Reunited

Uncle Kyle, Aunt Kari, Annaliese, and Haleigh came down for a quick visit last week. They spent a few nights at Grandma and Grandpa's and the boys and I were lucky enough to spend an entire day with the group. We got there mid-morning, played shut-the-box, had snacks, played soccer, had lunch, wrestled, went swimming, were visited by Great Grandpa Dean, Great Grandma Didi, Aunt Penny, Uncle Mark, Hunky Greg, and Auntie M, rolled balls around, had dinner (which Jon was able to join us for), and even had Birthday cake for Grandpa since they won't be here for his actual Birthday. It was a fun-filled day and we are so glad we got to spend the time together even if it was brief. There are a lot of great memories from our time together, but I can't get over how sweet Annaliese was with Kieran and how many times she hugged him. He still talks about "ugging Aaa-leese" and it is just the best!!!

Finally a complete Family picture!!!

McClarty Rib Cook-Off

After Pepe's devastating (according to him) loss at the taco cook-off in April I think he really needed a chance at redemption and thus the idea for a rib cook-off was hatched. All in all there were six different entries and some of the family members even came early so they could avoid having to transport their ribs after cooking. Since we kicked off the Summer with a McClarty Party it seemed like a nice way to enjoy one of our last Summer weekends by spending time with family once again. The kids all had a ton of fun together and the boys loved having Auntie P to play with, getting to swim a ton, and drinking lots of lemonade. Unfortunately I was in the pool sans camera a lot of the time so I got few pictures of anything other than the kiddos. I definitely see another cook-off in our future as, once again, Pepe was not the winner, congrats to Tim who is our new champion!

Corn Hole

Tammi and Auntie P trying to help Reed pose for pictures

 

Reed Says Summer 2015 Edition

This Summer has definitely been a bit of an adjustment period for Reed. The preschool he's starting in a few weeks offers a Summer Day Care program that I enrolled him in three days a week for three hours. Every day when I pick him up he tells me about all of the fun things they did, the kids he played with, what the teachers taught him, but good-golly on the mornings I take him to school you would think I was trying to get him ready to be tortured. It was really very bad for a while. Lots of tears, yelling, kicking, acting out, etc. He still complains about going to school most days, but isn't lashing out nearly as much, doesn't cry when I drop him off, and still seems to love it each day I pick him up. I feel like the socialization with peers has been really great for him and I can't wait for school to officially start where he will have just one teacher and the attendance of all of the kids will be a bit more consistent.

Accomplishments over the last couple of months include standing up to pee, learning to write an R, sounding out short words, and being in charge of Dodger for about a quarter of our walk each day. Some of the words he comes up with just astound me and his thought processes are still so complex I really have to watch what I say or I easily back myself into a corner with a loop hole or technicality he figures out!

Normally on Sundays we just let the boys take one thing to Nonna and Pepe's so we don't run the risk of forgetting a bunch of important toys. A few weeks ago this exchange took place as we were getting ready to leave:
Reed: Can I take two Soft Sheeps into Nonna's house?
Mom: We'll see.
Reed: Does that mean yes or no? When Dad says that about Mario it's always a no, so I'm guessing it's a no.

When I discovered Dodger had dug a big hole in the backyard, throwing dirt all over the patio I said "Dodger!" pretty exasperatedly. Reedcito then came up to me, put his hand gently on me, and told me that he "sure would give him a consequence."

At dinner one Sunday Tio looked over and noticed that Reed's eyes were full of tears. He asked the Little Guy what was wrong and Reed explained in a wavering voice that "Yoshi is the last dinosaur. There are no more dinosaurs alive." He has been a little obsessed with dead vs. alive and dinosaurs in particular but apparently Tio bringing up Yoshi earlier at the table clicked with Reed that Yoshi was a dinosaur and therefore what his fate might be.

When Reed first started going to the Summer program at his preschool he was trying to remember everyone's name and was describing certain people to me. He described one of the teachers as "lumpier than Mrs. Young."

The Reedster was picking his nose and I told him that if he picked a booger again he was going to lose a bedtime book. A few minutes later Jon caught him with his finger up his nose and commented that it looked like he was losing a book. To which Reed replied that "I didn't actually get a booger so I can keep all of my books." - Loophole!

I left Reed in the garage taking off his shoes and brought a few bags of groceries into the house. He found me in the kitchen and informed me that he "took one shoe off outside and one off inside the house, because that's how I roll."

The Monkey is usually pretty hyped up when Nonna or Grandma arrive to babysit but one day he was over the top and kept bouncing a stuffed monkey, he calls Chatty, on Grandma. After hitting her in the chest a few times he declared that "Chatty is all up in Grandma's business."

School has definitely caused some separation anxiety and at the height of it Reed would talk about how he didn't like being away from me. At dinner he was going into detail about all of the people he didn't like to be away from including me, Grandma, Nonna, C, and Tio. When Jon asked "what about being away from me?" Reed very coolly replied "I'm okay with you being away from me."

Gran and Papa joined us for Sunday dinner one weekend and for some reason I ended up asking Kieran if different people around the dinner table were funny to which he kept saying yes to. So I asked him if there was anyone who wasn't funny, Reed quickly jumped in yelling "Gran!!!" -Apparently she has a better sense of humor than he gave her credit for because she laughed it off.

Reed's school is run by one of the local churches and every Wednesday they have Bible Study. One night something happened in the bathtub when Jon was washing up the boys and he said "Gosh." Reed then informed him that "Gosh is Gracious."

 

The boys love a CD called Here Come the ABCs by They Might be Giants. One of the songs is called Go for G and the chorus goes something like "Go, go, go, go for G." We were walking Dodger when Reed saw a gopher hole and asked me if that was "Gopher G or a different gopher?" It took me a minute, but I finally realized he was referencing the song!