Tinkle tinkle

Hey y'all. Can you see my sticker? Yeah I'm pretty bada$$... I peed in the potty tonight. I got an m&m too. But I'm hardly an amateur... this was my second time... I mean seriously. Mommy and Daddy have picked up on my cues... I like to put my hands down my pants a la Al Bundy when I have to "go." This evening, I did just that, Mommy asked me if I needed to use the potty, I said yes, I went... the rest is history. For the record I've also pooped on the floor twice and peed on the floor three times... awesome. I've kept my diaper dry during naps for nearly a week, so now we'll get a little more serious on this whole potty training thing... but just a little...

Comparisons

Rachel here. It's been since Emma Grace was 8 months old that I've done a good comparison entry. I'm on top of things like that. ;) I FINALLY took some time to go through my photos and sync them up, and I honestly can't remember either of them being so small!

9 months

L~Emma Grace

R~Reese

10 months

L~EG

R~Reese

11 months

L~EG

R~Reese

1 Year

L~EG

R~Reese

15 months

L~Reese

R~EG

18 months

L~Reese

R~EG

Over 50

Emma Grace here. Today was a lovely day here in the Burg, so we took advantage of one of our local parks. The Caboose Park is one of our all time faves, and apparently a lot of other children love it as well because it was packed!
We seriously can't wait for it to be spring already!

Sybil...

Rachel here. I thought I should update you on our little Sybil... I mean Reese. :) This girl has my heart. I've never known someone whom I love with all that I am and still want to jab my own eyes out by the end of the day because of her antics. I mean look at that face. That is the face of a child who is so energetic, lovable, loving, adventurous, smart, caring, sensitive, creative, warm, and NAUGHTY. My only excuse is she's 3. Sometimes I feel like I'm all alone in dealing with her shenanigans, and then I talk to friends. GREAT FRIENDS... who are also GREAT PARENTS... and I find out Reese is just like their children... who happen to be GREAT CHILDREN. It's then I don't feel so bad. :)

The biggest thing going on with Reese right now is Montessori school. SHE LOVES MONTESSORI SCHOOL! And I love that she loves it so much. Every day I ask her what she did today at school, and she tells me VERY little. She's extremely private... it's very intriguing. I finally got a glance into the world of Reese this morning. We were supposed to have gotten 4-6 inches of snow today (we didn't get anything but freezing rain!), so I left to pick Reese up early once I saw the weather was getting questionable. By the time I got to school there was a break in the sleet, so Emma Grace and I made ourselves at home. There weren't many children there this morning, so EG was able to "play" with some of the work on the shelves. Reese was interested in us one minute and then went on about her business the next. It was really neat to see her in her element. She was all over the place, doing different things... she's very loud... one thing her teacher had mentioned, but holy moses. She is just so excited all the time... she can hardly be quiet. :) I saw her parallel playing with others, learning Spanish, working on her one-on-one math lesson... it was really neat. As much as Bryan and I weighed the pros and cons of putting Reese into preschool, today more than put our minds at ease. I'm so happy with where she is... I'm so happy we're where we are... I'm just so happy for my little girl and how much she's learning and growing.

19 months old

Rachel here. Our sweet girl turned 19 months on the 19th. She is a piece of work... just like her sister... and I suppose just like me... congrats Bryan. :) She's the smiliest little thing ever... but occasionally the terrible 2's do rear their ugly heads. Luckily she bounces back quickly, and all is right with the world again.

Her language continues to boom. She's putting 2 and 3 words together. Just yesterday she looked at me holding the newspaper... "Daddy... paper... at work." AKA... Daddy's newspaper... he's at work. The word "daddy" is usually followed with the word "work" these days... sadly. Emma Grace is hitting all of her milestones nicely, and we're working on colors and shapes with her. She knows star and circle, and the colors orange and blue. She loves doing anything/everything her sister does... which is great. She's constantly trying things that Reese didn't until later in development. Unfortunately that means that she has lots of bumps and bruises, but fortunately... she's a smart little thing.Each night now for the last couple of weeks, she's asked to go potty. This usually means that she just likes to sit on it... not do anything... just sit and relax. Night before last, she actually sat on the potty and went pee! Sadly Reese was in and out of timeout, and I didn't even realized she peed until the next day. LOVELY. Then last night she repeated her deed but this time she did both businesses on the rug next to her potty... she's a work in progress. :) We love out little bean!

I'm on fire!

Rachel here. Reese is currently at preschool... she's there 'til 1230. Emma Grace, however, eats lunch around 11. She just finished up. What did she have? Annie's mac and cheese, green beans, and pineapple chunks. Yum. Except I knew she wouldn't eat the green beans without ketchup, so I laced the mac and cheese with some of my leftover carrot puree from last night.

