Baby Connor

Today we got to keep my friend, Kristin's, daughter. She was already here when Reese woke up this morning. I walked in to Reese's room to get her out of bed and she was immediately excited to have the baby there to play with. I changed both of their diapers and then took them downstairs. While I was getting Connor's bottle ready I put her in her bouncy seat. Reese didn't leave her side. She wanted to touch her, bounce her, play with her toys, give her the pacifier if it fell out, and anything else that she could get away with. When I was feeding Connor her bottle, Reese wanted to help so she helped me hold the bottle. She didn't like when Connor cried...she would look like she was going to cry too. After Connor ate she was awake for a little while and then fell asleep in my arms. I put her down for a nap in Reese's room thinking she would wake up soon afterwards...but she slept for 3.5 hours!! I couldn't believe it. She must have been so comfy and snuggly in Reese's bed.

While Connor was napping, Reese wanted to play with everything that was Connor's. She put Abby in the car seat and rocked her.

And then she decided it would be fun to play in the car seat herself. I found her in the seat multiple times just hanging out. She also got in Connor's bouncy seat but I didn't catch a picture of that. I can only imagine what it is going to be like when Reese's little brother gets here and all of the baby toys are out.

While Reese was napping Kristin came and picked Connor up. When Reese woke up she was looking everywhere for the baby. I told her Connor went home to her mommy's house and Reese started crying, "No Mommy's house". She was so sad she didn't get to tell her goodbye. While I was making dinner Reese ventured upstairs to play. It got quiet so I called up to her to see what she was doing and she didn't answer. When I got upstairs her door was closed. She had been able to reach in to her crib to get her paci and was just hanging out enjoying it. I just left her alone and let her play. Later it got quiet again so I went up to check on her and this is what I found...

She is in her basket of baby dolls. She is so silly!!

Memorial Day Weekend...so far

Our Memorial Day weekend has been fun so far. Friday night we celebrated my mom becoming a principal and my sister finishing the Fire Academy!! We bought a cake for both of them and Reese loved the cake...check out that face full of icing.

Saturday morning we headed up to Lake Keowee in SC for a going away party for my cousin and his wife. They are moving to LA for her to go to law school at Pepperdine. Reese got to go out on her first boat ride. She was a little nervous at first about the boat going "fast" but then relaxed and enjoyed.

It was really windy so I covered her up with a blanket.

And then she fell asleep. It wasn't surprising. She didn't sleep much Friday night and then the rocking motion on the boat knocked her out.

Later she got to play in the sand and LOVED it. I can't wait to take her to the beach this summer and let her play in the sand for a full week.

This has nothing to do with the weekend so far...well and everything to do with it because it will happen several times. Reese loves to color. I find her like this a lot. She colors every chance she gets.

Dear Billy Dean,

Thank you so much for your beautiful song, "Let Them Be Little". My favorite part is "...let them smile, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle...most of all let them be little". It was a great reminder to let Reese be little. And it made it easier to allow her to sleep in our bed occasionally. I know she won't want to do that forever so I am trying to snuggle with her when I can. However, do you think you could change the words to "...let them sleep in the middle once or twice a week" because she is taking it to the extreme. She has slept in our bed the last two nights!! When she wakes up in the middle of the night all we hear is her saying "Reese. Mommy Daddy's bed"...over and over and over. She won't take no for an answer. So she gets in bed with us, flips and flops, kicks and pokes all night. When we know she is good and asleep (because I have been awake for the two hours that she has been in my bed) I try to pick her up and move her back to her bed. Then her eyes pop wide open and she cries, "No mommy. Reese sleep Mommy Daddy's bed". And the cycle starts all over again. So, again, thank you and please change the words.

Sincerely,

Renee

P.S. If you do change the words of the song, I should get royalties...and I will use that money to buy a bigger bed for all of us to sleep in...'cause I don't think she is going anywhere any time soon.

