Soccer Season Begins

Paige started soccer practice.  She was really excited because Brooke is on her team.  

Cason and Neely were really excited because her practice is at the park I never want to take them to because it's always so crowded, and very often with the rudest of children and parents.  So now they get to play there and I don't have a choice to take them to a different park.  Ha.

Later that evening we played soccer out front, me and Caso against Jess and Paige.  Cason was really into it for the first time, and was really good.  Poor guy missed out on playing this year by just a few weeks.  He had to be 4 by the beginning of this month.  Oh well, Paige says he'll be "the star" next year.  :)

Tower Builders

Alone time with Caso during Neely's nap.  Today we used it to build a tower "all the way to the roof!"

AAH! YIKE!

The schoolgirl comes home and still wants MORE learning.  She gladly practices her piano, and asks me to work on her time and money workbook with her. 

 Caso still claims he doesn't miss her during the day when she's gone, but I notice he asks when we'll be picking her up a few times a day.

Tyra saw something at Target the other day that she wanted for Neely.  She bought it for her birthday, even though it's still a few months away, because she was scared they wouldn't have it anymore.  She couldn't hold on to it that long though, so Neely got her gift early.  She felt pretty in it.

 She's been quite the firecracker lately.  Her new thing is this crazy, really short but really loud and high pitched scream, any time we do anything she doesn't like.  Then sometimes she throws in a "YIKE!(Yikes)"

Someone wants to share what she's playing with?  "AAAAH!"  Someone wants to hug her but she's not in the mood?  "AAAAH!  YIKE!"  She did it to me yesterday when I was changing her diaper and I told her "NO!" in a very firm voice.  She smiled and said "Sawee mama!"  (Sorry mama).  Haha. 

Then she gave me some of her fake dirty looks to lighten the mood.  They are getting pretty ridiculous.

 She likes to tell me things are "So cute", and look at a picture of the two of us on my phone and say "Aww!  Mama, Neenee." 

She's also quite the morning person lately.  She's usually the first one up, and this morning she was eating her breakfast when Paige walked in.  She smiles and squeals happily "HI PAIGE!"

Pretty Neenee

Neely, who regularly calls herself Neenee now, likes to try to climb the stop sign pole when we first get home sometimes.  She looked so pretty this particular time that I must post her pictures.

Caso's Job

Yesterday we had a few hours before church, so we were hanging out together in the living room.  Cason got the watch Grampa let him have, and his old tie, and clipped it on to his t-shirt.  Then he got a book to be his laptop, and told us he had to go to work.  He opened up his laptop and started typing.  :)

Jess asked him how much he gets paid and he said "One".  Jess told him he deserved a promotion, and a raise.  He's making "Two" now.

He also loves freezing his toys lately.  He asked me what would happen if his Wolverine got "frozen in ice", the other day, so we tried it.  I put him in a ziploc full of water, in the freezer, and we got him out a few hours later.  He loved it, so now he's been wanting to try freezing different toys.  He and Paige got Jess to do experiments with them, different ways to melt them, and seeing which worked fastest.  They've tried putting them under hot running water, Jess used a blowdryer while they watched, etc.  Ha.  Nerdy kids.

Schoolgirl

The little schoolgirl continues to love it.  She can't wait to leave every morning.  

 

I'm getting used to it too, I guess.  She is really cute, all excited, and Mrs. Arnold has been telling me how Paige is "a learner".  I already knew that one, but it's still cute to hear from someone else, and imagine her in class, asking lots of questions and so excited to learn.  

The 2nd day we brought Neely and Cason with us so they could see where Paige goes during the day now.  Neely marched around, and Paige was excited to show Cason around her classroom.  She also introduced him to Kasen, her neighbor at their table, who is one of her best friends at school.

After that Grama watched the younger two so Jess and I could go on a breakfast date, which was nice.  We got home around 10:00 and Neely was out on the living room floor for her nap.

 The first day was by far the hardest, and I haven't cried again, other than for a minute or two on the second and third day.  Dropping her off is much easier.  But it still makes me sad any time I think about how she's not my little constant sidekick like she had been for 5 and a half years.  6 if you count when she was in my belly, which I do.

But this dark cloud does have it's silver lining.  Jess reminded me that this is Cason's and Neely's time.  Paige had her time with us all to herself, before Caso came along, and the other two had to share us from the start.  So I can give them more of my attention, especially since Paige is so chatty and doesn't let them get a word in a lot of the time.  :) 

It's also been good for me to have this new schedule, it forces me to get up and get us all ready and going by a certain time, instead of just hanging out for hours before we really get ready for the day.  Ha.  The 3rd day we dropped Paige off, then Jess at work, and then I decided to take the other two to the park.  

We called Veronica and she and Aivree met us there.  Neely said "Aivree" for the first time while were there, although it sounded like "Voovree".  Later in the day she talked about her and said it perfectly, "Aivree".  

We were there for a good hour and a half, and then it was getting pretty warm, so we headed out.  Neely was pretty sweaty by then.

Kindergarten

Last night I got nervous about how Paige would do her first day of school, because she suddenly was telling me her stomach hurt.  I knew it was going to be hard for me, but if she ended up getting scared at the last minute it would be WAY harder to leave her there.

She was cute though, she kept saying stuff like "If anyone wants some family time with me I'll be in mama and daddy's room!"  Ha.  So we all cuddled in there for most of the evening.  Then Jess went to the store for a few things, and when he came home he brought us each a card and some flowers.  Paige's face lit up when she saw them, so cute!

We picked out her clothes so she could lay them out on her bed.  :)

 Weeks ago she drew a picture of her outfit on the calendar.   :)

We read her new book from Chris, Sarah, and Liam:  The Night Before Kindergarten.  It's a cute one.

