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".  :)

Some Stuff About Neely

Neely continues to be hilarious.  In some ways she seems really grown up lately, but still says and does some of the funniest stuff too.  

I have kept several things she said in a note on my phone so that I could remember them word for word.   So here come some Neely quotes:

1)  After making her pet(stuffed) dog do a back flip-"You're BRAVE girl!  Oh my gosh!"  This one was much more amusing in person, just the way she said it, and the expression on her face.  She really looked amazed, like an actual dog had just back-flipped in front of her.

2)  When Paige claimed to have been being very nice to everyone one particular day-Neely kind of side-eyed her and said "Um, Paige, about that....you were a little nice today."

3)  Looking at Reed thoughtfully, she suddenly told me "We didn't know how cute Reed was, when he was still in your belly.  But now we KNOW!"

4)  One day she drew a picture on Microsoft Paint, and then deleted it after showing it to me.  Later she decided I should have saved it before she deleted it, so she told me in a patient, but disappointed voice:  "I love you....you know that, but....you should have taken a picture of the painting before I erased it.  I wanted you to."  Haha!  The "I love you....you know that.." part was hilarious.

5)   Pretending to be on the phone with me, from the other room:  Neely-"Hi, how ARE you?"  Me-"good, how are you?"  Neely-"Good.  I miss you.  I haven't been seeing you in like, 72 years.  How would it be to watch a show?"

6)  Talking to her about pandas one day, and she asked what they eat.  I said bamboo, and she asked "But what do they WANT to eat?"  I said "Bamboo" and she goes "Oh.  I thought they wanted to eat cheese." 

7)  A joke she made up-  "Why did the butterfly not eat the clown ice cream?"  

                                         A-"because it was allergic to peanuts!!!"

8)  Another joke-"Why did the banana kick open the door?"

                            A-"because it was locked"

9)  While laughing at something funny Reed did, and then hugging him-"I love you, Reed.  You're my bestest, cutest, cutesty friend EVER."

10)  One new expression she's been trying out is "speaking of which...".  The first time I heard her use it was when Reed turned off the tv while we were watching a show.  I told Neely I'd turn it back on if she brought me the controller.  She didn't know it was next to her so she goes "Wait....where IS the contrower, speaking of which?"

11)  This whole last week she's wanted me to play games where we are either the same age or she's my mom.  One day she said "Let's play a game where I'm the mom, Reed's my baby, and you're my kid."  I said "Okay, how old am I?"  She told me to pick so I said "Okay, I'll be....9."  She thought for a second and said "Okay, and I'll be........81."  Haha!  The next day she was 84 and her name was Mimi."  :)

She started t-ball a couple of weeks ago and LOVES it.  She also loves that she has two cousins on her team-Liam and Aivree.  Grama took them each to buy their first pair of cleats, and they were excited that they had picked the same ones, in different colors.

 That first practice was chilly, but she LOVED it.  So cute to watch.  They took turns running the bases, and fielding grounders.  :)

She worked so hard to throw how I'd shown her, aim, step, throw. 

 

She hasn't mastered the timing of those steps, so she ends up stepping, stepping AGAIN and throwing as that back foot comes forward.  I saw one of her throws hit the ground immediately in front of her because she held on to the ball a moment too long, but she didn't care a bit.  Followed it up with a proud looking little spin move and skipped to the back of the line to wait for her next turn.  :)

It was the cutest.

Sound Effects and Cutie Bots

Reed has been doing cute, imaginative things for a couple months now.  He will fly Cason's toy dragons around, while making sounds-sometimes dragon sounds and sometimes just kind of a "vvvvv" sound like it's a plane or something.  Or he'll take two dragons or action figures and smash them together while making explosion sounds.  Such a good boy.

Neely has come up with her own little creation:  "Cutie bots".  She takes the little cube shaped lego pieces, and puts two little "eyes" on them, and calls them cutie bots.  It's the best.  She makes SO MANY of them.  She'll give them each a name, and will remember their names for quite a while.  My favorite was a green one that she named "Green to be seen".  Seriously.  Oh my gosh.

One day while they all cleaned up the playroom, Jess brought me this lego vehicle that she'd turned into a ride for her cutie bots.  It's just covered in them.  She just sticks them on anywhere there's room and they all go cruising together.

Neely's First Book

I mentioned in my last post that Neely had written her first story.  It was not long before Halloween.  I wrote down the words for her as she dictated them to me, and after that I reread each page for her as she illustrated.  (I tried to keep up and write it word for word, occasionally spelling certain words to account for her cute pronunciation-like "Ghostez" for example)  

I sewed the pages together when she finished, and took a picture of each page to post here.

It's called"Ghostez and Bats Going on a Picnic With Neely and Mama"(FYI-I spelled "Ghosts" normally for a lot of the book because I was hurrying to keep up, but keep in mind, it is always definitely "ghostez")

 Page 1-"one day, there was some ghostez and bats.  And there were some girls and one boy.  There was a boy named Cason, and the big girl was mama, and the girl who was 7 was Paige, and the little girl was Neely and she was 3."

