The Benefits of Having a Pregnant Mom . . .

Ice Cream!!!!

Children's Museum

Reagan and I met her friend Sophia and Sophia's mom, Melissa at the Children's Museum the day after Memorial day. Supposedly, Tuesday mornings are reserved for young children and we thought at least all the elementary school children would still be in school. We weren't counting on the large number of preschool classes that would be running around. We'll call them the "red shirts" for the rest of this post.

Sophia and Reagan loved the water area, but I learned that next time, we'll save that exhibit for last because Reagan loves to get wet.

I knew this would be a hit with Reagan. Anytime she can push a shopping cart, especially one that is her size, she is a happy camper. Unfortunately, one of the red shirts ruined our fun and decided to use the grocery store as their bathroom, so everyone had to evacuate.

Semi fun karoake room.

Reagan loved the kitchen area too.

After escaping the red shirts by going into the toddler and infant room for a while and enjoying a little lunch, we were clear to go see the Clifford exhibit after the red shirts had left the building. Unfortunately, this also meant we were closing in on naptime, but Reagan held out a little longer to see Clifford.

The Clifford exhibit also had a little store/kitchen that Reagan and Sophia both enjoyed.


Reagan and Sophia dancing on the Clifford stage. There was a Clifford music video playing in the background, but it didn't pick up on the camera.

Mom and Reagan with Clifford

Glorious Sunday

After John enjoyed a beautiful morning on the golf course with Jason and I at the park with Reagan and my dad, we all enjoyed a glorious Sunday afternoon together on Memorial Day weekend. Jason hung out with us for a while and helped John put our new grill together and while Reagan napped, John and Jason were able to toss a baseball around for a bit, something I haven't seen them do in years!

When Reagan woke up, John helped her work on her biking skills. She's still working on a)reaching the pedals and b)keeping her feet on the pedals.

It must have been tiring to do all that pedaling!

John also decided it was a great afternoon to wash both of our cars. I grabbed my camera to take pictures of what appeared to be a willing helper.

I kept waiting for her to help scrub the car . . .

but she just ended up watching the water drip from her sponge . . .

And eventually ended up soaking wet from the waist down!

Time!

It's 7:02 and Reagan is in bed, John is on his way to coach baseball and the last thing I want to work on in 90 degree heat is a quilt, so I'm blogging! Updates go all the way back to before Easter, so be sure to check a little past the Easter post for the pictures that I skipped.

8 and 18 Month Pictures

A sampling of pictures from Reagan's 18 month appointment are up on Jackie's blog. Jackie was also nice enough to take some maternity shots for me, but ignore the roundness of my face. Why does all my pregnancy weight go straight to my face?

I love that cute smile!!!

Looks pretty small for only 6 weeks to go! Hopefully we'll have another little peanut on our hands.

We scheduled another round of shots for next Tuesday for outdoors. Reagan was a little stinker for most of the photo shoot and was getting really overtired. Hopefully she'll be a little more cooperative next Tuesday!

Kansas City: Here We Come!

John, Reagan and I made the long trip to Kansas City last weekend with the intention of spening time with John's MaMa and PaPa. Unfortunately, they made an unscheduled trip back to Rochester for his grandfather to have heart surgery (all went well).

My mom dropped Reagan off at my office so we could get going. Reagan made a trip inside with me to visit my co-workers and to do some work of her own. Unlike me, it was hard to get her to leave the office!

Reagan had her first taste of McDonald's on our way out of town. Her mama had a craving for french fries! Luckily, she was unimpressed so we'll stay far away until she's old enough to know better.

We were lucky enough to spend the weekend with John's aunt and uncle, Pam and Steve and cousins Kelly and Dan. Thank you all for having us stay! We had a wonderful time! Reagan loved their little dog, Riley. She would follow him around saying "Puppy. Niiiiice." Riley even got a kiss on the nose when we were leaving!

We also spent an evening with John's mother's family, the Camerons. John's uncle Chuck hosted everyone for a wonderful, but stormy, BBQ. Thanks for the great dinner, Chuck! Reagan was in love with Chuck's new dog, Montana. Although Montana spent the evening gated downstairs, Reagan loved to stand by the gate and just look at Montana. Unfortunately, John and I were too busy dealing with an exhausted and crabby little girl that we completely forgot to break out the camera. We'll have to be sure to take more pictures next time!

Other than the dogs (Montana and Riley), the highlight of Reagan's trip was the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park. She loved seeing all the animals and imitating their noises. I'm so glad we had the camera for this because Reagan had a permanent smile on her face the whole time!

One excited little girl!

Great aunt Pam pointing out the goat (there were lots of goats there).

Did you see that ____________ (insert animal here)? It's so cool!

