The Nevill Family: Fall update

Addie has been loving preschool. She talks about a couple of kids, McKenna and Joseph, frequently, and a lot of little tidbits about her day come out here and there. She’s been the line leader, but not the flag holder yet. Once she told the teacher she couldn’t play a ball game because she hurt her back at her grandpa’s house – finally we figured out she was talking about something 4 days before when she fell on the deck at our neighbor Mr. Tom’s house. Her back was fine, so we don’t know why she said that to her teacher. She comes home with some sort of artwork every day, and the fire man and fire truck came to their school and taught them about fire safety. She got a coloring book full of fire stuff and it was fun to talk to her about it. The mornings have been going well. Addie wakes up around 7, and we get dressed, eat quickly and are out the door by 7:25 or so. Usually Ryan is awake, so I take him and his juice in the car with us.

Almost ready for school!

The fire truck came to her school

Ryan and I have been having fun while Addie’s in school. I often will go run errands with him (MUCH easier with one child!) and before we know it, it’s time to go get Addison. I’m able to get in a different mindset with him now, shifting my view to see him as an “only child”, like Addie was when she was that age. It helps me to appreciate his development and personality, and see what he’s putting together and learning. All too often that stuff gets lost with him, while with Addie, Matt and I were keenly aware of every new word, phrase, or concept she came up with. Ryan is basically a happy little boy (big change from his first year of life) and is very silly. He jokes around and says funny things. He’s more easygoing than Addie was in a lot of aspects – more of a go with the flow instead of focusing intently on every task or errand, scrutinizing to make sure it all met with his approval, like Addison was. He talks all the time now, and has sort of latched on to a stuffed dinosaur toy. Last night we went to see a Christmas parade, and while we were getting him out of the car, he grabbed the dino and said, “Dinosaur. See it Mismis Parade. " Which meant that the dinosaur wanted to see the Christmas parade too. He’s also projecting, like saying the dinosaur was scared of something when really it was Ryan who was scared (of the sirens on the fire trucks in the Mismis parade).

"Dinosaur. Wear it. Ryan's shoes!"

We had Addie’s birthday party a little early. She wanted a My Little Pony party, so I made her a castle cake (with fruit rainbow and yogurt cloud), and we played some games, colored, played with Play-dough, and had a good time. We had about 7 little girls - it was awesome to see all the girls that Addie has known since she was 1 year old all grown up at 4 (well, some are late 3’s). And it was fun to be able to play games with them since they are old enough.

Pony castle cake and fruit rainbow!

Making pink glitter playdough

Opening my old My Little Ponies that I have entrusted to her

Someone DID NOT ask before they began eating a turret.

Halloween – Addie was Toothless the black dragon from How To Train Your Dragon, and her costume turned out cute! It was black pants and top, and black cardboard wings I made, with black horns on a headband. At the couple of fall festivals (and Zoo Boo with cousin Hunter), people thought she was a bat, so I made her a sign to wear around her neck that said, “Dragon In Training.” We got LOTS of candy on just a couple of streets in Hunter’s neighborhood and all three kids had a great time. Ryan was Superman in a borrowed costume from a friend.

Birthday donut

Immediately after previous picture - she bit her finger and it bled a LOT

Birthday table and presents

Addie and Hunter

Our three cute kids trick or treating

Ryan and his Aunt Jennifer

Daddy and Dragon

At Zoo Boo

Dragon at the Zoo

At the pumpkin patch

Two turkeys

Reese, who just moved to Indonesia last week. I tried to get Addie to smile nicely.

Ryan being cute

Sharing their first-ever cotton candy

We’ve finally got all the pieces of the swingset up and the kids love it. For the past weeks, every morning they want to get up and go play on it first thing. It’s been warm some and cold some, so they either go out barefoot in their pajamas or with shoes and socks and coats over their pajamas! It’s been VERY nice to see them play together so much, and although they do get into squabbles (apparently two swings aren’t enough for two kids), when one of them comes inside, the other one calls for them to come back outside to play.