Songbird

There was a time when I'd read 3 or 4 books to Paige, and then turn off the light and sing "You Are My Sunshine" a few times, and she'd tell me she was ready to sleep. So I'd kiss her goodnight and leave, and she'd happily go to sleep.

These days, we read 4-10 books, depending on how much energy we have. THEN we turn out the lights and cuddle and sing "You Are My Sunshine". We take turns though. I love her turns. She REALLY hits the high note on the last syllable in "you make me happ-yyyyyyyyyy". Then she says "You'll never know, mama, how much I love you, tweez don't taaaaaake my sunshine away."

Well tonight she wanted to mix it up. We sang the usual song, along with a bunch of other ones Jess and I liked when we were little, and her favorites, "Hey Diddle Diddle" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Then I told her we should get quiet and sleepy. She did for a minute, but then she told me she forgot to sing one song. I said "okay." So she sang, and it was a new one she clearly made up as she went. It was awesome. I wish I'd been recording her, because I can't remember all of it. I DO know the first few verses were something like this: "The big giant rock won't fall on my mama. The big giant pearl won't fall on my mama. I will save her because I'm a big kid." She repeated a few variations of this several times, and then sang "The big giant rock fell on me and I was squished. That won't be nice."

Then she sang the final verse: "I will pop your balloon. Don't worry, I will fix you a new one. It will be a purple one. That will be niiiiiiice!" and that was the end.

I wrote a few ditties as a tot, but I think hers trumps all of mine, with ease.

Fancy Kabob Night

It's warming up a lot, so we had our first outdoor dinner. Kabobs. They were awesome. We were all fancy with candles and drinking powerade straight from the bottles.
The kids ate a LITTLE, but it wasn't their favorite meal. They shared a sandwich afterward, then Paige asked to make them some waffles too. She feels big making waffles by herself.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that on our way to our anniversary dinner last night, Jess and I were talking for some reason about how we'd react if we were single and lost our job and home. I was going to say I'd just go live in the mountains as a hermit. But instead I said "I'd just go live in the mountains and be a hobbit." He made lots of fun of me. I'd make a terrible hobbit.

I Now Have Permission

Chris and Sarah are gonna have a BABY! Cousin babies, and like a month after ours is born. Woohoo!

Congratulations!!

Anniversary

Last night Paige got Jess to roll her and Cason up in a rug "LIKE A TAQUITO!"
This morning I was talking to Paige about how "someone" else (not sure if I'm allowed to say yet) has a baby in her belly, like us. She was really quiet for a minute and then said "But we don't know which baby is ours." Haha. Like we'll somehow mix them up in the womb.

Today Cason got Jess to have sword fights using spatulas and whisks. He's cute, he's really good at blocking, and his eyes are squinty the whole time like Jess would actually hit him in the face with a spatula or something.
I'm pretty protective, so I kept Paige rear facing in her car seat, since it's safer, until she was 2. Cason's legs are longer though, and they're all smashed up when the seat is rear facing. So as of today, he's a forward-facer and he's proud of it.
ALSO as of today, Jess and I have been married 5 years! Woohoo! 5 best years ever. I love you Jess, happy anniversary!

Temptation Island

I'm just dumb enough that I checked Gia's breeder's website JUST TO SEE if there were any puppies right now. This beautiful girl, Gia's cousin, apparently has a litter that was born in March. In other words they're ready to go to homes probably right about now.

In OTHER words, if we weren't already going to have a new baby and also didn't need to try and save money, we'd PROBABLY be spending a pretty penny to fly to northern California again to pick up a little baby boy.

Pilot

I took this picture the other night. Caso is into drawing/painting and then running to show us and saying "See? SEE?" in a really cute proud voice.
Anyway. Today we had a playdate, which was fun. The kids even all sat and ate at the same time. Not for long, but still. Yeah, Paige disrobed to eat pizza.
After they left my kids and I played out back to pass the time while Jess worked on getting our new larger vehicle for our growing family.

Cason went on the swing.
Rode Gia.
And pretended to be scared of a noise in the neighbor's yard. He made his scared face, said "AH! RUN!" and ran for it. I'm in love with this picture.
Paige used to play a game where she sold us carnival tickets through her playhouse window. Cason played his own version. He hands me handfuls of rubber mulch through the window, saying "Dollars. DOLLARS!"
Paige cooked and cooked and cooked. She made blackberry chicken, and I had to help.
Then Jess came home. After 6 days of trying to get the lady working on our loan to WORK ON it, we are finally owners of a Honda Pilot. Paige and Cason went running to the driveway, SO excited.
Cason had his fists in the air yelling "YAY!" Paige just yelled "THANK YOU DADDY!" and ran around looking at it.
Then I made Jess drive us around in it forever.
The kids held hands in it for the first time too.
This was right after Paige told us "I'm gonna make a Happy Brother's Day for Cason." Then she yelled "HAPPY BROTHER'S DAY CASON!" So they high fived, then held hands.

Good Morning To Gia

Every morning the kids wake up within a few minutes of each other. They both always want me to carry them to the living room. So I pick one up in each arm and carry them to the couch. Then I put on a show for them to keep them entertained while I get their breakfasts ready. Today I was turning on the tv and I heard Cason behind me saying "Hi" over and over in a sweet voice. Then he started saying "CUTE!". I turned around to see what he was doing, and he was lovingly caressing Gia's cheeks. She'd been sleeping on the other couch, so he woke her up with his soft "Hi"s.
Once she was fully awake she got a hug.