I am panicking a little as I write this ... our baby girl will be 1 in 11 days. I c-a-n NOT b-e-l-i-e-v-e it. Honest to goodness, how can 1 year pass so quickly?? On the bright side it takes my mind of the fact that my birthday is in 6 days and I am OLD!!!
Reese has taken a few steps the past 2 days!! Her new favorite trick is to stand all by herself with a huge grin on her face :) She loves to stand up, let go and then look at you with the proudest look you've ever seen!!!! It's pretty stinkin' cute :) We love to applaud her and she soaks it up! My Dad tricked her into taking a step yesterday and since then she's taken a few. Mostly unintentionally or thinking that she is close enough to hold something. She loves to walk behind her princess ride-a-long car or use anything that will slide across the floor as a push toy!
Not sure if I blogged about this last time or not, but that 8th tooth is FINALLY completely through. I can not believe how hard she had to teeth for that sucker to break through. UGH! Hopefully the rest will be easy ... not likely, but we can always hope!
Reese is eating pretty much everything we are and has an enormous appetite (surprise, surprise!)! The only food we don't give her is the spicier foods we cook, i.e. the taco salad we had tonight. But she loves pretty much everything, she had 2 lasagna cupcakes last night ... we are really going to have to increase the amount of supper we make! I guess we should be thankful we have good eaters who are not picky.
Last week I tried to transition Reese to 1 afternoon nap per day. So far, so good. She gets pretty tired around 11 am and I have had to put her down earlier a few days, but for the most part she's switched to 1 afternoon nap! This is a lot earlier then Blake and Emerson, Blake dropped his morning nap at 18 months and Emerson was around 15 months. I'm not sure if I've pushed this on Reese to early or not, but she seems to be doing fine?? All kids are different, right?!
Reese has also began to imitate people. Our favorite is when she does a "fake laugh" ... if we're laughing around her she'll start up, copying us with what is obviously a fake laugh. SO funny!! She also has started clearing her throat or doing a fake cough when she sees me bringing her, her water cup! As if to say, "Oh thanks Mom, I'm parched!" So, so funny!!!
I like to say Reese is like a bulldog in a china shop! Not much stops her, she crawls right on over pretty much anything and anyone she thinks is in her way! In our family room we prop a gate up across the stairs, it's not locked in place, and she likes to get a finger in the tiny little gap there is, pull the gate back, quickly crawl out of the way and zoom up the stairs!!! She's so fast on the stairs, it is scary! I can't wait until she can crawl safely down!
Emerson is also changing up her sleep routine! She's not napped more then napped in the past 7 days. We think she's ready to completely drop her afternoon nap. We're a bit hesitant to stop her naps all together, as it is nearly impossible to reintegrate the nap once it's gone!! A few days she has been pretty tired in the afternoon, but we've noticed that when she doesn't have her nap she goes to sleep quicker and easier at night and she sleeps in a tiny bit longer! Soooo ... we're thinking it's time to say, "Hasta la vista" to Em's afternoon nap ;)
Em finished her session of Bubbler's swimming lessons last weekend. We've decided to not put her in lessons again until she is 3. The parented lessons are pretty boring for her at this point in time! She's been doing parented lessons since she was 1 and they really don't change much! I think she'll advance pretty quick from Bubblers to Floaters once she is 3, she has no fear and loves the water!
She's still in gymnastics and will move to un-parented when she's 3. Cal and I are wondering what Emerson's future holds for her, in relation to the sports she might pursue!!! She is a total monkey and spends much of the day doing her gymnastics on the coffee table, couch, Cal's lazy-boy, her bed, etc. She loves to climb, jump, swing, skip, dance and roll!!! Sometimes I feel like I'm audience to a constant talent show with Blake and Em performing all day long ... "Watch this Mom!" "Mom, look what I can do!" "I can do that too Blake!" "Look at us Mom!!" It's fun, but sometimes I'm a bit concerned about the furniture ;)
Emerson is miss chatty and has become quite the story teller. It is hilarious actually! She comes up with some pretty good tales! The best part is her facial expressions! If you've ever witnessed one of her stories, you know what I mean. Unfortunately she won't let me capture one of these events on video, but maybe one day! Some of her favorite sayings are, "Cool!" and "Holy smokes!!" Holy smokes is one of my favorites, she can't quite pronounce smokes correctly and the way she says it is adorable!
Emerson is quite enthralled with Auntie Lindsay's baby ... the other day when I got off the phone with Lindsay, Em asked who I was talking to. I said, "Auntie Lindsay" and she asked, "What's Auntie's baby doing?" LOL!!! I said, "He's in Auntie's tummy, growing and getting ready to be born!" She said, "How's he eating?" I thought, oh brother ... but tried to explain as best as I could! Which lead to needing to see every one's belly buttons ;)
Blake started his new session of swimming lessons last Friday. He is in Gliders now and spent 95% of the lesson in the deep end of the pool!! He is doing awesome, we're so proud of his swimming skills and confidence in the water! Now if only we could figure out his aversion to getting water in his eyes in the bath tub ... odd ... how can someone be a complete fish in the pool, do 10 bobs in a row but hate getting water in his eyes when his parents are washing his hair?! Maybe his swim instructor should come over for bath time ;)
Blake's Initiation hockey is going great, every week he seems to be moving faster! And his learn to skate program on Monday's is really helping too! He tends to revert to pushing with only one foot, but he's working on it. Today we all went to his skating lesson and both Cal and I were surprised at how well he was skating backwards! Crazy how much he has learned and improved since the beginning of last season.
I've had the privilege of volunteering in Blake's preschool class a couple of times and I can't wait until the next time! His teacher this year is extremely good and he has learned so much. Not only printing and letter sounds, but every week they have a theme and he has come home talking about his community, personal hygiene, manners, the 4 seasons and the changes with each season, the months of the year, what a hero is to him, safety around home, etc, etc. Really great planning and activities this year! I thought last year was good, but it doesn't hold a candle to this year! Hopefully this staff will continue for a few years and the girls will have the same teachers!
Blake is growing and growing and growing ... everywhere we go people think he's 5 or 6. He's quite tall for his age! He eats a lot and is sleeping 13 to 14 hours a night! I guess that is why he's growing ... eat, sleep, grow!!!
Cal assembled the new bunk beds on Saturday. The instructions sucked, but he got it done! They look awesome and the kids are in love with them. Every night Em has said, "And we get to sleep in our new bunk beds!!!" The first night in the bunks, it took awhile to settle them down. Mostly because Emerson kept crawling up to Blake's bunk!!!! One time I went in there and she was right on top of him, apparently trying to wrestle. What a turkey! We really enjoy their conversations at night time and have a good chuckle when we hear Em ask Blake what he wants to talk about. His answer is usually that he wants to talk about sleeping or he says, "Nothing. I'm going to sleep Em." But occasionally he'll be game for a pre-bedtime convo and they'll talk about Halloween costumes, Christmas, school, etc. Although they have their share of arguments and fights, they're best of buds most of the time :) Right now their plan is for Reese to move into their room when she's old enough! We shall see.
Well, I better get some shut eye. There is not enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done around the house, let alone the things I want to do! But I enjoy documenting our day to day activities and funny stories so staying up a bit later to write the Blog is worth the heavy eye lids and the still untidy house :) I know I'll be glad I kept this up one day and I'm sure the rest of the family will be too! Night, night! Enjoy the rest of your week!
xoxo
Tracy