My Sweet Chunky Monkey

Reese had a doctors visit this morning for a vaccination. These are never fun! She was so good though. I think since she has been going to the doctor with me so much and sees me with the doctor she is a little less nervous about it. That is until I lay her down on the table to get a shot. Grr! She does not like this one bit...but who would? She received her last DTaP shot today. Thank goodness! The only shots she has left are MMR and the chicken pox one. I am still holding out on these two. More research needs to be done by me and the CDC and the vaccination suppliers!!! I really hate all of these vaccinations and it is such a touchy subject. I made the decision to separate all of her shots so she only got one at a time. That way if we saw any kind of negative reaction we would know which vaccination caused it. We will definitely be doing that with Baby Cupcake too. Our pediatrician is so wonderful about this and I really think she feels the same way I do about it all. Anyways, they weighed Reese on the big girl scale today. In the past we just put her on the big baby scale that she sits or lays on. Today she got to stand on the scale. She weighed 30 lbs, 6 ounces!!!! I knew she was creeping up on 30 pounds. We have friends whose three year olds don't even weigh 30 pounds yet. Reese is one solid piece of sweetness!! I don't know how tall she is yet but I know she has grown a whole bunch recently. Her dresses are starting to get too short. They will check her height at her two year visit...in two months...yes, I said TWO months!! How is that possible?

Gymnastics Medal

Yesterday at gymnastics they did an "awards ceremony" for all of the kids. They were to walk up on to the podium, Miss Jennifer would put a medal around their neck, they would raise their arms up just like big gymnasts do at the end of a routine, and everyone would clap. All of the kids did this...except Reese. This is what she did...


She did not like all eyes on her. She loved watching the other kids do it but did not want to do it herself. After all of the kids went and nobody was watching anymore, I put her up on the podium and she did exactly as she was supposed to. It was so funny. She is a mess. She loved wearing her medal the rest of the day and showing it to anyone who asked.

After everyone received their medal, she did what she was supposed to do.


Reese and Kay-Kay


Her favorite part of gymnastics...getting stamps on her hands and feet.


Reese and Kay-Kay with their medals

Reese meets Elmo

...sort of!

On Thursday Elmo visited a place near by that does a music time for kids. We, of course, could not pass the chance up to see Elmo in person. The second Reese saw him she knew who he was (I was surprised how not cute he was). However, she did not want to get close. As time went on she crept closer and closer but still would not hug him or sit in his lap. Even after Tuck-Tuck sat in his lap she wanted nothing to do with Elmo. She loved waving and blowing him kisses...from afar. When it was time for Elmo to leave she cried. She was so sad to see him go.

She did snuggle one of the Elmo dolls they had there.

Baby Cupcake

If we had been pregnant with a girl, her name was picked out. Well, her turned out to be a him and we have no names!! I have decided that boy names are much harder to pick out. The selection is much more limited. The pressure is much higher. The name has to be cute and sweet enough to fit a little boy but has to grow up with him to become a great man's name! Oh, the pressure!! I have dreams about names running through my head. I know we still have a long time before this little guy arrives but I am feeling the pressure already. We have asked Reese what she wanted to name her little brother. Her requests have been Tuck-Tuck (after her favorite buddy Tucker), Elmo, and most recently Cupcake. Baby Cupcake came up last night because she has cupcakes printed on her pajamas. This morning when we were getting ready to leave I told her we were going to see mommy's doctor and she said "Baby Cupcake?". I guess she remembered seeing the ultrasound last week and remembered that we named her baby brudder "Baby Cupcake" last night. She mentioned it several times while we were at the doctors office too. So for now we have "Baby Cupcake". That is definitely a cute and sweet baby name but I don't think it is going to become a great man's name. We have a lot of work to do.

Baby Brudder

Here is Reese telling me who is in the ultrasound picture.

Here is a picture of Reese trying to slide down her Little People roller coaster. She is such a mess. It is so funny to see what she thinks and comes up with.

Her little imagination is growing so much. She is starting to talk in "sentences" by adding three or more words together to tell us what she is thinking or wants. Sometimes her little brain gets going so fast that she will just repeat her name over and over until her mouth can catch up. You probably can't tell in the picture above but she doesn't have a diaper on. Sometimes when I am changing her diaper she will roll away from me before she has a new one on. I usually just let her run around like "Naked Reese" for a while. She definitely knows how to hold her "tee-tee". She can go for over an hour without a diaper on and without making a mess. I usually try to sit her on the potty once or twice during this time but she never actually goes. Tonight she told me she needed to "tee-tee" and then climbed in her wagon but I grabbed her and put her on the potty before she could make a mess. But she did not want to do that so she let me put her diaper on. We will definitely continue working on this and hopefully have her potty trained before her "baby brudder" gets here.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! It actually started on Saturday when I got home from my parents house with Reese. Lance had been cleaning the house all morning. He also did a lot of organizing which needed to be done desperately. He even cleaned and organized the pantry!! Reese and I got home soon after he was done with that and then we put her down for a nap. Once she was good and asleep he went out to get all of the yard work done so he didn't have to worry about that at all on Mother's Day!! He wanted to be able to spend the day with me and Reese.

