Kindergarten Girl

I have actually been kind of okay all summer about Kindergarten approaching for Neely, mostly because I was in denial.  I have been focusing on the silver lining, that it's been years since I've had any substantial one-on-one time with any of the kids, outside of our little dates.  I can also do things during the week that were more difficult with more than one, like maybe go to the pool(indoor of course since it will be getting chilly soon), or long walks and jogs.  Neely is a good sport for stuff like that but I obviously couldn't expect her to do long distances.  I might actually get in slightly decent shape now if I get in the habit of popping Reed in the jogging stroller.  We can do some jogs, or just long walks to town and have a little breakfast or treat together somewhere.  

So there are good things coming, but the last few days it obviously hit me that Neely would really be leaving me during the weekdays.  I have the usual combo of happy and sad emotions, but I think it's more extreme this time.  Neely is different somehow, she's been my little sidekick, and she really loves being with me, so it'll be so strange to not have her right here.  I think she will do so well, and she is SO smart and so excited.  She's also pretty sensitive and can be shy at first, so I hope there are some outgoing kids in her class who will get her going.

Sometimes Neely seems SO mature in little subtle ways.  Yesterday she was very aware it was our last regular weekday together, and she was cheerful but I'd suddenly see her looking serious and she'd say she was a little frustrated because Reed wanted her to play but she wanted to spend some time alone with me.  Then as the day was ending she got more and more thoughtful and a bit emotional.  She called a family meeting and announced we'd be having a family hug, which turned into quite a few, energetic and hilarious family hugs.  She mentioned a few times that she wished she and I had had more time together that day.  She asked if we could play one more game so at bedtime we pulled out the teaparty board game and played that, just the two of us.  Jess and I read her the Night Before Kindergarten book Michelle had sent the year Paige started, and it got her excited.  She wanted to pick out her outfit and set it up on a chair in her room just like the kids in the book. 

 

Then she wanted to cuddle, so I spent a wonderful hour cuddling her and talking.  She was definitely feeling nervous and took a looong time to fall asleep.  She asked me to sing to her and was gazing into my eyes while I sang, and started tearing up when I sang her the honeybee song I made up when she was a baby.  We talked about how sometimes you feel happy AND sad about the same thing, and she goes "Yeah, like you can be excited to start kindergarten but SAD to leave your parents."  It was so sweet.  She was experiencing the whole thing closer to the way I do than to the way her siblings did.  I don't know how to describe it quite right, but it just felt so grown up.  Then I traded with Jess and he cuddled and talked with her a while.  She was probably 70% nervous/sad/emotional and 30% excited, by the time she went to sleep. 

Thankfully this morning she woke up in a 90% excited, 10% nervous, 0% sad kind of mood.  She popped out of bed, and marched into the kitchen smiling and fully dressed, wearing her backpack about two minutes later.  We told her we were still working on breakfast and their lunches.  Ha.  So she ate, and I walked in to see all three brushing their teeth together and she looked so proud of how big she is, and how she's part of the school kid club now.

We walked down the trail with them this morning,

 

 and took her to her room.  She was quieter now because she was shy, but still looked happy.  We helped her with all her little jobs, putting lunches and backpacks away and all of that.

  

 

The big two lingered until we told them they had two minutes before the late bell would ring, and they gave her a sweet goodbye.

 

 When we started saying our goodbyes she told me I could stay as long as the teacher would let me, but she didn't think she'd let me stay all day.  Ha.  She lingered, giving me long, extra tight hugs and I could really tell it was for my benefit more than for her.  She was feeling lots of love too I think, and I could tell she knew she'd miss me but she wasn't exactly sad or scared.  The last hug was a nice squeezy one and then she spontaneously kissed my cheek.  

We walked her up to the reading area where she could choose to do a puzzle or read, and she picked a puzzle.  The boy near her was asking people if they play Minecraft, so they were talking about that as we left. 

 

She is amazing.  It went as well as it possibly could have.  I didn't even really cry until outside of the school.  Success.  

Reed started reaching back for her as we left and shouting "Neenee!" and then we got this when we got out to the playground and he realized he wasn't bringing her home. 

 

He came up smiling a few seconds later though.

Jess managed to take off a half day so he took me downtown to distract me.  We grabbed a coffee, and walked around a bit.  Then the three of us shared some eggs and potatoes, and biscuits and sausage gravy.  Then a trip to the Halloween store.  Reed is for sure my child, so we found him a bat and a ghostie.

When Jess went back to work, Reed and I had lunch and a quiet afternoon reading and playing with his bat and ghost.  :)  

We counted down the hours until we could pick up the kids.  Neely gets out 5 minutes before the others, and Reed talked about "Paige and Neenee" the whole walk down the trail.  He says "Paige" whether he's talking about Paige or Cason or both.  He refuses to say Cason and at this point I think he thinks it's funny to torture Cason when he begs him to say it.  Anyway, he kept trying to open the doors and shouting "NEENEE" while we waited.  After a few minutes they came out.  As soon as I saw her I knew she'd had a good day, even though she had her usual stoic expression she puts on when she's feeling self-conscious.  

