Rainy Evening

It's been chilly and rainy here, and what better way to spend an evening than snuggled under a blanket reading books?

I'm looking forward to warmth again, though. It's May! It should be hot!!

Little Reader

The little guy is turning into such an avid reader. Santa brought him a clip-on reading light for Christmas. I think he likes it!

He's reading Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants-- it's classic literature only at our house. 

The Grinch

We are all fans of the book "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Eric read it tonight. It's so intense!

Books Galore!

We need to start writing some thank you notes for all the awesome books the little dude got for his birthday. We are already enjoying them!

He was brushing his teeth during the first reading of this one, but was there for the two nightly Captain Underpants chapters.

Outsourcing

A few years ago, some of my friends were making fun of me for outsourcing everything-- they even said that my CSA was me outsourcing farming. It was pretty funny.

This is relevant because Eric and I have successfully outsourced bedtime stories!
Awwwwwww.

Captain Underpants!

We bought the little guy the first Captain Underpants book at his school book fair Friday. He loves it! We've been reading two chapters a night.

Even the baby thinks it's funny!

New Nose

The baby wanted me to read her The Napping House 5,000 times in a row tonight. It's a really cute book, so I was happy to comply.

The little dude built himself a new nose out of legos! It even has a mustache!!

¡Qué guapo!

Books, books, books

The kiddos love having books read to them. The best part about reading to them is that they snuggle!

What a happy Grandma!

Reading!

The little guy read us three stories at bedtime tonight. It was so cute! He's moved up a level in his Phonics Readers, and the stories have a little bit more going on than "Cat sat. Rat sat." so that's been a pleasant change.

No TV

Since everyone is feeling closer to 100% than 0%, we did NOT turn on the television after dinner tonight. I read books instead! (Who'd a thunk?)

The baby is getting so big. Look at how long her legs are! (Relatively speaking, of course.)

Snuggle Party!

The little guy threw a snuggle party in our bed this evening. I guess it was fun? It honestly didn't seem that different from our normal "all read in the same bed" routine, but he was happy.

He actually read a lot of Green Eggs and Ham before deciding he was too tired to continue.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Actually, I'm driving, and I do know when I'll be back again. But, Eric and the kids are going to be on their own tomorrow and most of Sunday. I'm going to miss them!

We had yet another weather delay this morning, and the little guy read a book to his sister and me after breakfast. (!!!)

I couldn't be more proud.

Fun Family Time

A couple weeks ago Emily's uncle and his family stopped by on their way to take their youngest back to a nearby college after visiting the other side of their family. It's always great to have visitors in our quaint little house and to talk about all the exciting things that are going on in the lives of those we care about. The college "boy" was around 10 when I started dating Emily and wasn't seemingly much bigger than my little guy back then. My how the time has flown. He was a good sport when Goose broke out Chutes and Ladders and then proceeded to pull out the victory from... oh, I don't know... 20 spaces back thanks to some "creative" counting. (Those ladders can do wonders when you are way behind and who says you have to go in order!)

The tiny tot got in on the action too with a snuggle on the couch and a book with her great uncle and cousin.

It was a wonderful, but too short, visit. It's nice to have been part of Emily's family for so long that they feel like my family too. I hope she feels the same way.

Books with Gramps

The kids read a ton of books while we visited my family. Here's a cute shot of them reading (and watching tv) with Gramps. The baby likes to stick her face in your face to ask questions about whatever it is that you're reading. She's pretty silly.

Franklin

The kids have been reading the book Franklin is Lost about every 10 minutes for the past few days. How sweet?

It's pretty gripping-- Franklin almost has to spend the night in the woods alone. Yikes! (Spoiler alert: Luckily, he's found.)

Books, Books, Books!

For their birthdays, one of my uncles sent the kids nearly one thousand books. I think they read every single one with their Nana last weekend.

How sweet!

Bedtime Stories!

Eric does a fabulous job reading the kids' new book Telephone. He does such a good job, in fact, that they've requested he take over bedtime reading (WHAT!??!).

A lot of nights I'll sit and listen to him, too. He does the best voices.

New bedtime routine

Well, softball was a disappointment last night. As Emily mentioned our first playoff game was last night. We were running just on time (or late as my lovely wife would put it). Unfortunately I was inadvertently, or at least I hope so, left off our playoff roster so I wasn't allowed to play. So I do what most do when they can't play anymore; they coach!

Now that that's cleared up from last night's post we can move on.

Bedtime has changed over the last few days to a week. It starts as normal with the kids going upstairs and procrastinating until their PJs are finally on. It used to be that Emily would read to the boy and I would get a very insistent, "LAY DOWN!!" and read to the girl. But lately the miniature person has insisted on climbing into her brother's bed and listening to a book with him as Em reads. Before the reading commences, Goose will insist that his sister needs a pillow if she's going to be in his bed so we have to provide that or the world is not right. Then they read. It's actually very sweet and cute.

Then, inevitably, something like below happens. Notice the choke hold hug the boy is giving his sister. She is soooo happy about it!

He means well... I think.

Snugglebunnies

Sometimes the baby wants to get in the little guy's bed for stories. Eric tried to take a picture of this tonight-- so first we had a natural-ish looking photo...

... that quickly degenerated into this ridiculous thing (look at the baby's arms! what is she doing?!!?):

Photo Bomb!

Here's the baby paging through a book before bedtime. The book she's reading is called Pig Kahuna. It's a pretty awesome book. She likes pigs (she loves oinking) and it's been a real hit. It had to go back to the library today, though.

Nice photobomb, little dude.