OOPS

Oh, forgot to mention we're on vacation in Colorado. Ha. We come home tomorrow. I forgot to bring stuff to load pictures on Cassie's computer, but I'll post when we get home. We're having LOTS of fun, and Paige is under the impression we'll be , moving here, oh, about next week. She keeps asking about how we can get Gia and Swimmy here, and where to get ourselves a moving man. Haha. Anyhoo, expect a REAL post soon.

Rambo

It's been so nice and warm for several days now. I'm excited about it, although we are trying to squeeze in more soups for dinner before it's too hot for soup to sound good. Cason likes to help lately.
Anyway, it's getting to where it's light long enough that we can actually play outside some when Jess gets home from work.
They've even caught their first ladybugs of the year.
It was nice enough for evening naps on the porch swing.
We had a playdate yesterday, and I felt like Neely kind of paid attention to Aivree for the first time.
They even held hands.
She was really sad for the first half of the playdate, and eventually we tried Aivree's pacifier and she wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but pretty quickly she figured it out and it calmed her down.
She's now our first to use one.

The other day I put her down for tummy time while I got a couple things done. After a minute I saw her headband had slipped down like Rambo and she was so cute and happy with it.
I love her expression in this one:

Wii Are Family

I know most would think Nintendo's not a great way to let our children spend their time, and obviously we have to limit it. But quite honestly, we played together for about an hour last night, and it DEFINITELY qualified as quality time. We all took turns, and they were SO pumped to rescue the princess. We used some cheats, and beat the game in that short time, and they were so happy. We were cracking up the whole time at the funny things they said and at how impressive they are.

Paige had pretty incredible timing and is just plain old awesome at it, especially for her age.

Cason is ridiculously good at this little casino type game they throw in once or twice per level. It's the one where there are three rows of moving pictures, and you try to stop each row at the right time to align them and form a picture. Does that make sense? It's way simpler than I'm probably making it sound. Here it is:
Anyhoo, I can only manage it like 1 in 15 or 20 attempts. Cason probably does it like 2 out of 3 times. It's hilarious to us, we always give him the controller when we get to play that game, and he'll take it with this confident look on his face. He holds him thumb over the button, staring at the screen for like a full minute before he presses it, like he's seriously calculating in his head. It's awesome, because he lines them up ALL THE TIME. Last night it was his turn, and he thought he was so cool, with chocolate chip cookies smeared on his face, knowing he's the best at it.
Anyway, we all played together, and Jess beat Bowser for us at the end. While he fought him Paige was cheering him on, saying stuff like "He's a fool! Bowser's a fool! Yep, he's a fool. JUMP DAD!" When he won, she awarded him with some stickers for his hard work.

I Can't Upload Pictures

I don't know why but my camera just won't connect right now. Oh well.

Neely had her 4 month checkup today. Before Jess got home to pick us up I was looking for her little book with her immunization records. I couldn't find it, and noticed the keepsake birth certificate with her little hand and footprints on it was also nowhere to be found. I'm really organized with that kind of stuff, so I was sure it was lost forever when I couldn't find it after an hour or so. I was getting pretty depressed about it by the time Jess walked in the door. He found both within a minute of being home. That's how it always goes.

Anyway, everything is still good, her ears are all better and her lungs are nice and clear again. She weighs 15 lbs 14 oz and is 27 inches long. She was 90th percentile for weight and head size and they said above 97th for height.

She got 2 shots today, and was SOO sad again. Jess held her hands and I stroked her cheek but her face turned bright red and she screamed so hard. It was one of those that gets louder and louder, and then suddenly they're kind of screaming silently for a second, until they inhale and start again. So sad. But I ran out to the car with her and nursed her right to sleep. Poor little girl.

On a happier note, tonight Caso was playing waiter. He got a pen and paper and asked Jess "What do you like, sir?" We order some random food and then he says "Coming right up!" He's a cutie. Although he's been quite demanding lately. He's trying out being a tough guy with us, so instead of just politely asking for something like usual, he says "I want to watch Max and Ruby, NOW!" It's not working out for him, but he keeps trying.

Jess and Cason went to see Rango last night. I'd been promising Cason all weekend, so I forced Jess to take him when we remembered Sunday afternoon, even though Jess wanted to wait and go earlier another day. They went to the 7:30 showing and Caso fell asleep a half hour in. Ha. Oops.
The rest of us had a girls night in. It involved cookies, painting nails, Mario, and smiling at each other. Ha.
AND a little napping.

This is unrelated, but a couple days ago we went to Starbucks, and the BIG grandkids piled on Grannybob's lap. I just think they're all cute.
Cason was pretty handsome.
He's decided to start saying "actually" now, like his big sister did a lot at that age. Here's how he first used it:

Cason: "Button my pants mama."
Me: "Actually I think we should get your pajamas on now."
Cason: "I actually don't need 'jamas."

and again this morning:

"Actually I want to wear my Buzz Lipeyear shirt."

He made me laugh a few days ago too at dinner. We said our prayers and Cason always likes to chime in. He had his eyes smashed closed and was saying "Thanks you for mama and daddy. And Paige. And Meewee. And Gia and Swimmy and Sammy. Thanks you for our cups." Then he must have remembered I didn't get him a drink, because his eyes flew open and he goes "HEY!!! Where's my cup!?" Haha.