 Page 2-Then the ghosts asked 'Hey!  Do you want to go to a picnic?'  

Us:  "Sure." (She had a change of mind here) "Sorry, we can't, my mama has to clean.  But we sure could come to the park."

Ghost:  "That's where our picnic is!  At the park!"

 Page 3-"The bat got to the picnic as fast as he could and then said 'I got to the picnic as fast as I could.'  Cason said 'Me and mama and Neely got to here as fast as we could, too.'"

 

Page 4-"So the back of the bells were very far away..." (no idea what she was talking about here to be honest) "...and we said 'we have to go home now.  Bye.'"

 

Page 5-"Then Cason and Neely said 'Yay, we're home now' and Reed said that too.  Then the ghosts came too and the bat named 'Charlie Cha Cha' said 'You wanna have a sleepover?' and the ghosts said 'of COURSE we want to have a sleepover!'"

THE END

 

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!

Husband Dungeon

Neely has hit a funny phase lately.  She's VERY emotional, and little things will set her off big time.  She's also pretty feisty, and some talking back has been happening too.  BUUUUUT...she's also very sweet the rest of the time, and hilarious.  She got a mask so she could be Cat Woman for a birthday party last weekend, and she has worn it almost all day every day since, along with her black leotard and leggings. 

She's also been talking about being married to Batman.  Cassie was over one day and got video of her being pretty imaginative.  She was asking us who we were going to marry.  I told her Wolverine first, (because I'm trying to convince Jess to be Wolverine for Halloween because I think he resembles Hugh Jackman and a certain Chipotle employee apparently agrees with me), but Neely didn't want me marrying Wolverine.  

Still in character as Cat Woman(but a good version, NOT the villain), she explained why I shouldn't marry him.  At least she has her priorities in order. 

It got pretty hilarious, as Neely talked about how she had Batman trapped in the playroom so that he couldn't escape before the wedding.  Haha!  Husband Dungeon. 

My favorite part though was when she asked me about MY wedding.  I was telling her I would have mine on a different day, to keep from stealing attention from HER wedding day.  She said "You WON'T(steal attention)!  Will you?" I told her I wouldn't want to and her face got kind of sad and she goes "But you would?"  Haha!  So cute and funny.  We were lucky and Cassie caught it on video.  So I guess there was no reason for me to type it all out, but I'll leave it in case it's hard to hear or understand.  Enjoy:

A Few Things I'd Like to Remember

Sometimes I get pretty sad that I'm not blogging as often as I used to, but I just can't seem to make the time right now.  I hardly ever missed a post when Paige and Cason were little and saying and doing funny things.  I worry I'm going to forget some of the hilarious things Neely does right now.  I talk about the baby stage a lot, but every stage is awesome, and kids are so funny at this age.  

She hasn't been doing it lately, but I don't think I ever blogged about this.  For a while, Neely would get upset about anything happening without her.  She called it "Wif about me" though.  She'd plead with us "Don't go wif about me!"  It was so cute.  I miss that one.

She's getting so big.  She's pretty dang sweet and funny.  She's also an emotional one lately, and gets pretty mad at her big brother and sister when things don't go her way.  She's mastered the pouty faces too.

I try and write some of their funny quotes down somewhere to blog about them eventually.  I have a few from Paige in my phone right now too.  

1-While reading about echolocation:  "Why do bats and dolphins even bother having eyes?"  Haha.  

2-  When she wanted more oj one morning and realized we all wanted refills:  "So I'm pouring EVERYBODY'S orange juice?  What a ripoff."

3-The big three were all kind of wrestling around one day, and it reached that point when some of them are starting to get frustrated for real.  Paige wasn't mad yet, but could tell Cason was, and didn't care.  So she kept doing things that were making him mad.  I gave her a raised eyebrow look and she just smiled, looked at Reed, who was in my arms, and said "Reed's going to be just like us some day.  It's just in our nature."

I have another list of funny things to blog that I can't find right now.  :(  When I find it I'll be back to post some more. 

Neely's Art

 Neely LOVES to draw.  She's often at the dining table, quietly drawing away.  It's amazing how quickly it changes.  One day she's drawing a circle with eyes and a smile, and the next day she's suddenly added limbs, often with fingers and toes, pupils to the eyes, hair, and even accessories sometimes.  :) 

A few weeks ago she drew me standing under a rainbow.

The other day she got out their book of superheroes and started choosing heroes to draw for us.  She started with Valkyrie.  I love the criss crossing straps on her legs, and her spear.  

Wolverine is also adorable.

 She spent half of that day drawing, actually.  Robots:

Mama robots holding their baby bots:

 She finished up with this cute one of us riding a giant caterpillar: