Last week Reese and I went to Albuquerque to visit my family. I also got to connect with three good friends from high school - Alice, Paige, and Whitney. We had a lot of fun, though I mostly forgot I brought my camera. We played at the playground in my mom’s development, swam in the kids pool, visited McDonalds, and went to the zoo. We had a lot of fun!

This is Reese’s first time on the second level of a Playplace. She didn’t know what to think.

We had a lot of fun at the zoo. She particularly liked the giraffe (video later).

This is Reese with my mom.

Reese actually did fine on the plane (thank you Benadryl and car seat). The last flight went on too long though, because we sat on the runway for a while, then our pilot took a very circuitous route to avoid turbulence. Reese got fed up.

For Father’s Day we went down to a little outdoor shopping mall where thay have a fountain. Reese also took a little bit to warm up to that, but finally she would walk up and touch the fountain and spray herself.

Happy Father’s Day!

Brian, Reese and I went to the park last weekend, and Reese is really starting to enjoy the swings. She walks over and says “Up! Up! Up!” Then once she has been swinging for a while, will say “All done!” only to scream when we take her out then say “Mo! Mo! Mo!” (as in “more”). Sigh, toddlerhood.

I had to get a picture of this one. Reese had been delicately eating her quesadilla, until she decided she needed the whole thing in her mouth. Great.

She’s much better with a fork than a spoon. Usually she uses baby forks, though.

Drinking milk. “Milka!”

Reese loves to tell you what the animals say, and she’ll even tell you what other things say (like a clock says “tock tick” apparently). So, I caught her while she was playing with her balls and asked her for her favorites. In the second segment, she’s telling us what Jack, the ghost, says (”Boo!”). In the third segment we are looking at flash cards. Now, before you think I’m pushing my daughter too hard, she loves the cards and calls them pictures. My mom intended them as a sort of book, which is exactly what they ended up being. Normally she loves looking at the “pictures” and won’t move until you go through them two or three times. Not for the camera, of course, hence my frustration on video.

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Reese has decided she’s too big for the high chair and gets to eat in the big chairs. Funny how she’s not big enough to eat with a spoon…

I love those curls. Do you see the orange gunk on her mouth? Yeah, that’s from some cheetos I gave her. But wait! They’re whole grain so they’re healthy… Small parenting breakdown.

I did have a brain wave the other day, though. She loves water, and although we don’t have a kiddie pool, we do have big pots. I fill them with water, give her cups and let her go to town (naked, as you can see). She loves it and it gives me about 3 minutes peace. Although, yesterday she decided to bring a cup of water inside, dump it on the floor, and slip and fall flat on her back. That was a big one.

So pretty!

This is her silly face. I finally figured out that that is the face grownups make at her when they meet her and talk baby-talk to her. Nice.

We went to a mall play area on Friday because I had to exchange something. Not the best one I’ve seen, but still fun for her to wander.

Brian and I have been so happy to be back with our little girl after our brief and bad vacation. It’s been a joy to see the new things she has learned and how much a baby can grow in just 4 days! Amazing! She did great with Grandma and Grandpa and can look forward to many more vacations at their house. Please read my blog to learn why our vacation was bad: http://valestudios.com/meg/

Yesterday I went for a walk with my friend, Christina, and she lent me a Moby Wrap which I enjoyed. Reese seemed to enjoy it for a while, then decided it was time to get down. We had a very nice walk, and I hardly noticed I was wearing a 24 lb toddler.

Last weekend we went to Richmond and visited family. Here’s a picture of our adorable 6 month old niece Joy. (I’ve already got dibs on the Bumbo seat for our new one!)

Reese loves her Wild Animal Baby magazine that Gram sends her. She brings them to us to read all the time. They’re really sweet so we don’t mind. Brian likes to add editorials though (Squirrels? Dirty thieves!)

Reese can now climb up on dark pony all by herself, though it is pretty arduous. Again, this photo isn’t proof, but I swear the can do it.

Another cute outfit from Aunt Susie. Amazing!

PS the poor photo quality lately has to do with the fact that she is so taken with her own photos, she won’t stay far enough away for me to take pictures!

We’ve had some requests for the backwards dance, and we finally got it on video. She started doing it when she got her Easter box from my mom. We think it was actually imitating the hopping egg, and has evolved into a new dance.

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Yes! I’m eight weeks pregnant! Crazy! The due date is the end of November, so we should find out the sex around mid July. Yay!
The first trimester is always rough, but I’m trying to take it easy. I take a nap almost every day and crash after dinner. I sleep during Reese’s afternoon nap (she’s gone back to two naps), otherwise it doesn’t happen at all. You can see here what happens when I try to sleep when she’s awake and Brian’s around:

The warm weather has been fun if only to see all the fun new outfits Reese can wear. She’s been totally outfitted by my Aunt Susie, and is super cute. Do you love these overalls? Funny story - I put them on backwards and didn’t realize it until we got to the park! In my defense, it didn’t look weird (except for the fake fly in the back) and I’m pregnant!

Here’s proof that Reese gets into the sink, although I guess I could have lifted her there. I didn’t though! After catching her (”Reese where are you?” she answers,”No, no, no!” and I know she’s up to no good), I grabbed the camera.

She didn’t get in here all by herself, Brian helped.

Grandma and Grandpa Lyman visited last weekend. We had some fun, but Grandma and I also got food poisoning. No more chicken salad for me!

We had so much fun last weekend. On Saturday we re-seeded our lawn. Brian took Reese to Lowe’s while I plugged using our neighbor’s riding mower and plugger. When they got back we put Reese to bed and Brian and I spread a ton of lime on the lawn then re-seeded. After that Brian went to Lowe’s two more times for fertilizer and peat moss and spread it around. In the meantime, it had gotten up to 75 degrees, so I put Reese in one of her amazingly cute spring outfits.

Reese can also find her belly button (bee bo), approximately.

On Sunday after church, we went to Sandy and Jayme Freitas’ for a yummy Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Reese understood! She found an egg and she put it in her basket. She didn’t understand that she should be finding more than one egg, but she was really thrilled about the one egg and carried it around all afternoon.

Here’s our little family:

My mom, Nana to Reese, sent a very fun Easter box which Reese opened up when we got home.

The adorable Easter outfit was actually a Christmas present from Brian’s sister, Cori (Aunt Coco), and this is the first time she got to wear it! Fortunately, it won’t be the last. The outfit still had plenty of room and we’ve got plenty of spring days!