The Day to Day

Nothing too new or exciting in the Neal house this week. Just our regular old routine. Big things are coming though, what with Halloween and Keira's Baptism right around the corner.

Indian summer afternoons playing in the yard



Keira enjoying the new patio


Jason has said that he wants a boy to play sports or go fishing with. I say, when a kid is ready, willing, and able to get this dirty, gender doesn't matter.

That dirt is ground in!

Isn't she cute?

Expert thumb sucker!

The girls playing together in the living room.

Julia has become a very good "little mommy". She imitates everything I do with Keira so rather than having her swipe a half full bottle, she got one of her own to feed her baby.

Apparently she has also been "feeding" the dogs by taking all of their food from the food bowls and putting it in the water bowl. What fun. Remember Gravy Train?

The girls had their first bath together. Keira was not pleased!

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend and had a great time. Keira fell asleep when we got to Playland and stayed asleep until we were on our way home. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Welcome Fall!

Fall is here! Hooray! The leaves are starting to change color and it was time to decorate the house. I managed to go out, get the stuff, and decorate all while Julia was napping. What a surprise when she got up! We went outside to draw with the sidewalk chalk and look-ey what she found!

Getting a feel for the mums.

Love this picture! It's classic Jules!

We'll add pumpkins after next week's trip to the pumpkin patch.

Keira was very interesting in what Julia was doing.

Julia showing Keira the flowers.

Julia's sidewalk art.

Mommy's sidewalk art.

She was loving touching the flowers!

Julia and her friend, Olivia, at Olivia's house.

I've been tagged

This one is for Miss Jack at Spyrou Chronicles. Unfortunately, I don't know too many bloggers out there as I'm still exploring the wide world of blog. Pretty much it's just you (Miss Jack), A., and T. Ross. A. just did this last month too so I'll spare her and for some reason I have trouble commenting on Ben and Katie's place. So I'll fill it out and make a request to all (any?) readers out there. Feel free to add it to your blogs (and send me the links by the way).

The rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 years ago I was:
1. 20 years old
2. In my junior year at Beaver College
3. Laughing (and crying) with my roommate, Angie, about how VERY loud our deaf neighbor's answering machine message was.
4. Driving around in my 1988 Ford Tempo, Betty.
5. Totally broke.

5 things on today’s to-do list:
1. Laundry
2. Decorate for fall
3. Put clean sheets on the beds (I borrowed this one, but it's true)
4. Write a post for the blog (This one too)
5. Go to the grocery store.

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Anything chocolate
2. yogurt covered raisins
3. apples, which I can't eat because I'm allergic so I settle for cider
4. graham crackers
5. grapes

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire: (I’m changing this to be Billionaire)
1. pay off my student loans
2. pay off my mortgage
3. put more money in the kids 529 accts
4. buy a house in Aruba so we could go whenever we wanted!
5. take mom, bill, tim, & tab on a british isles cruise.

5 places I have lived:
1. Easthampton, MA
2. Stevens, PA
3. West Windsor, NJ
4. Mercerville, NJ
5. Mt Royal, NJ

5 jobs I have had:
1. Being a mom
2. Purchasing clerk for a military export company
3. QC Chemist (did a little microbio too)
4. Receptionist
5. Cashier and Deli clerk

Neal Goings-on

So I asked Jason to take the kids outside (play in the yard or go for a walk, whatever) so I could clean the family room without interruption. About 30 minutes later I went outside and this is how I found Julia. Her clothes were white when she went out there. Nothing like leaving it to Daddy to double Mommy's workload!

Keira got her first taste of bananas the other day. Now I remember how much I hated teaching Julia to eat/chew. She did ok for her first time, but she definitely wasn't sold on the idea.

There are some battles that just aren't worth fighting. Shortly after getting Julia dressed today, she came upon a Dora bathing suit in the hand-me-downs from our neighbor. She wanted to wear it...needed to wear it. We weren't going anywhere so what the heck. Here is the end result.

Jules also managed to find her way into the storage area. My mom and I recently bought some wrapping paper, bags and bows for the upcoming Christmas season. Our goal is to stay ahead of the game. Last year we had all of our gifts bought and wrapped before Thanksgiving. Julia was in love with the bows. Maybe she'll take after Mommy in that regard and become a Christmas nut in her own rite.

Playtime

Keira is starting to really enjoy all the different things to look at on the exersaucer.

Julia has become quite the little mommy herself. She tells her baby "I love you" and gives her kisses all the time.

Not sure where this pose came from, but all I can think of is Home Alone.

Julia was helping Keira play by pushing the buttons that turn on the music.

Keira and Winky playing.

Keira's 4 month checkup

Keira had her 4 month checkup last week and so far so good. She is up to 15.2 lbs (90%) and 25.9 inches (95%) so she is an all around big kid for her age, but proportionately so. We did find out that she has an ear infection in her left ear but it was asymptomatic so we had no way of knowing it was there. It is most likely due to the fact that she has allergies and fluid was just sitting there in her head. Yuck! Anyway, she's now on antibiotics and allergy medicine in addition to her reflux medicine...none of which she takes very easily. She also had her next round of vaccinations so she is 85% immune those diseases. Next round is at 6 months and then she will be 98% immune and we can get her ears pierced! Julia went along as well but only needed a flu shot. She did surprisingly well. She didn't even cry. Wow. My babies are growing up too fast!

Big Shoes to Fill

I did a terrible, but in my world necessary, Mommy thing today. Keira fell asleep in her swing and so I put on Dora for Julia. I can see the family room from the kitchen so it freed up 24 minutes for me to clean the kitchen and keep an eye on her. Half way through I went down to check on her. I found her like this. She had taken off one sock and one shoe and stuck both of her feet into my sneakers. Even the foot that still had her shoe on was jammed in.

She paraded around this way for about 5 minutes and then took one of my sneakers off. The other one was stuck (the one with the jammed in 2nd sneaker of course) so she called out for "help, Ba!"