Bright and early Sunday morning I got up and went to the Walk to Empower with a couple of girlfriends. It was in Chastain Park and was a beautiful walk. It was a small event (this was only their 3rd year doing it) so there were not too many people participating. It was great though to have my friends there and we could chat without each of us having to stop to entertain our little ones or dodge a million people who were also walking with us. It was perfect!




While I was at the walk, Lance took Reese to have breakfast with his mom. They stayed for a little while and got home with in 30 minutes of me getting home. We had a nice relaxing afternoon while Reese napped, went to the mall for a few minutes, and then had dinner. I loved spending time with both of them!!

Since I left before Reese got up, Lance was in charge of getting her ready...he obviously did not do her hair and this is what she looked like...her hair is crazy!!

Relay for Life

Friday, Reese and I went out to Gwinnett County's Relay for Life again this year. It was wonderful, as usual! We drove out right after gymnastics was over and had lunch at Bek-Bek's school. Reese loved being there with all of the big kids. We were visiting the Kindergarten classroom of a college friend of mine and Reese walked right in to the one next door and wanted to play. They were playing on a loft in their room and she asked Bek-Bek if she could climb up. She had a great time.


When Bek-Bek was done with school we went to the fairgrounds. One of the first things we saw was a clown so we asked him to make Reese a balloon animal.

She was scared of him. She turned away from him and started tearing up. I bought her a cookie to try to distract her but she only wanted a hug.

One of our favorite parts of being there is the Survivor Walk. All of the survivors and their families take a lap around the grounds and everyone else there stops what they are doing and claps...for the whole walk. The walk takes a while and Reese clapped the whole time. She was so good and loved watching all of the people walk by. She would also raise both hands over her head and say "Hey Everybody". It was so sweet. A lot of the walkers would stop and clap with her or wave to her...they loved it.

Each Gwinnett County School and a bunch of businesses set up tents to sell items and all proceeds go to Relay for Life. This year you could see the effects of the economy slightly but there were so many fun things to see and buy. Reese got to jump in this jump house for as long as she wanted...which was maybe three minutes. There was too much going on outside to see.

Reese was such a ham all night. We ended up not leaving until 9:45 or so...she could have stayed and partied all night long!!

Monkey #2 Ultrasound

We had an ultrasound for Monkey #2 today...



Isn't HE cute??

Tomahawk Chop

The other day my mom taught Reese how to do the "Tomahawk Chop" while we were at the Braves game. While she was signing and dancing yesterday she stopped to show me the chop. Here you go Granddaddy...

Bad Dreams and a Movie Review

I know...totally random title but this post is going to be totally random!!

Last night I think Reese had her first bad dream. It was so weird. Lance and I were watching a movie (review to come later). Reese had been in bed for less than an hour and started screaming. It wasn't a normal middle of the night cry so I immediately went in her room. She was still laying down facing the wall and was just screaming. I rubbed her back for a while then she turned her head towards me but still didn't acknowledge that I was in her room. I realized she was still asleep. So I rubbed her back and legs trying to stimulate her to wake up with out shaking her out of it and scaring her even more. I started to say her name and she sat up but still with her eyes closed. Usually when she sits up she will immediately reach for me but she didn't. So I just picked her up and she was limp...still asleep and still screaming. I sat in the rocking chair and just held her. Lance doesn't usually come in to check on things but he did because she was inconsolable. I asked him to turn her light on so we could see her better. Her eyes were still closed and she was still crying so hard. She eventually woke up but still cried for a little while. I asked her if she wanted to come in to our room and lay down...of course she wouldn't pass that up. So she laid in our bed for a while and snuggled the whole time. She didn't try to get up or wiggle around too much. Not long afterwards she fell back asleep with her head on my chest. She never falls asleep with the TV on so she must have been so tired. I put her back in her bed and she slept until 1:30. Then I heard her wake up saying "Reese Mommy Daddy bed"...we let her fall back asleep on her own since she wasn't crying...and I really do not want to let this habit get out of control. If that is going to happen we need a bigger bed!!