With cousin Kelly by the horses

They even had slides there! Reagan was in heaven!

Reagan and Daddy at the playground

The family of soon to be four! Probably one of our last pictures as a family of three!

One and a Half: Oh My!

Reagan turned 18 months on Thursday, May 14th. It's hard to believe she is already 1 and a half. It seemed like it would be forever until 18 months and now it has already come and gone and we have another one on his way shortly to live it all over again.

The report from Dr. Kuperman was she is 25 lbs 4 oz. and she is 31 inches tall. Still in the same percentiles as 15 months. He also commented (as he was trying to talk over her loud chatter) that he has a feeling he knows who will be the boss in our growing family!

I'm glad we did have those 6 months between 1 year and 18 months before the baby comes because Reagan has changed so dramatically in such a short time. Here are some of the highlights:

• She talks up a storm even stringing together a sentence of three words now and then. I can't even list all the things she is saying right now, but some of our favorites have been "All done poop" "faffles" "Nope" "Peez" "Ready? Weeee" "Cutcake" and "Mana" (banana).
• She has begun to experiment with singing. We'll sing songs like Wheels on the Bus and she's throw in a word or two like "town" or "shut" while doing the hand motions.
• She also is the car DJ, which is getting pretty old because she always requests the same songs over and over.
• Looooooooooooooooves Elmo.
• Really wants to walk up and down the stairs like a big girl, but her legs are just a little too short still. Doesn't stop her from trying though.
• Loves to watch the "baby" on the computer. She can sit for hours watching the same video of herself eating her birthday cupcake. She stands by the computer saying "cutcake" until we play it for her.
• She imitates everything John and I do. We'll look at each other and say, "Where did she pick up that?"
• She likes to "sweep" the floor and put the "dirt" in the dustpan which she then brings to the garbage can and bangs the dustpan against the inside to throw away the "dirt."
• She LOVES to be outside no matter what the weather is like. She wants to push whatever is available and rarely sits still to do something quiet like sidewalk chalk.
• Along with that, she loves the playground especially the slides, swings and the rocking animal things.
• She is getting really good about holding our hand when we ask her to if we're in a parking lot or a busy place.
• Tantrums have gotten better since she learned to talk, but you can bet there will be at least one if she hasn't had enough sleep.

All in all, this is a very fun age and she makes me laugh everyday with something new that she's picked up! I love my sweet little girl so much! I wouldn't trade her for anything!

Last Day of School

It was Reagan's last day of school on the same day that John finished his last final of the semester. We are all glad to have a little extra time!

What a difference a year makes!

June 2008: Sophia, Reagan, Sara, Brandon, Muiread and ??

May 2009: Brandon, Reagan, Lexi, Sophia, Gabriel, and Muiread

It was a bittersweet goodbye this year because if we choose to continue with ECFE, Reagan and Muiread would move up a class while the others would move on to the next age group. We'll see what we decide to do.


Reagan loved this little boat at ECFE, but so did Sophia. We used it as a learning experience in sharing.

Reagan with her four besties: Reagan, Sophia (falling to the floor), Muiread and Lexi. It's hard to take a picture of four active little girls!

Muiread's mom made Reagan, Sophia and Lexi the adorable dresses that Reagan and Sophia are wearing as a thank you for watching Muiread when their daycare was unavailable. It was a little chillier than we were hoping, hence the extra layers. It will be a great dress for summer though!To be honest, watching Muiread was probably a lot easier than making those dresses! I only hope our little boy is as laid back as Muiread!

Sorry!

Sorry to all of our blog readers out there for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks! Being pregnant and chasing a one year old has proven to be getting more and more tiring as the weeks wear on. As soon as bedtime comes, I'm spent and have been crashing at the same time as Reagan. I told myself that I wasn't going to let the pregnancy slow me down, but my body is telling me different. I have a couple of pictures to post and once John finishes his final class of the semester tonight (Yay!), I should be able to find some time before bedtime to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Yaaaay, Joe!

Reagan got to see the second Twins game of her life on Kirby Puckett Bobblehead day. She didn't really seem to know what was going on, but she knew to clap when everyone else did and she knew to say "Yaaaay, Joe!" at random times.

She even started to get the hang of using binoculars. Too funny!

Ready? Weeeee!

After a day of two 15 minute walks to the park and back, my back was killing me and I realized I can't do that all the time anymore (at least until the baby is born). So we got a slide to create a make shift park in our yard. Too bad the weather turned the next day and the slide became an indoor toy instead of an outside toy.

Reading the directions to Daddy

Inspections

Everytime she went down, Reagan started off with "Ready? Weeeeee."

The face of one very happy girl!