Good Night, Daddy

I saw proof tonight that Reagan WILL be a great big sister to her little brother. I've been really worried ever since we found out we were expecting that Reagan would have a lot of trouble adapting since she really hasn't shown many signs of being the mothering type. But in the last few weeks, it's been coming out more and more. She always wants to diaper Elmo and she will wrap Elmo or her Baby Stella in a blanket and rock them while saying "Baby."

John was taking a little cat nap on Reagan's floor when Reagan decided he needed her blanket, her nuk and a drink of water.

She brought over the blanket and a drink . . .

Then a Nuk and time to take his glasses off. The Nuk said "Flirt."

Then time for stories.

John slept through some of this until Reagan learned where John's eyes were and started poking him in the eye while saying "Eyes."

Little Mac

John and I are having a tough time agreeing on a name for Baby #2. John did admit at one point that he doesn't care what we name him as long as he can call him "Little Mac." So from now on, you'll see us refer to Baby #2 as Little Mac on the blog.

We put up a few of our name selections to the right and are wondering what people think. Go ahead and vote, but that doesn't mean we'll go with the top vote getter. I think my vote will carry a little more weight when our baby arrives!

Quilting Mania!

While John's been busy with his MBA classes, I've started a class of my own. My friend Kelly, my cousin Carrie and I have all been taking a quilting class at Crafty Planet. Most of the class is only working on one quilt, but seeing as how I have no life right now with John in school and always doing homework, I'm working on three (I can't picture one here because it is a gift and I don't want the recipients to see it!). With one more week of class, the quilt tops are done, but we still need to add the backing.

Reagan's Quilt

I love how the back side looks so messy, but the front looks really neat.

Little Mac's Quilt

Valentine's Day

Aside from finding out that we're expecting a boy, John and I were able to spend quality time on Valentine's Day with our other little funny valentine. We started the day off with gymnastics and coffee. Reagan is loving gymnastics as far as we can tell. She always has a big smile on her face as she's doing it. It's nice that there is a lot of room for her to run around.

Walking on the "balance beam"

"Parallel bars" She loves these for some reason.

Walking across the real uneven bars. She has her feet on a low bar and her hands on a high bar.

Flips with Daddy and the instructor

Running on the approach pad


Upstairs they have an activity room for younger kids. She loved the rock climbing wall and was quite good at it. I think she'll be joining her Auntie Carrie and Uncle Mark in rock climbing soon.

The instructor and parents were all amazed at how Reagan has no fear. She's not afraid to approach anything or anyone and is willing to try all the new things.

John and I got Reagan a doll stroller for Valentine's Day to help with her obsession. It's the only real toy she played with in three days.

Kissing Baby Stella

This was proceeded by a very firm "Out!" from Reagan.

Apparently she wanted a turn.

We had heart shaped ham and cheese sandwiches to celebrate the holiday before John left for school.

After a nice long nap, Reagan and I made John a card and frosted some cookies for him.

It was the nicest Valentine's Day we've had in the past three years!

It's A . . .

Just in case you can't see what was checked . . . It's a boy!!! Reagan will be a great big sister to a little brother!

Ultrasound

Today was our ultrasound day and I couldn't wait. Baby M #2 was sound asleep at the beginning of the ultrasound, but all the poking and prodding woke him or her up at the end. The gender will remain a mystery until Saturday. The sonographer never had us look away, but who knows. It's so hard to tell exactly what you are seeing (or not seeing) at in the ultrasound.

The baby was sitting breech in my uterus so some things, like the lower spine, were hard for the sonographer to get a good look. She really had to push hard on my stomach at some points. She said the baby was curled up in a ball and you could see it's little legs curled up by its belly. Out of all the room it had inside me, it chose to be right in the middle in a ball. That makes two kids that like to be curled up nice and snug like their mommy. The baby's heart rate was around 134 when it was sleeping and not moving. Much lower than Reagan's ever was. I don't think she was ever below 150 at any of my doctor's appointments.

The sonographer must have some clue about the sex of the baby because she did check mark the box on our Valentine's day card. She had said she would just hand the card back if she didn't know. We'll see what it says on Saturday (although don't expect a post until late Sunday because John and I would like to keep the news to ourselves for a little bit).

Profile

Profile again.

Foot

The sealed envelope! John had to write on it to remind me not to open it until Saturday. He's at class tonight, so it is very tempting to sneak a peek!

20 Weeks - Then and Now

20 weeks - June 2007

20 weeks - Feb 2009

I guess there isn't as much of a difference as I thought there was (other than the fact that I was gorgeously tan summer 2007 and now I'm pasty white in the middle of winter). Maybe I'm just feeling it more because I lug around a 22 lb toddler all day too.

Homecoming Outfits for Baby M #2

Oh Baby! at the Galleria is having a huge sale, so I couldn't resist a few pre-purchases for Baby M #2.

This one is a homecoming outfit for a little girl. Reagan wore the pink version of this outfit on her way home from the hospital, so I thought that would be neat to tie the birth of the two girls together (if it's a girl). I just need to find a lavendar blanket to go with the outfit (Reagan had a pink one).