After scarfing down the mac and cheese and pineapple, she stared at her green beans just smiling at me. Since she ate my sneaky carrots, I gave her a little bit of ketchup and got her to eat about 3 green beans... she earned it. :)

P.S. Along with the carrot puree in the french toast from last night, I also snuck in some flaxseed. Reese's eye doc thought that could PERHAPS help with her sty issues. She hasn't had one since the dreaded one from this summer, but we're willing to try anything nonetheless.

There's what in my french toast?????

Rachel here. So I've had "Deceptively Delicious" FOREVER. Reese got it for me for my first Mother's Day (or maybe it was the second), either way I've had it for a long time and had never made anything out of it. I'm good like that. The my mom bought me "Double Delicious!" for Christmas. The girls refuse to try new foods, and Emma Grace will only eat veggies dipped in A VERY SMALL amount of ketchup. VERY FRUSTRATING. Reese is a really good eater, but if something looks scary she won't even try it. While there are some scary looking items in these cookbooks, there are also some really great hidden gems.
I wanted to try something tonight for dinner, and we happened to have some carrots in the fridge, so I cooked and pureed them for a great recipe for french toast. I'm a big fan of breakfast for dinner, and the girls love it too. The recipe (hopefully you can click on the picture to enlarge it):The cooking: The result: I think it's safe to say she loved it. She completely cleaned her plate. I made enough for her and Reese for breakfast tomorrow with one piece leftover to taste myself. I won't lie to you... I was completely skeptical. HOWEVER, it was literally the best french toast I've probably ever had, and I couldn't taste the carrots AT ALL! The plan is to load up on veggies this weekend to puree (it's like the good ole days when I made the girls their baby food!) and get to recipe-ing. Jessica Seinfeld... You are a goddess.

Preschool Musical...

Wednesday was my sweet girl's first day at Montessori Preschool. She was beyond excited, and I was a hot mess. She woke up with this look on her face:
I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, and she said "pancakes with snow on top." Snow= powdered sugar. Not necessarily the healthiest of options, but it was her first day, and I'm not trying to change the look on that face on the first day. :) She ate, brushed her teeth, and then we got her looking all kinds of spiffy in her "first day of Montessori" outfit. Cardigan courtesy of Nana and Pop. Diva.Her reaction to arriving at said school. Cheesy grins for all.This interaction would be the last one of the morning until pick up time. She found her coat hook in the hallway. #18... sounds like a champion to me. ;)We were through the door, and she was off like a bolt. Seriously. She wandered around the room looking at everything... everything except Emma Grace, Bryan, and me. Left in the dust. She wandered up to people and said "Hi, I'm Reese!" I turn around to say good bye to her, and she was already in line to go outside... didn't even look back. I, however, cried like a baby. Another mother consoled me, her teacher said things would be great, and I cried like a baby. It took me crying all the way home to realize how absolutely proud of her I was. She faced it like no other. Big bad Reese.

Emma Grace and I played, baked Reese cookies and made her a card, read books, and played some more. It was really really nice. Then we were off a few hours later to pick up our best girl.

This is how I was greeted. She was PISSED. The last thing she wanted to do was leave. It was tantrum city getting her to put her coat on, get in the car, and get home. In fact... the entire way home she screamed at me and told me to "turn the car right around and take me baaaaaaaaack!" Pleasant. I couldn't get anything out of her about her day. EG went down for nap, Reese calmed down and had lunch, and I eventually got her to tell me that she wanted to go back... "please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!" I was under the assumption that she really enjoyed herself at school. :)

In hopes of leaving preschool with a happy Reese from then on out, we put together a calendar for her. We started getting these "Highlights" magazines (not sure why... Grandma was it you???), while some of the things in there are over Reese's head right now, they'll be great for when she's a little older. Along with the first installment came a calendar... AWESOME. I went through her school calendar, and she put a Dr. Seuss sticker on each day she had school. She LOVED the activity and was able to see that she was going back to school quite often. We also talked about how it wasn't polite and friendly to scream and cry and disrupt our friends. When I picked her up from school Friday... She was nothing but cheeseburger smiles. :) And now she checks her calendar in the morning to see if she gets to go to preschool or not.

Since we're on the subject of Reese, I'll give you a little update on what Sybil... I mean Reese... is like at the age of 3 years 3 months. She is crazylooneytunescompletelyoffherrocker. And I mean that in the most loving way possible. :)She has moodswings like no other. One minute we are sweet little Reese singing to the birds and frolicking in the forest, and the next she's guano crazy... screaming and crying. She's started giving Bryan shenanigans at bedtime again. This in turn has pushed us to taking her beloved "stuff" (as she calls everything she owns), away from her until the following day. She has to earn her things back by being sweet, friendly to her sister, and all around normal. It seems to be working. Night before last she had her doll house repossessed. Last night she was an angel when it was time to go to bed. Today... she'll get her dollhouse back. She also had her entire wardrobe of princess dresses put on hiatus. I'm predicting a stellar day today. :)

