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. 

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.

Zzzzzzzz

I stuck my head into the kids' room to see how bedtime was progressing, and I found everyone "asleep" on the floor.

They are all absurd.

Late to bed and early to rise...

... makes a kid grumpy, whiny, and something-that-rhymes-with-rise. I'll take suggestions in the comments.

The kids have been going to bed a bit late recently, so tonight I had them in pjs at 6:40. We watched a short tv show and then headed off to bed. Hopefully they'll fall asleep at some point. They've turned into little chatterboxes in their room.

Special Stories

We had a very special visitor at the house tonight-- my big brother! We all had ice cream, hung out for a bit, and then he read two books to the kids before they fell asleep. I don't know what it was, but they thought he was hilarious and just giggled the entire time he read.

What a wonderful visit!

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.

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.

Quiet Bedtime

I've posted before about our calm and peaceful bedtime routine. Here are some pictures from tonight!

What a stinker!

Cracking up! 

Whispering about important things.

No more whispering!

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.

Saturday Night!

Does this look like a baby who's ready to go to bed?

She was actually sound asleep a few minutes later.

Bedtime

The baby was all smiles after her bath, and she fell right asleep at bedtime.

The little guy and I snuggled up and read a book, and he fell asleep pretty quickly, too.

He had the camera for a bit this evening and took a ton of photos of the house. Here's one that I think is pretty cool!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Nana!

Bedtime

The little guy is sleeping in a twin bed while we house sit, and he's adapted really well. He's only fallen out a couple of times. Anyway, most nights one of us reads him two or three stories and then lays down with him for a little bit. Usually we fall asleep before he does, so whoever does bedtime comes staggering downstairs, bleary-eyed, an hour after the little guy fell asleep. It's so nice to get to snuggle with the little dude, though, see?

The baby took a break from glaring at the world this morning and tried to lick her reflection. Also, this sleeper cracks me up. I love it.

Tonight, though, she went back to angry befuddlement.

Weirdo

I put the little girl down on the bed for a minute tonight, and the little dude climbed up, laid down next to her, and told me to get the camera. By the time I got back,  all three of them were laying there goofing around.

I think she's as confused as we are by the little guy sometimes.

Tato!!!

Meet Tato.

Hi!!!

Tato (possibly short for Potato?) is the newest member of our family.  Well, at least I think he is, though I'm not really sure when he arrived.  One morning this week he was just sitting on the kitchen table.  That morning the silly goose came downstairs, hopped up on the bench, and screams, "TATO!!!!" like he'd been missing for years.  Now every time he sees him it's like, "Hey Tato!" or "Look! It's Tato!" or "Come on, Tato!"

Tonight when he was heading up for bed he stopped and ran back into the kitchen.  

"Let's go Goose.  We've got to go to bed.  It's getting late."

"I gotta get Tato to his home!"

(blank stare)

After much ado, we finally get Tato to his home and laying down (which, please note, is tough for Weeble People).  Observe:

Yep, Tato now resides in the goldfish canister.  I guess you could say... he's sleeping with the fishes.  

Sorry.  Couldn't help myself.

Back to Life!

We're back home after a restful weekend of golfing (Eric) and not golfing (me!). Here's a picture of the little guy showing his daddy how to swing a golf club.

And here's a super flattering picture of me. This is my "It's wayyyy past your bedtime" face, apparently.

The little guy told me to repeat "It's late" to the camera while he took my picture. Already a documentarian... or maybe more like reality television because it was kind of scripted.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

The little guy was being a little whiny before bath time tonight and didn't want to take one.  I thought I would coax him into taking a shower if I took one with him.  Not really needing a shower I went to the bathroom with my swim trunks on.  As soon as the boy saw me he asked, "What ardoze?"  I replied, "They're my swim trunks." To which he said, "Um, okay.  I get mine!"  Then he went running into his room and pulled out his crazy trunk we bought for summer swim lessons and wanted to get a shower with those on, just like his daddy.

It was a little tough getting those wet trunks on and off in the shower to wash the kid, but he loves his swim trunks with the "bugs" on them.  He's so much fun!

Bedtime is for Suckers

The little guy was practically falling asleep on the changing table the other night, so we thought he was down for the count once he was in bed. Forty-five minutes after he fell asleep, though, we heard little footsteps running up and down the hall. I went upstairs and found this:

He went to bed in a diaper and footie pajamas. He's wearing big-boy underpants, fun shoes, school clothes, and daddy's hat. What a terrible child!

Bedtime Blues...

The little guy is starting to get up and run around upstairs after bedtime. It's frustrating and hilarious at the same time. He's a total ham, so he'll parade back to bed with a humongous grin on his face and flapping his arms like a chicken (don't ask-- because I don't know). I don't have any pictures of that, though, so here's one of the little dude and me goofing around tonight.