 

She had to point me out to her teacher and then was allowed to run to us.  We had a big hug, complete with Reed's usual cheek nuzzles, and then she immediately started telling me all the things they did.  She clearly had a very good day.  The little Minecraft loving boy brought his mom over with him to remind Neely "to not forget about Minecraft".  She told me later they'd planned in depth about how they would "meet" and build a castle.  They'd used blocks in the classroom to plan it all out.  So cute.  

She was happy but tired she said, and I could tell later in the afternoon when she was a little quick to get frustrated with her siblings.  Then again she'd had a hard time falling asleep the night before, so it was no surprise.  Tonight she went right to sleep so hopefully that will make for a better rested girl tomorrow.  The walk home was cute, Reed was so happy to be reunited with them all.  Even enjoyed a  short-lived "baby carry" by his brother.

Then he invented a new "whistle" he uses to call his siblings.  Haha.  We think he got it from Justin Time, because one of the characters blows a horn to call her sheep.  

Anyway, it was a bittersweet one, but Neely had such a good day and is such a cute, sweet little Kindergartener.  This picture of her makes me so happy/sad. Tonight at bedtime she told me on a scale of 0-100 her first day was "a thousand million".  :)

A Big Little Man

Reed is SO BIG.  I don't get it.  

He's still easily our most active child.  He's not hyper, but he's always busy.  He always has some mission.  Opening cupboards, rearranging pots and pans and tupperware, climbing the hearth to scare me, building his little "forts" behind the back cushions on the couch, hiding in his little spots(behind the rocking chair in his room and between the dresser and the foot of the bunkbed in the big kids' room) and waiting perfectly still and quiet, until we find him.  He just grins at us once he's found.

He knows how to relax though, too.

He has the best sense of humor, and makes the funniest mature faces while he laughs along with us, pretending to understand what we find funny.

He is SO good at pretend play already.  He makes fantastic explosion and fighting sounds, and likes to make stuffed animals bark at Gia.  He'll lie down with a couple of toy dragons and fly them around, roaring, and then slam together with some of his explosion sound effects.

Even though he's busy, he's also really sweet and cuddly.  Especially when someone first comes over, he'll go up to them to be picked up, and just cuddle for a really long time.  It's so sweet.

If his siblings are mad or sad, he automatically starts fake crying too.  Except for Neely.  Lately any time she's mad at us she goes and sits down somewhere to cry or pout.  He always goes and sits down too, and backs himself in next to her and then leans way over across her lap to stare into her eyes from a couple of inches away.  Makes her laugh every time, and forget she was ever upset.

 

Speaking of backing in, that's another thing he does.  If someone is sitting down and he feels like being close, he'll back in to their legs and just lean against them.  It reminds me of Gia, actually.  That's a rottweiler thing that she especially loves to do.  Maybe she taught Reed.

He loves my lemon water, and begs for "mow-uh".  He CHUGS it, and gets frustrated when I make him stop long enough to catch his breath between gulps.  Ha!

He loves his siblings, and always wants to be a part of what they're doing.  

 

If they aren't paying attention to him he starts pestering them until they play with him.  He has the cutest mischievous smile when he's doing this.  He can hardly contain it, and kind of sucks his lips in.  It's hilarious.  The most recent one I noticed was when Paige was trying to get ready to play a game on Jess's phone.  Reed brought over a cup and kept putting it on her face.

 

In the mornings, Neely often wakes up before she's ready to really be up, so she'll come get in bed and cuddle me.  One morning Reed woke up a little, saw her, moved over to cuddle on her and went back to sleep.  She loved it.

 

He and Neely have really bonded, with the big kids gone at school.  It's sweet to watch.  She calls him "My Reedy" sometimes.  :)  He's still small enough that she doesn't get mad at him yet.  

 

We love those little curls on the back of his head, but since my mom was coming to visit last week, and it's tradition for her to give them their first haircut, she gave him a trim while she was here.  Sorry Grama!  I love those curls, but if we waited for mom's next visit, he'd have a mullet to his mid-back by the time she came back. 

 

 I'm excited to see what color his hair will be, since it looks lighter like the girls right now, and if the curls stay.

As of this last Sunday, he has 11 teeth.  He says several words-"hello" when he pretends to be on the phone, "hi"-usually when he first enters a room and waves at us, "Googuh(good girl)" meaning Gia, "no", "mow-uh(more)", "deer", "aww"(when something is cute), "wolf", "ball", "bye", "Bubble(Neely's baby mermaid doll), "book", and "Boo" when playing peekaboo.  

He LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, except in the Nature episode when the giant butterfly takes Toodie for a ride, flying around.  He thinks that's scary, and gets pretty upset with the butterfly.

He's another angel baby, and makes everything better. 

Paige's 8th Birthday

Paige turned 8 last Thursday.  That is crazy to me.  I have so many vivid memories from her birth, and our stay in the hospital, that it could have been a few months ago.   I can remember lying in the hospital bed, watching Jess in his pink recliner/bed recording this video of a sleepy newborn Paige in his lap.

