Otter Pop Delivery

Paige did seem so much better when she woke up yesterday. By the afternoon she was asking to go outside and play. She was riding bikes with Cason around the yard and playing on the swingset. After a while we decided to go for a walk and let them ride their bikes. Neely rode with me.
After a few minutes Paige decided she wanted to go home and get daddy's bike so she could ride on the back. Cason was having too much fun, so Neely and I kept walking with him to give him a little more time on his bike. We went down one more street and then went home. We got there just as Jess finished buckling Paige in for their ride. Jess said they were about to come find us and deliver us some otter pops. Ha. I was sad we came home before they could. Stuff like that is the type of thing I get nostalgic about from childhood. We're gonna have to try it next bike ride, because I REALLY want them to have memories of riding on their daddy's bike with him, delivering otter pops to the rest of the family down the road.

But for now, we settled for taking our otter pops to the front yard and seeing them off.
Paige ate her otter pop from her little bike seat. Haha.
When they came home Cason got buckled in for his first turn. Last year he always rode in the bike trailer.

They went half way up the street and I noticed they turned around to head back.
I wondered why so soon, but when I saw Cason's face I knew he was scared. Haha.
Cason promises me things all the time lately. Weird things usually. Like one day he put his waffle on the table and told me "I PROMISE Gia won't eat it." Ha. Like he has any say over that. The other day when we were doing all those puzzles, he finished the big floor one, which is an oval shape, not the usual square or rectangle. He stood up proudly, and goes "Mama, I PROMISE it's an oval." Haha.

Oh, and Jess just informed me that he heard Paige sing her entire alphabet in her sleep again last night. So cool.

She's Getting Better!

Since Paige was sick on Friday,
and it was chilly out, I couldn't get us outside to play. Cason seems to be a bit addicted to Mario, and since I couldn't take them outside I had to work pretty hard to keep him entertained and away from the Wii. Luckily he's getting really into puzzles, lately, and is getting really good at them.
He did this one with almost no help from me. Except one time when he had two halves of the puzzle he was trying to get together. They were so big he was having trouble moving them without the pieces falling apart as he moved it, so I helped with that.

He was so proud when it was finished.
Then he wanted to play Myro(how he pronounces Mario). So I had him do another puzzle, a big one on the living room floor. Neely kept us company in her bumbo.
Then they helped me with laundry and putting the sheets back on the bed.
THEN Cason skyped with aunt Cassie.
Paige just kept getting sicker and on Saturday morning she was having a hard time breathing. She was taking really shallow breaths and looked a little pale and felt hot. So we went to the doctor. They did flu, strep, and rsv tests which were all negative. They gave her a breathing treatment and some albuterol to give her when she had trouble breathing. She was so good for all of it. We came home, and didn't drive Jess to the airport obviously, he had to catch a ride. Grannybob and TT came over to help while he was gone, thankfully.

Paige just slept most of the day, moaning and whimpering in her sleep. So sad.
She takes after Jess when he gets the flu, and looked SO sick. She had the darkest circles around her eyes, it looked way worse than the picture shows.
She was all weak, I had to practically hold the cup to her mouth when she needed a drink. I was pretty worried. Neely helped.
Paige seemed a little better Sunday morning, but definitely not normal. She was breathing much easier, though, which made a huge difference. She even gave Neely a few weak smiles.

Neely was perfectly happy. She does this superman exercise on her tummy all the time. She lifts up her chest, but then lifts her hands up so she's supporting herself only with her lower back. Tough girl.
She chatted with Cason during one of his Myro sessions.
This morning Paige seems SO much better, still coughing a little, but she's eating and drinking again and playing with Cason. I picked Jess up last night, so he's home again too!

LAME

You know what's disappointing? When you do the usual countdown to the weekend, getting excited that you're one day closer to the weekend, when your husband's home with you, and then on Friday you suddenly realize you've been in denial. There won't BE a weekend, you'll drive your husband to the airport on Saturday so he can go to a conference in Chicago and not get home until late Sunday night, only to start another work week Monday morning.

Also disappointing? Your seemingly healthy older daughter starts coughing a bad croupy sounding cough. Before it started:
Now, she's sleeping on the couch, waking up asking for hot tea with honey, and every time I make her a new cup I bring it to find her asleep again. She wakes up right about the time it gets cold and asks for another. Ha.

But NOT disappointing is having this guy:
singing in the backseat of the car. He requests Cupid by Otis Redding now, and has memorized lots of the words. He sings them and dances. This is his usual move for the "Draw back your bow-woah" part:
I'm pretty sure he's drawing back his bow-woah.