"It's a Washer"

Cason made me laugh SOOO many times today. Once, we were all hanging out in the living room, I was feeding Neely and he and Paige were playing separately with toys. He came over and told me "Mama, wook! Buzz is wooking at your pitcher!" Then he pointed to this cute scene:
Paige has a cross her Great Grama and Grampa got her when she was born, but we recently moved things around on the walls in their room, so it was sitting out waiting for us to hang it in a new spot. Cason grabbed it today and told me "I'm gonna 'tend(pretend) it's a viking pokey(sword or knife, anything sharp can be called a "pokey"). Then he told me "OH! The dragons are mad. The baby dragon is mad. I gonna beat dem." And he fought them for me.
THEN he decided to change shirts because he saw Paige go to get a new dress on. I heard them talking in the room, and all of a sudden he said, in an angry voice, "HEY! I wookin' good. I'm gonna show mama." And show me, he did.
Finally, he heard Paige flush the toilet and he got startled. He goes "Wow, dat was woud." I said "Oh, did it scare you?" He goes "Yeah, I am scared. And I'm scared of wolves. And giant babies. And tigers. And ummmm, Buzz Lipeyeard." Haha.

Paige made me laugh today too. Tyra stopped by and we were hanging out in the front yard watching them dig in the dirt and play. Cason found a rusty old metal thing in the dirt and ran over telling me "Wook mama! I found an "O"." Paige goes "Cason, it's not an 'O', it's a washer!" Haha. Tyra and I laughed, because it totally WAS a washer. She goes "Grampa told me, it's a washer." Haha, she can identify more tools/hardware than I can.

The little girl is 4 months old today.
She's sweeter than ever. I've noticed her being extra social the last week or so, always trying to get our attention with smiles and little giggles. She's easier to make laugh too, and her smiles still come SO easily.
She's playing with toys more.
She hates being forced to lie back, unless she's eating. But if you're trying to hold her that way she uses her little abs to pull up to sitting. And if she's sitting, you have to keep your hand on her belly or she'll pull forward really hard until she almost leans right off of your lap. In fact today I put her on the couch like this:
to take pictures of her in her outfit, but she kept leaning forward, almost falling into a toe touch or something. So I had to slide her down some more, to take the pictures safely. Ha.
She has way more control of her hands, it was almost impossible to use the nasal aspirator on her when she was sick. She'd just instantly swat it away from her nose, and sometimes right out of my hands and across the room. Ha.

She still likes to eat. She weighed 15 lbs 7 ounces at her first appointment a week and a half ago when she first got sick. We'll get her official 4 month weight and length at her checkup Monday.

She started paying attention to Gia recently, and I saw her give her a smile the other day.

She still loves Paige and Cason, and seems to be getting used to them suffocating her with kisses and cuddles. I haven't seen her look annoyed by it in a while. Ha.

She likes to have us hold her hands and pull her from lying down on her back to a sitting position. She's our first to be willing to do that, Paige and Cason liked it but would straighten their legs, so they went straight to standing. Haha. I couldn't find a picture of Paige doing it, and don't think we've taken one of Neely doing her sitting version, but here's Caso in action.
Anyway, back to Neely. She has a great smile, obviously.
She lets us know if she's upset, but I think she's less "particular" as Jess says, about how she's held lately. She'll hang out with us sitting down, a little more. For a while there she hated sitting down with us EVER, and made us walk or at least stand with her. :) I think she might be a little more like Jess than the other two, or at least I haven't seen as much of a temper as the other two showed pretty early on.

Long story short, she's cute. And also awesome.

A Letter from the Princess

Cason's been pretty extra cute lately. He's been hilarious, plus he picks out his own clothes and gets dressed himself. Today he didn't get ready until about lunchtime. In fact, Jess got home for lunch when he was still in his room picking out what to wear. I saw him almost come into the living room to ask me something, but he spotted Jess and sprinted back to his room to finish getting dressed, so he could come out and surprise him. He came out with his messy hair, dirty face and monkey slippers. With his hands in his pockets, all casual.
He's also been showing signs of having an impressive memory like Paige. When everyone was sick, we passed the time when they were awake by watching movies and playing video games. Mostly Super Mario Bros 3. Ha. Cason was asleep for almost ALL of the video game playing, but a few times he was awake and took turns with us. Well yesterday I played for a bit in the evening and I beat the first world. At the end of each you're told "Here's a letter from the princess." This is the first one:
Paige always has me read them aloud to her. So anyway I guess Cason was paying attention even when he was really sick. Because last night we didn't say anything about it, but he saw the letter pop up on the screen, and here's what he said, word for word:

"Here's a letter from a princess. When you see a ghost, turn around. Here's a jewel proteck you." Then he looked at me and smiled a cute shy smile. Haha, awesome boy.
Today it was SOOOO nice out. We got a blanket and Neely and I just got comfy and watched the other two play in the grass.

They did somersaults.
Found, and fought over who got to pick, the first flower to pop up in our yard.
Paige won.
Then it was offered to Neely.
It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. But as usual, Cason fell in slow motion and was mortally wounded.