She challenges us for sure, she is strong willed and so smart.  She could be an attorney one day.  Ha.  But she says she is set on astronomy or marine biology.  If you ask, marine biology is always included, but she seems to be more interested in astronomy by far.  She's always reading about it and checking out library books on space.  

She and Cason were saving up for this moonscope we saw on amazon, that was made for children.  Cason would have liked it I'm sure, but I think he was mostly contributing because he's a sweet boy and knew it would make Paige happy.  They hadn't managed to get it yet as Paige's birthday approached, so we got her a telescope for her birthday.  We decided to buy her a better one, though it's still for beginners and children.  

We gave it to her during her birthday breakfast, before school.  She was really happy to get it, and the moon map it came with. 

 

 

 She had a good day of school, including getting taken out for a birthday lunch date with Grampa and Grama Trudi, at the restaurant of her choosing.  So Denny's.  :) 

We had pizza, Paige's favorite for dinner, and since Grannybob is in town, she got a couple more gifts.  One was a CSI fingerprinting kit from Grannybob, and a beginners astronomy book from us.  

She loved both, and got to work lifting our prints all over the place.

Lucky for her, the moon was full on her birthday, and the sky was really clear, so it was a perfect night to try out the telescope.  We all took a turn and it is really cool! 

Jess made us all a birthday butterbeer to end the day of celebrating our girl.

The full moon had me thinking about the night she was born, because there was a full moon then too.  My labor with her started intense, no buildup at all.  We left for the hospital and I can remember the drive so clearly.  The moon was big and full and bright, and we both commented on it.  I watched it for a good while on the drive, probably to distract myself.  Ha.  We were both caught off guard by how it felt to meet our baby.  Even more amazing than you expect.

 I was so happy and so relieved at how naturally it all came to us.

She was our only baby under 8 lbs, but she gained a pound her first week and got right to work filling out.  She was so happy and joyful, and such an easy baby.

She was a little beauty too, and we could tell she was a smart one early on too.

She has grown and changed so much, and even when she frustrates us she makes me proud of how strong she is.  

She won't be pushed around, that's for sure.  Ha!  

She's still our sweet, smart, beautiful, silly, joyful girl, and will always be our first baby, the one who changed our lives (and us) in the best way, and made us parents. 

Happy birthday Paige, we love you SO much.

Happy 4th Birthday Neely

Neely is four, as of Monday.  I can not believe that.  She's getting so big, and she's so proud of it.  She talks about how things were when she "was little" all the time.  :) 

Not too long ago, while planning Reed's birthday party, it hit me that I hadn't remembered to celebrate it being Neely's golden birthday last year.  So we made up for it, and the day before her birthday this year, on her last day of being three, we had a golden birthday breakfast for her.  She was a tad confused, but liked the attention.

 and the gold stars on her cinnamon roll.  :)

The next morning she had her real birthday.  She slept in, and then I made some eggs and some chocolate muffins for breakfast.  She opened her first birthday card, from Aunt Mindy and Uncle Randy, and was SO excited that it came with a cute memory game.  We played quite a few rounds of that, and she is REALLY good at it.  She beat me, fair and square, a few times. 

Then she put on a dance show for my mom, Reed, and me.

 She always asks to go to the park "with the wiggly bridge", which is my least favorite because it's always crowded.  So she doesn't get to go to that one as often as she'd like.  Of course on her birthday, we took her.  We met Jess for his lunch break and watched them play.

 She chose the meals for the day, pizza for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner.  She got to open some gifts that night too.  Just a few, the rest are for the party.  My mom gave her a Frozen pajama gown, and a Frozen sleeping bag with sleep mask.  :)  She got to cuddle in our bed and fell asleep in her mask, cuddling her kitty.

She wouldn't take off her gown all the next day.

Even for our trip to Walmart, where she got to pick out a doll she's been wanting for months.

 She's our feisty one, not afraid to let people know what she thinks.  She's also SO sweet and loveable.  She makes us laugh all the time, and will ask me out of nowhere if I know that she loves me.  I'll say yes and ask if she knows I love HER, and she says "Yeah, you don't have to tell me all the time."  Ha!  I can see some of my traits in Paige and Cason, and some of Jess in them too, but so far Neely is ALL Neely.  She is FAR more open with her feelings than either of us.  Everyone who spends any real amount of time with her will get to know her.  She's not a private person, like her parents.  At least not so far.  She has a TON of personality.  We love this girl.  She's adorable, tough, smart and funny, and so many other things I can't put in to words. 

She feels big and all, but she also still likes pretending to be a baby when she wants a little extra lovin'.  It's sweet.  She still adores Reed, and thinks everything he does is the cutest thing in the world.

 

She drew this for me.  Some dinosaurs of course, beneath a crescent moon, sun, and dragon if I'm remembering right.

 

We've started doing an interview with the same questions on their birthdays.  I'm sure most of you have seen this already on instagram, but it's a good little window into who Meewee is.  Love this sweet girl so much.  You make us so proud, and I would do anything for you Neely!  Happy birthday!