How Do You Know the Water is Wet?

Last night was a little rougher than usual for me and the baby guy.  My throat was sore and he woke up more often and fussier than usual.  I felt like half the night was spent torturing the poor guy with the booger sucker so he could breathe through his nose. 

When we woke up we cuddled in bed for a while.  His eyes were all watery and he was serious, but no fever.

After a while Neely joined us for a little cuddling, and she was feeling fine.

Cason arrived, and we got up to get breakfast and get ready for the day.  After we ate Reed still seemed sleepy, so he nursed and had a nice little nap. 

The nap seemed to help a lot.  He was more smiley after that.

Neely was extra hilarious today.  Also had some extra feisty moments, but they were mixed in with lots of super lovey moments.   They found Paige's Kindle and headphones and were really excited.  Cason actually found it, so he got the first turn.  Neely tormented him by putting her foot up in front of the screen.

They worked out a system after a while.

When that got old, Neely was a big weirdo for a while.

Man, I love her. 

At one point, I was changing a diaper on the couch, and she came up to lie down all casual on the couch, with her feet up on my leg, (and her legs crossed of course) and one hand behind her head.  She took a sip of her water and goes "So......" with this cool guy look on her face.  I tried to quickly grab my phone to get a picture, but of course she had moved a bit.  (Now that I look at this pic it looks like there's a nasty bug on the floor.  Just a Lego guy, not a roach, don't worry)

 They did their chores for the day, and played so well together, and the tv only came on for about a half episode of Dora.  I love days when they just play and don't even ask about tv or video games.  

When Paige comes home, there's usually a bit of fighting for a while.  As she says, she "uses up" all her niceness at school.  Ha.  Today they almost had a fight, and then suddenly everyone was happy and sweet.  It was perfect.

 They even started making up a little show for me, that ended in these little poses.

Reed was waking up from another long nap about this time, and needed a new outfit.

His siblings get so excited when he smiles, and immediately swarm him.  Neely forces him to hold her finger and then talks about how much they love each other.
 

Soon after, Reed accomplished his first lying to standing pullup. He gave me a big proud smile.  Then he did it a few more times, and smiled over at his proud big brother, seriously looking like he was making sure Cason saw, while Neely said "I'll help lift his booty." 

Here's a pic of Neely while we picked up the playroom tonight, for no other reason than I think she looks cute.

She "helped" us give Reed his bath tonight, and asked Jess "So....how do you know the water is wet?"  Haha.

If Reed and I weren't sick, Jess didn't have to work, and Paige didn't have school, today would have been perfecto.  It was still pretty close.

One Month Old

Obviously I'm not as good at keeping up with the blog as I once was.  I'll try to get better, but either way I'll try and at least post lots of pictures of Reed, even if I have little to say, since he's at the age where they are changing so fast.  

We've had such good days.  Reed hardly gets put down, between all of us fighting over who gets to hold him. 

 

 

He's probably up to an hour or two awake during the day now.  All of our kids have been big sleepers as newborns.

 

 He loves to be held, probably because he's not used to anything else, but I can usually manage to put him in his swing long enough for a load of dishes or laundry.

When I need to do something else I put him in the carrier, which he loves and sleeps deeply in.  Usually I can finish whatever I need to, and then when I sit down and take him out he'll keep on sleeping in the newborn insert part of the carrier.  His little cocoon.

 He has been smiling at us lots. 

 

He's still very expressive with those eyebrows when he isn't smiling.

On Halloween he had his one month checkup.  He had gained a little more weight, but is still by far our thinnest baby.  He was back up to 8 lbs 15.5 ounces, and 23 inches long.  Tall and slender so far.  He was holding Neely's finger during the appointment and she said "I fink he wuvs me." 