This one is for a boy. If any of you know my mom, she is a huge baseball fan and I think my husband would say that after golf, baseball is his sport of choice. This outfit is fitting because of those reasons and we'll be the midst of baseball season when the baby is born.

And, I couldn't resist getting one boy outfit from the Gap, just in case.

All About Baby

This coming week is going to be all about Baby M #2 (we still don't have any cute nicknames, but we're open to suggestions). I added a poll to the right for your votes on whether Reagan will be getting a brother or a sister. Your guess is as good as mine! Wednesday is the ultrasound but John and I won't be opening the envelope until Valentine's Day (if I can wait that long). You have one week to place your vote and I'm really interested in what everyone thinks!

Pigtails!

Reagan's hair is long enough for pigtails!

Dinner with the Lehmans

Despite a rough start to the evening (again, I'm so sorry about the mailbox!) we had a wonderful dinner on Friday night at the Lehman household. John and I are truly grateful that we can count the Lehman family as part of our extended family. Not only is it great for Reagan to have so much love from Lex, Jo and Jaden, but the Lehman kids have grown so much having Reagan around too.

Lexis and Jaden were playing Hannah Montana and thought it would be great to get Reagan in on the action. I'm not ready to have all these dress up clothes around our house yet!

The girls

The female group

Reagan was a bit more interested in putting the granola bars in the bowl and then taking them out again. Not sure what the granola bars were doing as part of the Hannah Montana "studio," but it kept Reagan busy.

After dinner the kids all snuggled in for a movie while the adults were able to talk in the kitchen. They were all so cute snuggling together. I'm so glad Lex decided to hang out with us instead of her friends for one night!

Jordie has always been a star snuggler since he was born. He has the right touch with Reagan too!

It was one of the nicest evenings we've had in a long time and I'm so glad the mailbox was easily fixed! (BTW, no worries, my car won that contest).

McCarthy Family Updates

December is starting to look calm compared to our first month of 2009 and the coming months ahead. Our house went up for sale two weeks ago and we had two showings last week. It's a great motivator to keep a clean house, but it is really tiring having to clean all the time.

After a month of not sleeping at night, Reagan has finally slept through the night for four straight nights which makes all of us feel much more refreshed and happy. The final two molars came through in the last two weeks and John (mostly) and I were up with her two, three and sometimes four or more times a night starting around 8pm until 5am. Last night Reagan actually slept from 7pm until 7am this morning!

Reagan is now 14 months old and like I have said before continues to amaze and frustrate us at the same time. With the lack of sleep and new molars breaking through we have had to learn how to deal with tantrums. One tantrum even managed to clear the table of plates, wrappers and cups at Caribou Coffee. In the last two weeks, I've gotten pinched, hair pulled, bitten and hit. I honestly don't know where this behavior comes from, but it must be a little innate. It's not like Reagan is around other kids a lot that act like this and John and I certainly do not pinch or hit.

Our ECFE instructor suggested taking her out of the situation, speaking in a calm voice and trying to distract Reagan with other things. As pleasant and heartwarming as that advice is, it does not work for our free spirited little girl. I love that she knows what she wants and has always been very independent. This will serve her well later in life, but in the toddler years it is not easy. For now, time outs are held in her crib for 1 minute (1 minute x age of child). Sometimes this calms her down and she plays with her Nuks, but sometimes she's still mad but will forget shortly after what she is mad about.

Slowly but surely some vocabulary is developing. The other day I heard her say "Mo" while she was in her highchair and I looked over and she was doing the sign for "More." She'll say "MaMaMaMa" when she wants me to pick her up and I did get her to say "up" yesterday instead. All of these seem to be a lot of imitation and not much on her own. The one word she has been using repeatedly is "Hi." It is not a quick "hi" like if you were passing an aquaintance on the street. It's a long drawn out "hi" like you haven't seen your best friend in years and just ran into her at the mall. Reagan says "hi" to her Nuks, her stuffed animals and other babies like she hasn't seen them for days or years. Hopefully, by Reagan's 15 month appointment this will be enough for the doctor to not worry about her vocabulary skills even if "Mama" and "Dada" aren't firmly in place.

Kindermusik ended last week and we're replacing it with a gymnastics class to get some extra energy out during these cold days. I think Reagan will really enjoy it now that she's starting to climb and loves to run back and forth in the living room/kitchen. It's on Saturday mornings so John can join us too.

John started back at school last week and since then we've barely seen one another. This will be tough semester for him, but with everything that's going on it will hopefully go fast. He is taking 6 classes total this spring: 3 in the first half of the semester and 3 in the last half. The he will only have 7 weeks of summer semester until he's done. From what he's told me, there will be a huge graduation party sometime in August and everyone is invited.

After a busy December and January at work, things are finally starting to calm down for me. I'm enjoying actually leaving on time from work again. John and I took camera classes these past two weeks to learn how to better use our SLR camera, so now all I have to do is practice. A lot of things we learned applied to still subjects, which we obviously do not have. Next week, my friend and I start a quilting class for 4 weeks at a small craft store in Minneapolis. I'm really excited to have a project to do again. All the fabric is picked out, washed, ironed and ready to go! It's nice to be able to have some things to do outside of working and child care.