This afternoon

Rachel here again. It's been an interesting afternoon here at the Pattison household, which is funny because Reese has actually slept most of it away. Around 11:30 this is what I was faced with: A little crying tot stumbling towards me who was actually saying "mama" over and over. I think she might be saying it FOR REAL!! :) Anyway, so I asked her if she was hungry... she immediately smiled at me. Lunch time it is then, so I fix her some lightly buttered bread, sliced mandarins, and sliced blueberries. She scarfs those down... we'll try a bottle.

I give her a bottle, and she immediately morphs in to Al Bundy. She's all slumped in her chair... legs wide open... bottle in her mouth... she spared me the hands down her pants though... and I thank her for that. I think she looks content, so I decide to take her dirty dishes into the kitchen. Upon my return... this is what I find...

Bryan comes home for lunch... I tell him he'll have to shampoo the carpets... which he did 2... two... TWO... nights ago. Have I mentioned today how much I love this girl?!

Our little shopper

Rachel here. Bryan is training Reesie to walk. He does this by making her walk laps in the livingroom when he gets home by pushing her little hippo around. This may sound like manual labor... boot camp even, but I assure you... she LOVES it. While she was "lapping" the other night Bryan brought something to my attention.

Now, this may not look too terribly interesting, however... Reesie put these items in her hippo HERSELF. She went around the living room and picked up: her hippo plate, one of Winston's hedgehogs, and I believe also his dog bone. She gathered the items and one by one put them INSIDE her hippo!!!! It cracked us up. She does it ALL THE TIME now. Bryan thinks she may have learned it from riding around on all the shopping trips with me! :) It's amazing what they pick up on!!!

Dinner plate

After my adventure to campus... you remember... when I was the guinea pig for that lady's Science experiment (See post below)... I got this really cool set of travel dishes for participating. I got 2 plates, a spoon, a container for my Crunchies, and 2 small containers Mommy puts little snacks in for me. Well, last night for dinner, Mommy let me take my new plate for a spin. She made me yummy green beans from our garden and some chunks of sweet potato. I was in heaven. I'm not so sure about the plate though...

H2O

I no longer like the water in my pool...

Guinea Pig

Now most of you know Mommy loves VT so much she would sell her first born child to the university. WELL SHE DID! Well not really, but look what she did to me!

Don't feel bad for me though because I had a blast! I got to help a girl with her "Science experiment." She was testing a bunch of babies and how they react to different stressors. I got to play with toys, play peek-a-boo with Mommy, I got to look at these crazy masks, and I even got to play hide and seek with some toys. It was super fun and COMPLETELY harmless. Just look at how happy I was in my "swim cap." "Swim cap..." that's what they kept calling it, but I didn't see any water that's for sure. :)

H2O

I heart water. I heart the water in my pool. I heart the water in the bathtub. I heart the water in Winston's dog bowl. I heart water.

Now that that's out of the way. Look what Mommy did for me today!

I was having so much fun, but then this happened...

DUCKS

Hey there! Mommy, Daddy, and I went to the duck pond at VT yesterday. It was a gorgeous day to feed the ducks, and there were NO students around yet, so it was quite glorious. :) (No offense Uncle Aaron.) We got some really great pictures, but here are some of our favorites.

At first I just watched Mommy and Daddy feed the ducks. It was super cool!

Mommy helped me feed the ducks because... well let's face it... I've never done it before, and I haven't quite mastered my throwing skills yet.

Daddy took lots of great pictures of me walking around the duck pond with the ducks. This one happened to be Mommy's favorite though because I was apparently growling at the ducks... whatever man... THEY were in MY way.

Here are some sweet pictures of me just hanging out right near the pond.

We also got a little family portrait...

Until next time people.

Tooth update

Here are my TEETH!!!! No arrows and circles needed this time. :) And now that there ARE teeth... there must be teeth brushing! You can see here that at the beginning Mommy had difficulty prying my little mouth open to get the little brush in there...

I soon relaxed a little and wanted to help Mommy out...

Truthfully... I ended up LOVING the whole teeth brushing experience! I can't wait to do it tomorrow!

On the go!

So here is the nifty walker/rider that Mommy got for me on EBAY... you remember that story??? I'm practically a pro at using it. :)

Tooth update

Rachel here. The teeth have broken through... yes I said TEETH. Both bottom ones are coming quite slowly and gracefully. :) Our little demon (SLIGHTLY cranky... and I do mean SLIGHTLY) will not sit still enough for me to pry open her mouth to get a good picture.


Instead we have a picture of her kissing/licking my box of Kashi crackers. She was eyeballing them yesterday, so I gave her one broken up into little pieces, and there was no turning back. She's borderline addicted.

Tooth update

It's starting to break through!!! Mommy can feel it poking with her finger!!! She could even see it better when I was laughing!!! She tried to get a picture, but I was on to her very quickly from the getgo, so this is the best she could do. :)

10 months old!!

It's getting harder and harder to get pictures of me with my poodle!!! We'll start with our good one. :)And here are some of the cuter outtakes!!

My baby

Rachel here. Can you believe Reesie is already 10 months old!!! I can't!!! Bryan and I love her so much it's sickening. She's changing by the minute too. We've got the whole cruising thing almost down. The teeth are still deciding if they want to make their big break or hang around back stage a little longer. She's also standing longer and longer on her own. Oh how my heart aches for her to just stay small. I'd like to put her in a glass jar and look at her forever and ever just the way she is. :) (I would of course poke holes in the lid, so she wouldn't suffocate.)