 I know a lot of you have seen a lot of this from instagram, but not everyone has.  So....here's a little video of him talking with me one night recently.  When he's wide awake, he looks all around for a while, checking out his surroundings, especially the ceiling fans.  His favorite is to stare at us though, and he gets in the cutest moods where he stares quietly into our eyes and starts wanting to talk with us.  It's so cute how much time and effort it takes for him to work up a quiet little coo. 

I know he's my baby so it's my job to think so, but MAN he's  SO cute and SOOO sweet. 

Happy Birthday November Girlies.

The first week of November, there were two birthday girls in our family.

First a little lady turned three.  They were supposed to have a shared birthday party that day, but half of our family was sick and we had to cancel.  Jess ran out for some chocolate muffins for breakfast, and we got out our gifts for both girls.  They each got a family of Calico Critters, a cat family for Neely, and a bunny family for Paige.  They were VERY pleased. 

The day was pretty lazy, but Neely was very happy anyway.  I baked a cake, which I attempted to make look like Hello Kitty.  It looked terrible, but she was happy, which is all that matters.  We sang to her and she knew she "was fwee" and it was her birthday, so she had a good day.

We love this girl so much.  She makes us laugh so hard, so often.  She's smart and sweet and sensitive and hilarious and adorable.  Her sense of humor blows our minds constantly.  It seems so sophisticated.  She finds things funny that make us look at each other and go "How does she even realize that's funny?!"  She's feisty, and will stand up for herself no problem, but is also so affectionate and sweet and thoughtful.  She is always making sure everyone around her gets what they deserve.  When we drop Jess off at work after lunch some days, he says his goodbyes and she always tells him "Give Paige kissies and huggies.  Give Cason kissies and huggies.  Give mama kissies and huggies."  I'm sure she'll be making sure Reed gets his fair share now too. 

Can't believe she's three.   She brightens our days.

Three days later our oldest turned seven.  SEVEN.  How?  

It was a school day so we woke her up with a yummy breakfast.  Not healthy at all, but she loves Boston Cream Pie Toaster Strudels, so that's what she got.  She had a good day at school, and when Jess got home he brought her favorite food-pizza of course.  I baked her a chococat cake, which again didn't look too great, but she loved it and hugged me.  We sang and ate and she was happy.

Paige makes us so proud.  She is so smart and eager to learn, and is beautiful, sweet and strong.  She is a definite first-born, thinks she runs this place.  It can be challenging at times but also makes me so proud of how strong and independent she is.  At the same time, she has such a sweet and cheerful way of seeing things, and even when she tries to act tough it's obvious she really cares about everyone around her. 

We love our November girls.

Halloween '13

October and November are my favorite months, but it felt like October was suddenly just over and gone.  I guess having a newborn made it all fly by.  We spent most of it having cozy days at home.  

We did squeeze in a trip to pick out pumpkins and take them home to carve.

 Neely said she wanted hers to have a "sad face", so Jess made him sad and she was pleased.

 

Paige carved hers all by herself this year.

 

Cason drew the face on his and had Jess carve it.  Then he took the pieces Jess cut out and used toothpicks to turn them into horns.

Halloween was a blur as usual.  I always make the kids' first costumes and before he was even born I'd decided to make a stingray costume for Reed.  You'd think I'd have started it early, since I knew for weeks.  Nooo, I waited until the night before.  Of course my first attempt was a failure, and I was up until about 4 am.  So after three hours of sleep I got up for the day, and started cleaning and baking and sewing, to get his costume finished and get the house ready for our Halloween dinner.  Thankfully Grammy came over after work and Jess got off early, so Grammy helped get ready/held Reed while Jess cooked pumpkin pasta and I finished the costume just in time. The other kids wanted to be, from oldest to youngest, Little Red Riding Hood, Spider-Man, and American Dream.

Halfway through making his costume, just before the party started.  He was happy for one of the fittings...

...but not interested in wearing the finished product.

So he wore it for about 30 seconds.  Long enough for pictures.  Then he spent the rest of the party being held by family and friends while we took the big kids trick'or'treating.