Fake Crying, Dirty Looks, and a Sunrise

Here's a video featuring Neely's fake cry AND one of her dirty looks.

That child got me up for the day at about 4:45!  Cason joined us at about 6.  I have been preparing them for Paige's school mornings by getting them up earlier, but this isn't what I had in mind. 

I am a morning person though, once I get used to getting to sleep earlier anyway.  It was also nice seeing the sun rise this morning.

Meet the Teacher

One of Paige's calendar countdowns ended yesterday, when she got to meet her teacher, Mrs. Arnold.   Apparently this is all really going to happen, next Monday.

Grama came to stay with Cason and Neely.  Right before she arrived Paige got a package.  It was her new backpack from GrannyBob.  She was SOOO excited to "finally" get it.

 Right before Jess got home to pick us up, she told me and Grama that she was excited but a little nervous.  On the drive I could tell she really was, but she also couldn't stop smiling.

She held our hands on the way in, and looked a little shy, but was really excited when she looked around the classroom while I signed her in.

 She told us only to take pictures if the other parents were taking pictures of THEIR kids.  She's already embarrassed by that.  We saw ONE other parent take one, so we went ahead and did too, although Paige didn't agree that one parent was enough for it to NOT be embarrassing for her.

                                                       We bribed her into posing anyway.

We found her seat, and started reading through and signing everything while Paige looked around the room.

Paige felt pretty big when she had to sign some papers too.

Their little table is so cute.  She doesn't know the other kids yet, but she sits next to a boy named Kasen, so there's an ice breaker.  :)

Mrs. Arnold came over, knelt down, and held Paige's hand and introduced herself.  She told Paige how she remembered when Paige was still in my belly.  I'd already told Paige how nice she is, but after she walked away Paige whispered to me that she is REALLY nice.  She also looked really excited when Mrs. Arnold played the harmonica to get everyone's attention.  She talked about how they'll use music a lot, and that had Paige very excited.

At the end, the principal came in to say hi to some of the kids.  When most of the kids and their parents had left, we talked with Mrs. Arnold about Paige's peanut allergy, while Mrs. Bradley/Grama Trudi visited with Paige.

I told Jess to get a picture of them, and we got the embarrassed glare again.

She is even MORE excited now that she's seen the room, the other kids, and her teacher.  She's been planning what I should pack for her lunches too.  :)  Grama got her her lunch box, so Neely and Cason each got one too.  Caso got Avengers and the girls got Hello Kitty.  Neely had a lot of fun packing and unpacking her lunch box yesterday.

My Helpers

The other day I was all frustrated trying to clean.  Gia sheds pretty bad, and I was trying to swiffer up all her hair, but there was SO much of it I decided to vacuum the floors first, and then swiffer.  The vacuum just shot everything back at my legs instead of actually sucking it up.  Then 2 seconds later I passed the bathroom, heard something and glanced inside to see Cason standing in the middle of the room with one of their play kitchen pots, pouring water all over the bathroom floor.  It was so weird, he doesn't do stuff like that.  I still don't know what the heck he was doing, because when I looked at him, he just looked back at me and kept pouring. 

He didn't have a look on his face that said he thought he'd be in trouble, it was like he was doing something totally normal.  So I scolded him and Paige tried to protect him.  "HE'S JUST A LITTLE BOY MOM!"  Haha.  I was probably a little cranky, but it wasn't like I yelled at him, so I think she OVERprotected him because she was feeling cranky too.  (I've been waking them up a bit earlier every day in preparation for school mornings, because a few weeks ago they were sleeping until 9 every morning!) 

Anyway, Cason didn't look too upset over getting in trouble, but he and Paige snuck off, whispering together.  I figured it was all about how mean I was being.  :)  But then a few minutes later Paige told me to stay in the living room and not go in the dining room until they said it was okay.  I heard stuff being moved around, and Paige opening and closing cupboards.  After a bit they called me in.  Cason had cleaned the whole playroom for me.  He was so proud, standing there with his hands on his hips, and a big smile.  He mostly pushed toys to the edges of the room so the middle of the floor was clear.  :)  Paige handed me an envelope that had a cute little note inside, and pointed me to a bowl of cereal she'd poured for me. 

