Instant Upgrades!!

Hi all!

What an incredible day today was.
Well...at least the second half. :)
It feels like both kids suddenly made these great leaps ahead in terms of...I guess "progress" is the word.
Lemme explain/show:

Firstly, in terms of our bicycling situation.
Ever since we got Ella Rose's tagalong about a month ago, it changed the way we get around most places, and especially to/from school:

Ella Rose is always nice and bundled up for our commutes :)

On her tagalong, Ella Rose isn't as much dead weight as before, and can actually propel me forward a bit if she really pedals in earnest. Yay!! It is really making her stronger, I feel, and she loves the freedom it grants her :)

But just today, Ella Rose wanted to accompany me to a friend's house on an errand, on her good old two-wheel bike...and add an attachment to it:

Such a proud big sis, with a somewhat bewildered William in the trailer

Indeed, we attached the trailer to her bike and she toted William the entire way there and half of the way back!!
She loved feeling so responsible for her little brother and I can't believe she's only 4 1/2 and was able to pull him so far for so long!! Watch out, Proud Mama here!! :D

Here's a little video of them in action:

So as if that wasn't awesome enough, back at home, Ella said she wanted to accompany Dada to the grocery store and pull the groceries in the trailer behind her...and before she left, I was able to finally teach her how to tie her shoes!!
It only took literally 5 or so minutes, because I opted to teach her using the "two loops" method. Here is a little video of Ella tying her one shoe:

I'm not gonna lie, teaching her was fast, but her actually tying the shoe takes a little while.
Granted, she's only been able to do it as of this one evening :)
I have the feeling she will get good and fast at it by the time the weekend is through, which is good because then she can use her skills at school to tie and untie her own shoes, saving Miss Christine a lot of work! :)

The icing on the cake, was just before dinner and it involved William.
Dash and I were talking about how Tak'e had to be fed, and how I'd get around to it as soon as I was done with the hashbrowns...when I suddenly hear the sound of dog food going into Tak'e's bowl, and there's William having taken the initiative to feed him himself! He used the scooper in the bag and poured it right into Tak'e's bowl without spilling it or anything!
The smart little fella had overheard us and gone ahead to do the chore for us! What a sweetie!!

So yeah, that is all I have to report for now.
Crazy how in one afternoon and evening, the kiddos sort of "advanced" in leaps and bounds.
Maybe I'm overreacting to these tiny little updates, but to me they feel big!
If we can get William to always feed Tak'e...well wow, that'd be frickin' awesome.
And Ella Rose tying her shoes -- well, that's not going away any time soon so that is great too. Really, Miss Christine had just told me how the kids can't wear lace-up shoes to school because it takes so long for the teachers to have to tie and untie them for them...but now that Ella can do it herself, she can wear her lace-up sneakers and whatnot at last!! :)

And the toting of William by Ella... Too cool!! A great way to keep her strong and give her a real sense of purpose and responsibility, which she loves~

Well, that is all I am going to say tonight.
I hope you all have had a great week and are looking forward to an even greater weekend.
Until then, take care and Happy Instant Updates!!