A Date with Neely

A couple of weekends ago, Paige and Cason spent the night with Lily.  Neely isn't quite old enough for sleepovers yet, but is old enough to be upset about not getting to go.  So we treated her to dinner at Burger King, where she could play.  That did the trick.

Sometimes those places are stressful for me, but this was a good experience.  The other kids were a little older than her, but there weren't too many and they were nice kids.  She made a few friends and it was really cool to sit and watch her in that environment without her siblings around.  Reed slept the whole time, so Jess and I just talked and watched her play.

Then we went home and cuddled up for a movie.

We got to sleep in and had a nice lazy morning.

Neely just kept on being fun to watch.  She got herself ready, backpack and all, and when we needed to go to the store, she insisted on bringing her puppies in a tupperware bin's lid with Reed's washcloths as blankets.

 Taking her on that little date made me realize she's one of the big kids now.  We need to start taking her out on little dates for some one-on-one time now that she's not the baby anymore.  She's been so sweet about that too, when she needs some attention she just asks me to cuddle her "wif two hands", but will settle for a cuddle "wif one hand" when I'm already holding Reed.

Popsicle Fruit

Two posts in one night, woohoo!  

Cason and Neely are really cute lately, they play so well together all day.  (Minus a few occasions when Neely raises her voice unnecessarily).  We've joked about her voice immodulation many a time anyway, and when she gets frustrated she turns into Jacob Silj.

She's said a lot of funny things lately, but one that comes to mind right now is when she told us "green popsicles are my favorite fruit."  Haha!

She and Cason help me with chores, and they take it very seriously.

Especially Cason-he will come to ME before I mention it and ask what chores he has that day.  He does them WELL too.  On Monday we clean the kitchen and his job is to wipe down the washer and dryer.  He gets a chair, and climbs up to wipe down the tops, and opens up the lids to clean the insides well too.  He's a hard workin' fella.

They like to draw together, and are both really into the Lego Ninjago show, so they have been drawing lots of related pictures.

I've been doing some of the work from the homeschool curriculum I used for Paige last year, and Neely likes to have an assignment too.  They get comfy and work away.

 

Neely will color and then tell me how "rainbowy" her pictures are.

Reed sleeps right through it.

 

We still love Paige too, I promise, but she's not as big into posing for pictures for me as she once was.  Ha.

 She is feeling pretty big these days, riding the bus, and getting to walk down to her friend Ivy's by herself once in a while after school.  (She hasn't noticed I spy on her while she walks "alone"-Ha!)

Angel Baby. Again.

I have a zillion pictures to post.  Reed continues to be a good, goooood boy.

He's sweet and content and very happy, but he's very thoughtful, and will just gaze at us, not necessarily smiling nonstop.  

He seems happy almost all of the time, just too busy staring and thinking to smile every moment. 

He is cute every moment though.

When he does smile, it's pretty awesome to behold.

He saw his first rainy day last week, and I took him outside to check it out.

I still think of him as our slender one, but actually he's starting to fill out a bit.

He's outgrowing a lot of his 0-3 month clothes now, so I'm making sure to put some of my favorites on him as much as I can.

 ...and had an excuse to pick up a couple of new items for him.

 He isn't neglected.

I love this picture, they're both making similar mischievous faces.

He loves his bath as long as we keep him warm, but isn't a big fan of the hydration station. 

We just stare at him, and ask each other how he's this wonderful.  Inexplicable.  How did we get another fantastic angel baby?

School Bus Rider

I'm always having to fight the urge to be overprotective.  Paige has been asking to ride the bus since school started.  I told her she could try it one day, but that we'd go back to picking her up again after that.  (Lately Grama has been picking her up for me, but still) 

She asked again this week, so we checked on the routes.  There is one a short walk from our house.  Yesterday was the day.  It was cool out, so I put a sweatshirt on little man, and put him in the carrier.  

Cason was helpful as always, and pushed Neely the whole way for me, other than needing help up and down curbs.  We left 15 minutes early to make sure we got there in time, but it turned out to only be a 5 or 6 minute walk.  

She was cute getting off the bus, trying not to smile, but obviously feeling pretty big and awesome.

 

She loved it, and I realized she's the first stop, and since we live close to the school, her ride is roughly 3 minutes long.  Ha.  She's actually home before we'd even be out of the parking lot normally. 

So we've decided to let her ride the bus on the way home each day.  She has a few friends on the bus, and it's only the primary kids, so no older ones, which was my main worry.  Plus, it'll get us out on a walk each school day. 

Rescuebots

Reed and I had colds for several days.  Neither of us every got very sick thankfully, but he ended up with an eye infection and I got an ear infection.  Because I'm four.  We had a nice weekend anyway. 

He and I missed Liam's birthday party though.  :(

Sunday started off lazy.

Neely helped me with breakfast.

 There was a lot of playing.

 Including doing pushups over Reed for some reason.
  

That girl's a weird one.

 Reed was wearing his little old man outfit from Cassie, and looking good.

 

Monday we went to the park with Sarah and her boys.  They had fun, and Cason, Liam, and Neely were really cute, pretending to be the Rescuebots.  I think Cason was Bumblebee, Liam was Optimus Prime, and Neely was Blades.  They traded later, but I don't know who was who anymore.  I know it was all pretty cute though.

 Here Bumblebee and Optimus were "doing the password". 

Meeting Great Grama and Great Grampa

Last Saturday was the kids'  last day of soccer games.  Paige was not too into soccer this year, and isn't sad it's over.  She was happy to get her trophy though.  Haha.  I won't be surprised if she never plays soccer again, but we'll see.  

Cason is a different story though.  He pretty much lives for soccer.  Jess walked him over to where his team was meeting for trophies, and the rest of us waited at the car with Grampa.  I figured they were just passing out the trophies.  When Jess showed me the pictures he took later, I wished I'd gone.  His coach made a little ceremony out of it, gave a speech and shook each kid's hand as they got their trophy.  Cason looks so cute in the pictures, taking it all serious, like a little man.  Makes me want to cry.  Jess said he commented on the firm handshake his coach gave him.  :)

After that we drove out so Reed could meet his great grandparents on daddy's side.  Before that someone had always been sick, so we hadn't made it out.  He was so sweet meeting great grampa, held his finger and immediately gave him smiles.  

Great Grama was napping, and Reed was hungry by the time he met her, so she met the crying, unhappy version.  I ended up feeding him in a chair in her room, and he was happier after that.  

Then we headed back to Grammy and Grampy's, and he had his first hammock experience.