 

They wanted some cereal too, then, so we poured a few more bowls and ate together.

Sweeties. 

Paige had her Meet the Teacher yesterday, and she LOVES her.  I'll post about that in a while.

Princess Gia

Since it's my last week with all three of my babies home with me every day, I'm being even more of a hermit than usual.  We spent yesterday playing games, dressing Gia up...  (Don't feel bad for her, she liked it, seriously, although she wanted the Buzz hat off after a minute.)  

 

              Cason was overjoyed when he saw her dressed as Buzz.                  

  There was also lots of play fighting, which turned into real fighting a time or two.

Then we ran in the sprinklers for a bit.  This is as curly as Paige's hair gets these days, and it only gets THIS curly right after it's wet, especially if I don't touch it at ALL while it dries.  If she sleeps on it, almost all the curl is gone.  People have been asking if she makes me straighten her hair all the time now.  No, her curls are just fading.  I would NOT straighten her hair all the time, it would be fried.  She DOES always want me to though.

 Last night after their bath, we got the bigger two to bed, but Neely was wide awake because she'd taken a late nap.  She made me put tons of flower hairties all over her head.

There are one or two more ponytails in the back. 

Jess is suddenly obsessed with free soloing, which is rock climbing with no ropes or anything, so that's great.  He claims he has no interest in ever trying it, just thinks it's amazing.  So last night he was watching a video of this guy Alex Honnold, who is crazy, and amazing at it.  Neely watched with him, exclaiming "CLIMB!  MONKEYS!" every so often.

Speaking of which, I never posted about how Neely was conjugating her verbs for a few weeks there.  If she wanted to turn a word into a verb, she just added "ENT" or "SENT" at the end.  No matter what word.  If she wanted help climbing, she told me "CLIMB!  CLIMB!  MONKEYSENT!"  Haha.  It was so cute.  It ended abruptly a week or two ago though.

This morning I made her all cozy in Caso's little armchair.  She kept smiling and saying "cheese", so finally I took a picture.  Then she wanted to see it.  I showed her and she said "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!  Neenee sleepytime."

Faker

Today Caso and I were playing this little gnome video game.  I told him "SEE?  I'm an expert."  He goes "Yeah, like how Teetee's an expert at painting?"  Ha.  No idea where that came from.  I don't know if I've seen anything Tyra's painted. 

I spent most of my weekend finishing a nursing cover and quilt for baby boy Casson.  After church today I was working on the binding of the quilt in bed, and Neely and Jess took a daddy/daughter nap next to me.

Neely has been doing this thing where you tell her she can't do or have something, and she runs away, eventually collapses somewhere and fake cries, with heaving shoulders and everything. 

She'll peek out once in a while from under her arms to see if you're feeling really awful about it.

School Shopping

Paige and I went on a date Friday morning.  It was Jess's last Friday off for this summer.  :(  He and the other two stayed home, and Paige and I started our date off with breakfast at McDonalds.  Cason saw us off from the front window.  

After breakfast we went shopping for school supplies and a few other things we needed.  She told me a few times that I'm "the best mommy in the world" and that it was the best date.  She really was so happy the whole time.  I had fun too, I always liked school shopping.  I still can't believe she's ready for school, but a (very small) part of me is excited too.  I know how excited she is and how much she's going to love it.  

She pretty much looked like that the whole time.  

Dirty Looks and Paige on Piano

She gives me them all day long now.  Out of nowhere, at any moment.  I'll glance over and she'll be waiting for me to look, staring at me like this:

Or this: 

  But then I always say "OH!  YOU MAD?!" and she immediately starts fighting back her smile.  Sometimes she averts her eyes to keep from smiling at me right away.

 And eventually she gives in.

Usually starts cracking up at how funny she is and then repeats the whole thing.

Paige is still loving piano.  She is so good about practicing on her own, without me telling her.  She learned a new song at her lesson today, and it was the first time Miss Carla had her playing with two hands at the same time.  She was so excited to play it for me.  

Same song again, but I like when she messes up and does a little head shake at herself.