This morning I packed her lunch while Jess made pancakes.  She only ate half a pancake, which is unheard of.  She LOVES pancakes, and usually eats a ton of them, but I think she was too nervous. 

But by the time she was out of her bath and getting dressed, the nervousness was gone and she couldn't wait to go.  

 I was doing fine, not even sad while we got ready, probably because I was too busy to think about it. 

When Neely woke up the first thing she said was "Where Paige going?"  like she somehow knew.  Grama came to stay with those two.  

 Cason wasn't at all concerned, I worried about when they said goodbye, but he just hugged her and was fine.

 On the drive there we did fine.  Then as we walked in with her I could feel the tears coming.  She would hold my hand, and posed reluctantly for a few pictures since we were still outside the school.

Grama Trudi convinced her to take one with her INSIDE the school.  At first Paige didn't want to, but she told her lots of the other kids posed with her since she's the principal, and that worked.

 In her classroom she wouldn't pose, but Jess took some sneaky pics when she wasn't looking.  While we put her lunch in her cubby...

...and hung up her backpack.  

We counted 2 Mario Kart backpacks and 1 Avengers one that we thought Caso would love.  But Hello Kitty was the winner, 3 backpacks counting Paige's.  :)

Then we got her settled in to color at her desk.

I gave her a few too many kisses, according to her.  I told her we had to talk to Mrs. Arnold about lunch, because of her peanut allergy, and then we'd say goodbye.  She goes "Then you'll leave?"  Haha.  I said "Why?  You ready for us to go away?"  She said "NOOOO!" like she was worried our feelings would be hurt.  I told her it was fine if she did want us to leave, and then she admitted it.  She said "I just want to see what school's like."  So I told her that was a good thing and she smiled.  She did ask why I was crying though, so I told her I was happy for her, I was just going to miss her.  She looked relieved, I think she might've been nervous that it really did hurt my feelings that she wanted us to leave.  Ha. 

I love Mrs. Arnold even more after this morning.  She told me she'd prayed for me the night before and had thought of a bible verse that helped her when her little girl went to school.  So then I really started crying and she hugged me.  It triggered even more crying, but it also made me feel better that if Paige had to be away from me, at least she was with someone like Mrs. Arnold. 

I kissed her one more time and ran for it before I really started sobbing.  But I made Jess sneak back to get a picture from the doorway.  Paige totally caught him though.  :)

 She was a teeny bit embarrassed, but it made her laugh and she shooed him away.

 Leaving her there was harder than I expected, although I cried less than I expected.  Don't get me wrong though, I did plenty of crying.  I'd been hoping I'd get out of the school first, instead of sobbing in front of everyone.  Ha.  Oh well.

The rest of the day was a little easier than I expected though.  Jess tried to distract me some, which helped.  I of course had a few crying spells, but it really is bittersweet.  I knew how much fun she was having.  I checked her class schedule every so often and tell Jess what she was probably doing.  I gave him updates every 20 minutes or so, "Paige is having her snack now!  Aww!"  or "They're probably walking to lunch now!" or "Her first recess!  Aww!"  Haha.  Cason did fine though, and laughed at us when we asked if he missed her.  He did run looking for her when he and Jess beat some hard level in his Mario game, yelling to come see what they'd done.  I had to remind him she wasn't here.  That'll take some getting used to.

Jess decided she should get cookies and milk for an after school snack, so we ran out for chocolate chips, and I got to baking some.  :)

 Around the time I finished, it was time to leave.  We forgot something though, and Jess ran back in the house for it.  As soon as he saw Gia she hung her head and avoided eye contact like they do when they've done something wrong, and he checked on the 5 cookies that I'd left still cooling on the rack.  There were only 3 left.  Ha.  People like to say dogs don't really know when they've done something wrong, they only cower like that because they can tell from their owner's body language and tone of voice that they're in trouble.  Well I promise you Gia knows.  She has done the same thing when she gets in the trash while we're gone.  We walk in the door, no clue that the trash is strewn about the kitchen, and as soon as we see her she's cowering, looking guilty, even though we're still clueless and happy to see her.  Naughty.  Anyway, he moved the rack where she wouldn't reach it, and we left. 

We took the other two to play at the park for a bit before school got out.

 Pretty soon it was time, so we walked over to the school.  We had to wait for the buses to leave, and we couldn't wait to see her.  Jess and I anyway, Caso just thought it was blazing hot out.

 Finally we spotted her, and I got a good hug.

So did Jess.

 Then she greeted her brother and sister...

...and proudly told us that she got all the way up to the red on the behavior chart.

We said goodbye to Grama Trudi...

 ...and walked to the car.  She asked me to carry her, and told us on the way that everyone was nice, she LOVED school, and she made 3 friends.

She was very pleased to hear chocolate chip cookies were waiting for her.

 She savored those cookies like I'd never seen, and told us more about what she did, how people liked her backpack, and how school was better than she hoped.  Jess said "Your teacher was super nice, wasn't she?"  Paige goes "She was OUTSTANDINGLY nice!"  :)

When she talked about her behavior chart I asked if anybody got moved DOWN at all.  She nodded and said "It was mostly the boys, because they weren't listening." 

Later I told her to come cuddle me for like 3 hours and she shook her head.  I said "You disobey me?  This is unheard of!"  She said "I'm in school now!  I have to listen to somebody ALL day!"  Ha. 

That was a really hard day.  People always say how fast they grow up, but MAN!  It seriously feels like it could have only been a few months ago I was holding little newborn Paige in our hospital room.  I'm really sad selfishly, but also happy for her because she REALLY REALLY loved school and can't wait to go tomorrow too.