I've also been working on not getting super upset with her. I'm an emotional person... and now she's an emotional person. She would act so ridiculously, I would get beyond upset, which in turn made her beyond upset, which in turn made timeout beyond ridiculous. I've really really really been working on my self control, and it makes the "shoot me in my face now please" 3's much more tolerable. She gets out of control, I try to maintain control by talking to her quietly in timeout, this forces her to lower her voice and emotions, which in turn allows us to get over the shenanigans MUCH quicker than we had been. Timeout is still the place where we discuss said shenanigans, but she would literally scream, cry, and make the most god awfully annoying sounds for well over her 3 minutes allotment, and it just got to be too much. Super fantastic things about my Reese. She's incredibly smart. She knows all of her letter sounds and is working on forming letters... that's the biggest thing by far. Now that she's in Montessori, she comes home with these random things to say. When she's feeling sad, she tells me she's turning "blue." OY. Friday she started telling me about butterflies... no clue what she said, but it was so cute. I can't wait to hear more of what she's doing. So far I know she knocked down some blocks and played with Ella in the sandbox. :)

She's VERY helpful. Reese loves to do anything we're doing... especially baking. She doesn't even really enjoy eating the product, but buddy, she loves mixing the ingredients and licking any type of batter. She's getting much better at helping to clean up her messes. At Montessori, they are responsible for their own messes and must clean up after themselves before moving on to the next activity. We're not quite there yet but can't wait 'til we are. :) If there is something Emma Grace needs, she's on top of it. Very sweet to see.

Reese loves to play, run around, and dress up... in case you couldn't tell. :) When she wears these different outfits, she takes on these little personalities that just crack me up. The other day she dressed as Cinderella and got this sheepish little bat my eyes look on her face, and then asked me if she was perfect. Say huh? :) Being a great mix of pretty pretty princess and I wanna be a boy... she often plays cars, roars like a dinosaur, or wears a fire hat while prancing around in the biggest poofiest dress she can get her hands on .Reese, I love you beyond oodles... even though sometimes I'd like to have you committed. :)

The end of 2010

Rachel here. Happy 2011! We rang in the new year with the Funks. And when I say we rang in the new year... I mean we ate dinner, played like crazikins, exchanged Christmas gifts, and I was in bed by 10. :)
And honestly... it was the perfect way to celebrate. :)

The Elk's Lodge

We headed back from Tidewater early enough to stop in Bedford on the way home to see the famous Elk's Lodge lights. They were awesome!!!!!
This will definitely be an annual tradition!

Presents, aquarium, and snow... oh my!

After a yummy dinner at Nana and Pops, we headed to Grandpa and Pearl's house in Suffolk. They had just as many gifts there for us to open... and just as much snow! EGADS!
Despite the lack of snow plows, we ventured out and headed to the Virginia Marine Science Museum. It was a lot of fun, and we weren't in a car accident... thumbs up all around!
Me and my homie. I didn't get hardly enough bonding time with Uncle Aaron, but what time I did had was quality. He taught me how to slice fruit on his iPad... I mean that's love. Oh, and there was some snow time too...

Holy snowfall Batman!

The day after Christmas we woke up to text messages and phone calls from both Nana and Grandpa's camps. It was snowing in Tidewater. Now normally... snow wouldn't be an issue... but it's Tidewater. ;) Our original plan was to head out upon wakeup, but we held out a few hours to see what the weather would do. It didn't get any better, so we decided to leave around lunch time and ford the river. It was an adventure for sure, but we made it with no issues and were soon able to celebrate with Nana and Pop. We were once again spoiled with gifts and kisses. Nana and Pop were even spoiled and were able to witness my extreme desire to become poltergeist at a moment's notice... good times. :)
14+ inches and Emma Grace anything but loved the snow. Mommy took more pictures of her crying than not. :( One day though... she'll love it just like me!See!
Seriously? Could this be any better? :)

A white Christmas

Christmas was awesome this year!!!! Not only did Santa leave us some really great gifts (as did the parentals), but we also...
... woke up to a white Christmas! It snowed all day. It was BEAUTIFUL!We got some really amazing gifts, and are so very thankful. Mommy, Daddy, and Santa surely spoiled us this year.The famous cape. I thought it was alright. The baby sister, however, loves it. The only time I've played with it was yesterday when I made Mommy wear it... because she was the bad superhero. I was the good super hero, so I got to wear my blankie. Awesome.Exchanging gifts with Mommy and Daddy. I picked them all out on my own. For Daddy... a remote control car, so we could cruise together. And for Mommy... two VT shirts... one of which was an orange and maroon "Hello Kitty" shirt. :) Oh and the man in red ate ALL of our cookies and left a beautiful letter! Holy moly!!!!The next day we left for the Holidays back in Tidewater. It's a Christmas marathon Charlie Brown! :)