Too Too Twain

She loves The Little Blue Engine book and kept pointing out the toy clown today. I'd stop reading to say yeah, that's a clown. She got up, walked over to Bozo, pointed at his face and said "daaat". Oh yeah Reagan, that's a clown too, you're right! Wow!

Ready For Breakfast With Santa

Our New *Free* Toy Organizer!

We're driving along last weekend and this thing is sitting on the curb with a FREE sign on it. [screeeeeeech .... go my brakes]. "oh my god Cam, go get that!" I didn't even pull over, I essentially stopped in the middle of the [very residential, lightly traveled] road. Without a word, he steps out, packs it in, I get out to help distribute things into the back seat that aren't fitting in the trunk and we're on our way. I had really been contemplating getting one of these and they're $60 new at Target! I've seen some being sold over email from other Moms, but I wasn't 100% sure if we needed one or had room for one yet. The FREE sign made that decision real easy and I love it! We were able to get all the toys from her toy box in here and now the toy box holds Cam's old blocks, which were sitting in a cardboard box on the floor. Big improvement!

Born Personal Trainer

The other day, in one of Reagan's rarer moments playing by herself (she usually reaches for our finger, says "pay", and guides us over to her toys with her), I noticed her putting her baby doll in pushup position and saying "up, don, eh-ee-ise". Translated, that means, "up, down, exercise". Hilarious! She has learned this from me doing a workout with another mom/friend in her backyard while Reagan and her son play around near us.

EBD's and One, Two, Vree

Reagan can count to three now. It's been a couple weeks since she's been using "two" in counting and as an adjective. But, now she's excitedly counting to three. She started learning the names of letters and now whenever she sees printed words, she calls them EBD's. She also requests that I sing the ABC song by saying EBD.

Monterey Thanksgiving

We went to Monterey for Thanksgiving and ended the trip with a drive down to Bakersfield to go to a freind's wedding. On TG, we went to the aquarium and a great Thanksgiving buffet. Reagan loved seeing everything, especially the sea otters. She was afraid to touch the sea cucumbers and starfish though.

Checking out what's under this murky water
Watching "the funny fish with legs" feed all the normal looking fish in the Kelp Forest

The next day, we walked to Dennis the Menace Park. She loved this too of course ... it's such a great park, we didn't even feel bored there!


Saturday, we drove to Bakersfield for Dale and Donna's hawaiian/pirate themed wedding (Reagan wanted "mau" dancing and music even though she was yawning and rubbing her eyes every few minutes). Sunday, we drove home ... almost 5 hr drive, but she did great. Driving through the valley, there isn't much to look at, so Reagan was pointing out all the "EBD's" (road signs) and every "bus", which included trucks, motorhomes, and buses. We explained that the motorhomes were like buses so I decided to call it a "motorhome bus" as if it were a type of bus. She repeated "mo mo bus hum".

Here's a random shot at PF Chang's where we found out she likes "chicken fried rice". This was my chinese restaurant meal until I was like 20 or something. It was chicken fingers until at least age 15 at every other restaurant. Anyway, this huge serving spoon was way more fun to eat with than her little Elmo fork.

"No"

So far, "Ray-run" has been so impressed with her ability to understand us, that she would do anything we said to show us that she understood. Now, she is impressing herself with her ability to say "No."

The Cake Is Gone!

... because I tossed the last quarter of it in the garbage (yes, Cam and I ate 3/4 of our birthday cake in 5 days). I was pretending to be fat standing next to the cake in the picture (a few posts down) taken Saturday ... now on Thursday, I actually am so it was time to toss it. So what if I grabbed a couple ... ok, few ... fine, several chunks with my fingers while walking it out to the garbage. I tossed it and I'm proud!

"Weee Out-ise"

"Reagan, first let's eat breakfast, then we can go outside and go wee down the slide." Just got this for free from my neighbor who's friend was giving it away, but they already have one. It's hard to imagine that she's actually slightly big for a big toy like this, but she still loves it.

"Mama, mama!" she says as she points toward the slide. "Reagan, mama's too big. See, I don't fit."