When I was pregnant with Reese I read somewhere that pregnant women will often have bad dreams. I didn't. But this time I have been. The last three nights I have had bad dreams. Ones that I almost shoot out of bed when I wake up, have chills, and can't go back to sleep for a little while. Usually in the morning I kind of laugh at myself because in reality the dream wasn't really that scary but it seemed so scary in the middle of the night. Last nights dream was scary though. I have a fear of being in a bad situation and not being able to scream for help and that is what happened in my dream. Hopefully these bad dreams won't continue.

Now for the movie review. We watched the movie "Australia" for two nights. It was 2.5 hours long and I just can't make it through a movie that long all at once. The first half we didn't really love but the second half was much better. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. When Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were on Oprah talking about it I thought it was going to be more documentary like. It is not a movie that I would say you have to see but it was OK. The most impressive part is knowing that the little boy in it is a true Aboriginal (I think that is the right word) who was not an actor before this movie. He had never even seen a TV or video camera, etc. He was an amazing actor and I was so impressed with him...not to mention he was as cute as could be.

Walk to Empower

Ok readers...one last time...I am going to bug you about a donation. PLEASE click on the link to the right that says "Please Donate" or you can click here to donate to Walk to Empower.

I have to least amount raised on my team so far...don't you want to help a sister out?? I thought so! Thank you!!

Date Day

Today Lance and I had a date day. My parents had tickets to the Braves game but my dad was unable to go. So they gave us the tickets and my mom kept Reese. Before the game we went to Atlantic Station to go shopping at Ann Taylor Loft. When I was pregnant with Reese they started a maternity line and that is where I bought my favorite outfit. I wanted to go buy some new shorts but when we walked in I couldn't find the maternity clothes anywhere. One of the workers said they stopped making it!! I was so disappointed. So we had some lunch and headed down to the ballpark. After an inning and a half it started to pour....and pour...and pour.



We sat in our seats for a while but it eventually became to much. So we walked around for about an hour. I told Lance I didn't have much patience left in me to wait it out. He said it would probably be another hour at least before they started the game back up. So we (probably more I) decided to leave. The second we got to the car it stopped raining. I felt bad about that but there was nothing we could do. About 15 minutes in to our ride home, the game started back up. Sorry honey!!

So we came back home, played with Reese, and my mom made us dinner!!!

It was a nice time away but is was so nice to be back too!

Fun Friday

Yesterday we had a great day!! We started the morning at gymnastics. I really love taking Reese there. I know she loves it and it brings back fun memories for me. For a couple of years (somewhere around the ages of 6-8...I think) I did gymnastics at UGA (Suzanne Yoculan was my coach and her assistant Doug...yes the Suzanne Yoculan) with two friends from my hometown of Madison. My mom would usually drive us out there because she was getting her MBA and then one of the other parents would bring us home. It was probably a 45 minute drive there and back so we had a ton of fun in the car. But gymnastics was fun too. My favorite parts were floor, bar (which is funny because Reese is not a fan of the bar), and of course the trampoline. They would strap a harness on you and you could jump as high as you wanted and flip as many times as you could. Probably my favorite was at the end of class Doug would lay on the floor and put his hands above his head, you would step in to his hands, and he would stand up...very cheerleader like but I loved that he could stand up from laying down while holding us above his head. Fun memories!!

Geez, I got way off point. Back to our Friday. After gymnastics we went to Chick-fil-a with Liz and Kay-Kay, to meet some of Liz's friends. The original plan was to go to the park but it started raining. After the kids ate lunch, they played ON THEIR OWN in the play area. I couldn't believe it. They climbed up and down in the play structure and just entertained each other. It was so fun to watch from behind the glass.

Then last night we met Tuck-Tuck and his parents at Mellow Mushroom for dinner. We have been trying to make dinner happen with them for a while and we finally did. We had a great time and Reese was totally excited to have her buddy there with her. We sat on the patio so we let them get down and play some. After dinner we went to Brusters for some ice cream. Reese loved that she got to have her own little cone and ate every single bit of it. Tucker loved his ice cream too but then a puppy walked up and it was all over for him. All he wanted to do was get down on the ground and play with the puppy. I wish I had brought my camera with us. There were so many cute moments from the night.

We had a great Friday!! I hope yours was just as much fun!!