, window shaking, intense kind of thunder. Then Matt told me there was a Tornado Warning in effect for our county. I have to admit, I have never been scared of storms. I've always shrugged my shoulders at the Severe Thunderstorm threats, and Tornado Watches. I have never personally been hurt, or affected by storm damage or anything like that. Besides a leaky basement growing up, they've always been no big deal. That's why I was a little surprised when Matt woke me up, and told me to actually call our neighbors. She answered right away, and told us to come on over. So, we scooped up our sleeping babies, and ran next door in the rain. They have three kids, and three dogs so it was so funny all sitting in their guest bedroom in their basement! (We put Gunner in his crate in our hallway, the safest place for him) We had the TV on in the other room, and it seemed to be moving away pretty quickly. We were there for about half an hour or so, then despite their offer to let us spend the night we carried our babies back to the house and went back to bed. (After thanking them a gazillion times for letting us come over in the middle of the night!) Thank goodness the boys went right back to sleep in their beds. I didn't sleep hardly at all after, it was still storming here and there and I felt anxious the all night. I was worried Case would wake up the entire night, and if it wasn't that it was Rhetter man waking me up because he can roll on his belly now but gets stuck that way and wakes up mad! ;)
Although I felt extremely horrible for waking their entire house up, and going over there in the middle of the night, she assured me she was thankful we did, and she was so happy we took their offer seriously about coming over.

Even with scattered storms in the forecast for what seemed like the next month, I didn't even think about another Tornado Warning coming again so quickly. Amy and I had a sister date planned, and while out to dinner Matt called and asked where we were...we told him, and he was telling us to go the bathroom ASAP! What? Another one?? We kept up with it through texts from Matt, and eventually asked the manager to turn on the local news channel. It was expected to hit right in our area, eek! I took it a little more seriously this time with threat to our specific location! We never had to take shelter though, it passed quickly thank goodness. A few funnel clouds were confirmed only miles away though! We were nervous wrecks not being with our families, we are so thankful and blessed that everyone was safe and sound.
That night it stormed all hours of the night again, and around 6am we heard the heart wrenching wail of our two year old, and he climbed into bed with us for the rest of the morning.
Then, last night same thing except we woke up to the house shaking type thunder around 3am.
Followed by:
A two year in our bed, Rhett crying as well, Mama giving Rhett paci, Mommy and Daddy calming Case, Daddy getting stabbed in the back by Case's feet, Mommy getting smacked by Bob (Case's favorite stuffed dog), Mommy giving Rhett his paci again, Mommy crawling into Case's big boy bed alone, Daddy roughing the night with an apparently horizontal sleeping, restless two year old. (Sorry Matty!)

...and it's storming again tonight.