Sister Love

Yesterday I took the children out for a shopping spree. We took lunch with us, missed rest time and hit the library, TJ Maxx, a shoe store, 2 places at the mall, and Old Navy. I told Shane last night that I hadn't felt so accomplished in a long time. I got several things the kids had been needing and did a return. Best part was, we had a great time together. The kids hung in there with me for the whole outing and begged to stay out when I told them it was time to head home. 

It's crazy to think that someday in the near future, all afternoons will be opened up to us. We have a while before Blaise drops his nap but yesterday reminded me that the day will come. Whatever will I do when we are not tied to this nap schedule? After almost 6 years of naps, I can't remember life before it!

Anyhow, while we were out I noticed a bit of sister love along the way...

Hard at Play

Silas had a friend over to play this afternoon. We were having a no-screen-time day and it was so fun to see all the imaginative play the kids came up with...

Spring!

Today we finally feel like spring has arrived! 

Off to Dinner!

Sim's Rough Week

Simeon has had a bit of a rough week this week. First of all, Shane caught him with the iPad hiding out under a desk the other day when it was most definitely not his "screen time"...

Shane also walked in on him re-arranging the order of the kids' names, putting himself on top to pick the video the next time they watched something...

Then the other night he got out of bed and fell asleep in the closet...

We have had great fun with that one. Lieren saw it all happen and thought it was funny. Then Shane showed Sim the picture and Simeon just laughed so loud. 

We also found him in the pantry, behind a curtain with a box of cheese-its. Totally didn't ask. 

And then yesterday he got to go play with a friend for the first time all by himself and he ended up having to get stitches...

You just never know what's going to happen next with this kid!

Beauty

Bittersweet Milestone

So the other night we had a babysitter here for bedtime and she put Blaise to sleep without his paci.  You've heard me talk about the paci.  I really was not looking forward to taking it away.  I mean, it's only been recently that Blaise has it only at nap and bedtime.  And even then, he would take it always if I let him.  But she put him down without even thinking about it.

I noticed when I went up to his room after Miranda left that he didn't have it.  And there it was in the cabinet where I keep it between sleeps.  

And the wonder of it is, he slept.  And he woke happy.

                      

So today at naptime, I just put him down without it.  He didn't beg for it.  He did fuss a bit and when I went back in, he wanted his wearable blanket on.  I never put it on at nap but maybe it was a bit of security for him.  But then he slept a wonderfully long nap.

And tonight as I was putting the wearable blanket on for bed he said to me, "My papi?" (which is what he calls it).  I just said, "I don't know, Blaise..." and went on with the bedtime routine.  He didn't say any more and went right to sleep.  So we'll see.  The jury is still out on whether this is permanent.

But it just reminds me...these milestones, they are so good. So sweet.  And hard too.

But instead of being sad about babies getting bigger, I will instead think about how cute these two were tonight...

We went to eat dinner at the home of some friends and now our college group is here.  Sim and Blaise wore these shirts I just got for them and were about as cute as anything I've ever seen.  I didn't choose to leave Silas out.  He was just too busy building a new Lego he got today and was already dressed and didn't want to take a minute to change to his Batman shirt.  It was no big deal.  Just kind of funny how focused he was wanting to finish before we left.