Also not disappointing: Neely starting to use the jumperoo.

She Still Loves Her Toys...

Until they don't do what she wants them to do.
And then Cason tries to comfort her and gets screamed at.
But at least she has new seahorse shorts.
I don't post for a few days, then I post 3 times a day apparently.

He's Got a Job

Our kids love doing puzzles. We noticed all of their puzzles are missing a couple of pieces though. So we decided to get rid of them and start a new collection. We got them each a new puzzle and we also bought Guess Who. I loved that game. Now you can do people or pets, which Paige loves. I played Guess Who with her for a good hour the other night. It was so fun, and she's so cute playing it.
She's really good at it, but after we'd been playing a while she couldn't think of anything to ask, so her questions got pretty funny. She'd ask things like "Do you have a silly nose?" (We played the pets side mostly). I never knew what to say. "Well, I kind of think it's silly."

Cason likes the puzzles but didn't have the patience for much Guess Who yet. We played outside a lot the past few days. He was in his car out front and randomly yelled in his tough guy voice: "I. GOT. A. JOB!!!!" And as he yelled "JOB" he kicked the door open. I had him do it a couple times, so I could try and get a picture of his awesome face and the kick. Ha.

And Then a Bird Pooped Upon His Head

I couldn't seem to find the time to blog the past few days.

We had a couple family get togethers Saturday evening because Matt was going back to Oregon the next day. Before that we spent Saturday doing work on the back yard. Actually I chatted with Veronica on the porch swing, watching all the kids play,
and JESS did work. Ha.
I like that he was using one of the kids' plastic gardening tools.

Neely was 5 months old on Sunday. She is 27.5 inches long, 17 lbs 12 oz. I also swear she was trying to wave on Saturday. Tyra told me early in the day that she tried to wave back to her. I didn't see it, and she seemed too young so I figured Tyra was being hopeful. But in the evening at aunt Gail's, Tyra and Misty were waving at her and she TOTALLY tried to wave back. She held her hand palm up but totally moved her fingers in and out and her hand up and down.

Anyway....here's one of my favorite things she does:
Rubs her feet and toes together all the time.

After the family dinner on Saturday, Alex stayed the night with us.
When we came home there was a bag hanging on the doorknob, and inside was a new Mario shirt for Cason, from aunt Veronica. He was SOOOOO happy. I thought he was going to cry, for real. His voice was CRACKING and he kept saying "MY MARIO SHIRT!" and laughing the cutest happy laugh. He wants to wear it ALWAYS now. I've already had to wash it like 3 times. Ha. He put it on and started pretending bad guys were killing him. He's about to collapse here:
We went to church Sunday morning. Cason was proud of his hair.
But then when we were ready to go I realized Neely needed her diaper changed. So I went to change her while Jess and the other kids headed to the car. I heard screams and laughter through Neely's window and a minute later they all came back in because on the way to the car a bird pooped in Cason's hair. Haha.
We spent the rest of the day working outside.
Oh, did I say we were working. I meant Jess again. I was on the porch swing. Again.
The kids had SOOO much fun out there.
Especially with Alex.

"Chubbaz, Mamas"

Paige slept for SOOOOO long this morning.
Cason played with Neely,
and read some books to her, but he kept asking if we could wake Paige up. His partner in crime.

The other day he threw quite a fit on the way to get Jess from work. After a while Neely started to cry, so I told him to stop screaming because it was scaring her. Instead he started yelling things like "I make her cry because I WANT TO!" He's never been mean to Neely before so I was pretty surprised. But a few minutes later he told her sorry and I could tell he really did feel sad that he'd been mean to her. He loves her.
Lately if you put your face anywhere near her she'll put her hands on your cheeks and gaze into your eyes. It's the best.
Paige was STILL not awake at like 10:15 so I let Cason wake her up. She pretended to be grumpy at first, but we got her to laugh pretty easily.
Then we went outside and had a picnic. Breakfast for Paige and a snack for Cason. They abandoned Neely and I on the blanket and ate by the tree though.
They couldn't stay away from Neely for long though.
The gentleman picked and delivered flowers to each of us.
Oh, and I mentioned that Neely discovered her feet a couple weeks ago.
She was grabbing them, but today she decided to suck on her big toe.
She won't be 5 months old until Sunday, but since we don't have a checkup this month and we happened to be by the doctor's office today, I asked if they'd mind weighing her for me so I could put it down in her baby book. She was 17 pounds 12 ounces. I'll measure her length on Sunday.
Cason still squeezes her cheeks and baby talks her a couple times a day. He always says in his baby voice: "Chubbaz. Mamas."