Birthday Party Day!

We had a great Saturday morning celebrating Reese with friends! The weather was just sunny enough that we were able to play outside! The boys played baseball and the girls played house. Then many of the kids had races up and down our hill. We did presents and cake outside too! September is becoming my new favorite month! We are grateful for the friends that came to celebrate. And we are in love with our little girl even more than last year!

Presents at the park

After birthday dinner we walked over to the park and Grammie and Gramps had a present to give Reese....adorable farm puppets! (They know "EIO" is her favorite song.) SO with encouragement from these fun loving Grandparents, we sat on our knees around this two year old, with puppets on our hands, belting out Old McDonald! Oh the things you do as parents! Good thing the park was not very crowded!

Birthday Dinner

We made it to the birthday dinner Thursday night! Reese is healthy again and eating well. She loved her dinner and kept asking when we were going to sing Happy Birthday. The people at the resturant thought singing to Reese would scare her so they quietly brought her a HUGE ice cream treat. But we insisted that she would love the singing. So they gathered together and sang to her......She did not move a muscle! Reese promtly removed the hat as soon as they were done, knocking her ice cream on to her shirt! (It would have been in her lap had it not been for the quick reaction of Gramps!) So when you ask her how her birthday dinner was she wil tell you "Messy! Messy!"

Happy Birthday TWO you!

Monday was Reese's 2nd birthday. We were not going to tell her that it was her birthday, we were going to wait until Thursday to celebrate. But since the Doctor let the cat out of the bag, we had a little celebration. Reese woke up Sunday morning with blisters in her mouth, on her tongue. We did some internet research and were pretty sure she had the dredded "hand foot and mouth disease" but wanted to make sure. So we spent her birthday morning at the doctors finding out she has a moderate to severe case of it. We still plan on celebrating on Thursday with family at Reese's favorite place to eat and we are hoping she will be well enough to celebrate with friends on Saturday.

Target Binkie

We took a simple trip to target to get Reese new binkies on our trip. She had chewed through 4 of them! Those back molars are a bear! So we went to find a teethier binkie and pick up some replacements. Reese now calls these her "target binkies" A conversation with dad went like this:
Reese "Target binkie!"
Dad "Is that your Target binkie?"
Reese "Yes! Grammie Gramps!"
Dad "Did Grammie and Gramps get that for you?"
Reese "Yes! Aliforina!"
Dad "Did they get it for you in Califorina?"
Reese "Yes! Airbus! Airplane! Up high"
Dad "Did you take an airplane to Califorina?"
Reese "Yes! Target binkie!"

Books, books and more books

Reese is really beginning to LOVE reading and asks us to read her stories all the time. Grammie was only to happy to read to her granddaughter. I think they read together every night we were there. Grammie was reading the books that she used to read with Kacy and Kami, as they were first learning to read. Reese really liked these simple books. When we returned home, the next day Reese was walking around our kitchen saying "Wishy Washy wishy washy" quoting her favorite book that Grammie would read her. Who says reading doesn't stick with you!

Happy Grandparents!

Watching my mom and dad grandparent their grandgirls brings me so much joy! They have so much fun together! And of course they know just what to do with little girls, as they have had much practice! Happy Grandparents day Mom and Dad! Thanks for being so loving to all your girls!

Kami get it!

Thank you Aunt Kami, for being so willing to entertain Reese Ryan! Catch in the ocean, little people in the living room, swimming in the pool and those mysterious taps on the head from the back seat in the car, you kept Reese happy. Thank you for loving her so much!

GRAMPS!

Reese and Gramps were snuggled on the couch watching "Caillou" after dinner one night. We all know what Grandpas like to do after dinner....take a little nap. We snuck in to find Reese intent on watching Caillou and Gramps fast asleep. Grammie, Kami and I giggled at the sight, which tipped off Reese. She looked over at Gramps to see what was so funny and was appalled to find Gramps's eye close. She elbowed him in the stomach and said "GRAMPS!" which of course woke him up. Reese could not believe that Gramps would want to sleep through Caillou! It was such a cute Granddad moment!

Swim, swim, swim!

Boy I wish I had a pool in my back yard! Reese loved getting to swim so often at Grammie and Gramps's house. She loves to just go under water and float. This kid has no fear and reminds me so much of her Aunt Kami at this age, she just thinks she can do it! One day on our trip, we returned to Grammie and Gramps house after playing at the beach, Reese went from the car to the pool, from the pool to the sprinklers, from the sprinklers to the spray bottle. We couldn't keep her wet enough, so we had to come back here to the wet Northwest. :)

Cooking with Carla

At Grandma Carla's house there are 6 acres of fruit, so Reese got to help Grandma Carla cook in the the kitchen. There is nothing like fresh orange juice in the morning! I think I drank my weight in freshly made lemonade. I tried one of their "sweetest" grapefruits and decided grapefruit is not for me. But pass me another cup of that lemonade please!

Spray Park Fun!

While in CA we spent some time with GeeGee and Grandma Carla. They look us to "their pool". They have a time share and the place is less than 10 minutes from their home. Therefore they get to use the tennis courts, weight rooms, and many pools when ever they want! Pretty good deal! This spray park was a part of one of the pools on the grounds. Reese loved it! I was surprise how much she enjoyed getting sprayed in the face. That is my water baby!

Gaining strength from my sister

I loved being able to meet baby Kylee, my younger sister's first born. I can't believe how quickly you can love someone you just met! My sister is loving being a mommy....she said "I love that I can say, oh give Kylee back to me, I can calm her because I am her mother!" That is such a wonderful feeling!

Kacy and I had totally different experiences becoming mommas. Kacy made it all look easy and like my sister Kami said I was a good advertisement for birth control!

I have been going back and forth about wanting to have another child verses adopting one. But after experiencing the joy of Kylee through Kacy and David, I am ready to adopt. I feel like I got to see first had how wonderful this process can be! And that frees me to be able to give adoption a try. I even had my first dream about receiving my new baby girl! And I totally loved her right away!

Thank you Kacy, for sharing your joy with us! I really have found strength from my sister!

Meeting baby Kylee

At long last we got to meet baby Kylee! We have been talking about her arrival with Reese for over 20 weeks now! Every baby doll, every baby we saw was named Kylee according to Reese. So I was wondering how she was going to do meeting the real baby Kylee. Reese loved her! Not at first, Uncle David was way more entertaining, but the next day she really wanted to see Kylee. Reese "shared" all of Kylee's toys with her, wanted to share her goldfish crackers, and kept asking to give Kylee gentle pet pets. It was so cute! I can't wait for these to girls to get more time together!

I decided to ask Reese if we should get our own baby. She said "Yes!" I asked her what we should name our baby and she said "Kylee!....NO, Kacy's Kylee." I said "That is right, Kylee is Kacy's baby. What should we name our baby?" Reese thought for a moment and then said "El Pueblito!" Our favorite place to eat, why not? I guess we could call her El for short! :)

What happens if you nurse past 1 year......

Most people are surprised to learn that I am still nursing Reese. She enjoys, I like it and nursing still has many benefits for both of us! I think that we have been trained to stop nursing at one year and I am not sure why. I totally get it when nursing is stopped because it hurts, the child is fighting it....we gave up the bottle when it became suck, suck, scream! You have to do what works best for you and your family. So I would encourage any nursing moms to keep nursing past a year if it is still working for the both of you! Check out this link to be encouraged!