Jackson's Birthday Party

Jack's Mommy and Daddy were nice enough to invite me, Mommy, and Daddy to Maryland for Jack's first birthday party. It was LOVELY! We got to go to Jack's Gram's house and play outside and visit with some really nice people. Here I am with Uncle Nick's family: (l-r... Sarah/sister, mom, dad, Sarah helping me walk)AND... Mommy gave me a new food to try... PICKLES!!! Oh how I loved them!!!

And this is the toy aisle...

PRESENTS!! (Do you see me??? Even I was a glutton for gifts!!!)

Let him eat CAKE!!!

CAKE!!!

Calling all Sherpas!

Friday morning Mommy, Daddy, and I drove up to Maryland to visit my one and only... JACKSON!!! It was so much fun. It was a special weekend because it was Jack's first birthday. His birthday was actually on Friday (party Saturday), so we decided to drive up early to go to the aquarium in Baltimore! I have never been to an aquarium, so I was awed by all it had to offer... or what I got to see. It was super busy while we were there, so we only saw the super cool stuff. :)

We started by trading in our Cadillacs (strollers) for these awesome backpacks that our Sherpas wore for us. :)

Here is me with Sherpa Daddy.

We saw some really cool animals at the aquarium too:

(aldergator, puffer fish, sting rays, and turtle)

I had a great time at the aquarium, but my two favorite things of all were:

THE SHARKS!!! and...

hanging out with my best buddy Jack. Thank you so much for letting me come play with you!!!

Blogging

For those of you that may not believe I do my own blogging...

I happen to be checking in on my good friend Heather in this picture... I like to see what others are doing before settling into my own work. :)

Tooth update

Rachel here. Since I spotted that adorable little white spot on Reese's gum the other day, I've been grabbing her and prodding her mouth every chance that I get to see what's up in there. When I feel around with my finger, I can definitely feel it starting to poke through. So exciting!!! Today I took Reese to Target to get her very own little toothbrush and toothpaste. We can't wait to use them!!!

Upon returning home, I checked in her mouth again and spotted a second little white dot right next to the first. It looks like we may have the bottom two sneak right in at the same time. So far we've been really lucky in that she hasn't been cranky or irritable while they are working their way through. Let's hope they get here soon!

I WILL learn to walk

Mommy is such a stellar shopper. She was searching on EBAY for some "roll arounds." Mommy is obsessed with "roll arounds." They are these little clear plastic balls that have little trinkets in them. You can find them with a lot of the Fisher Price learning toys. So anyway... Mommy found someone selling a butt ton of them (pardon my french)! Well, while highly anticipating her win... Mommy did some research on what she bought. This is definitely something you should do BEFORE you actually bid on an item, but she got excited and NEEDED to beat the other people who happened to also want my "HUGE LOT OF FISHER PRICE TOYS". Upon conducting her research, which really consisted of going to OUAC to check on the toys they had there, she spotted something she thought was in her huge lot. She came home and looked it up on her EBAY history and sure enough THERE IT WAS! She unknowingly got me an ADORABLE walker/rider!!!!! It's a super cute hippo that I can push to learn to walk on my own, and when I get a little older I can ride on it like a little trike. And the best part about it... it gobbles up my toys that are laying on the floor. All I have to do is roll right over them, and he eats them right up!

Meow

Mommy was sitting in my playroom on her computer yesterday when she heard something very curious. She came around the corner, and there I was playing... I was simply using my imagination and make believing I was a cat. :)

Water Day

So yesterday at "Story Time" was WATER DAY!!! Jaime read us a few books about water including The Watering Hole, which Mommy happened to love. It not only talked about the scarcity of water when there is a large demand, but it also showed different continents and the animals that inhabit it. Quite educational. :) We sang "5 Little Frogs" by Raffi. SO FUN. Jaime then gave us each a water bottle FULL of water. We all got a chance to take our bottle of water and pour it into the big red water table. Look at how much fun I had!!!

It's all too much for Mommy

Rachel here. Well, it looks like we'll be adding a little friend to the house here any day!!! Reesie has a little white dot on her bottom left gum! You know what that means... A TOOTH! I just noticed it yesterday, so we'll see what happens. She's been giving us a few hints that it may be any day now...

She had literally just unlatched her cute little mouth from MY TOE!

Once she realized toes were disgusting, she CRUISED (yes, we're dabbling in cruising now!) herself right on over to a tasty piece of coffee table.

Along with cruising, she's getting much stronger on her little legs. She can walk (holding on to us of course) from the house to the garden and back... it's so cute. We'll have to get it on film. And just look at her here bouncing up and down...

She's growing up so much! With all the new moving around she's doing, she's starting to thin out. Don't you worry people... she still has her lusciously juicy thighs and cheeks. :)

My new friends

Yesterday Mommy took me to Steppin' Out. Steppin' Out is a festival here in B'burg where local vendors sell crafts (mostly handmade), play music, and local restaurants provide food. Mommy had her friend Amy D. come along for the ride. Amy was nice enough and brought her friend Angel and her two little girls "Big K" and "Little K". We had so much fun! The Mommies kept called the day's festivities "a big party," and a big party is what it was. We walked around downtown for a few hours and then came back to my house to play in my play room.

Check me out in my new house!!!

Here's BK "playing" with Winston. Now if you know Winston you know this picture is quite humorous. He was being his regular Winston self... BK was quite unamused.

LK spent most of her time gnawing on my blue toybox. :)
Here I am with BK. BK was SOOOO SWEET with me. All day she rubbed my little legs, pinched my little cheeks, and touched my little nose. I had a lot of fun playing with my new friends and can't wait to do it again. Mommy enjoyed talking with adults too. :)

Sippy cup

Look who's using her sippy cup!!!!!