Our Kitchen's Done!

First, some progress pics since February, the last time I blogged about this project!

Cam tears out the old countertops (Jun 10)

We live in a disaster zone and eat off paper plates (until Aug 1)BEFORE

(drum roll please ...)
AFTER!
Window and Sink
BEFORE

AFTER
View from the Dining Room ... and the big question is: should we extend the "Nantucket Mist" color on the rest of that wall? You can enlarge the pic by clicking on it. Don't worry, whatever your opinion is, you'll only upset one of us :-)

Happy 30th Cameron!

We had our 70's Bday bash on Saturday and it was a good time! I borrowed a dress and shoes from Amy, who just happens to own clothes perfect for a 70's theme ... thanks Amy! I attempted a Farrah Fawcett thing with my hair, but was in a total rush while watching Reagan climb all over the bathroom. Sadly, only one and 1/2 others dressed up and I didn't even end up getting pictures of them - thanks Blake and for your top half, Kate :-) Reagan had a great time, playing on the disco floor with Rani and her friend and the hula hoop. We have way too much food leftover that Cam and I are plowing through like kids in a candy store... it's gotten to the "get rid of this stuff so we can stop eating it phase" but by get rid of it, I don't mean the garbage can, unfortunately.

Reagan's Doggie from Jude

Help! The cake is attacking me!

Trick or Treat!

... smell my feet, give me something good to eat. Reagan thinks that's funny and always asks me to say it "mau". She especially thought it was funny when I actually smelled my feet. Reagan went trick or treating for the first time tonight. We went to about 7 houses around us. She decided to walk inside when they answered the door ... unless they stepped outside with their candy, which most did. She gave a thank you sign with prompting a few times, but we couldn't quite get her to say trick or treat ... that's a hard one. We went around with her friend Harrison, who's 2 and lives across the street. He was a pilot.

Happy Early Halloween!

We did most of our Halloween celebrating this weekend. I went to my friend's Halloween party on Saturday night. It was all out as they normally do, with full on construction as part of their decoration/theme, but this is the first year I've been able to make it and I've known them 6 yrs! I was there til 3:30 am, making it home just in time for Cam to leave for work (not normal work hrs for him, it's shutdown for his unit at the refinery right now). I was a vampire.... here's the picture Cam took from the couch half asleep when I left at 9pm ... not the best angle, but not bad for those circumstances.
Here's a close up of the makeup ... not the best lighting ... it looked better in person.


Sunday evening, a Mom's club friend threw a Halloween Party for the families in our playgroup and it was super cute. The only reason I was a vampire this year was to match Reagan who was a bat. I won the "sexiest costume" ribbon though! ... all because of my fishnet stockings and knee high boots. :-)


Here I am with some of the other Moms there ... from left; Wilma Flinstone (who's husband was Fred and their son was Dino ... is that what he's called, I haven't watched Flinstones since before I was born or something, ... anyway ... a Witch, Little Bo Peep, me, Vampire Extraordinaire, a Thomas the Train Conductor, and Tiffany who gets credit for dressing up last year when many of us didn't.

Excited For The Snow

I've been shopping for Reagan to get her ready for sub zero temps in Mont Tremblant over xmas ... I know, it's not even Halloween, but I'm excited about her getting to play in the snow. Here's the stay puff marshmallow ...
Conversation

Me: Reagan, want some yummy tortellini's for lunch?
Reagan: nini's!
Me: That's right, tortellini's! say tooooor
Reagan: toe
Me: taaaa
Reagan: ta
Me: lini's
Reagan: nini's
Me: Good job!
Reagan: mau (while signing "more") - she asks to practice more!

[repeat couple more times]

Me: Ok, say toooorta (I've noticed drawing out the first syllable makes it easier for her repeat two syllables in a row)
Reagan: toe-ta
Me: lini's
Reagan: nini's

She was pretty close to saying the whole thing by herself, but not quite yet ... I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Athens To Atlanta Road Skate

... Or Athens to Dacula for me. I did the 38 miles (with Bethany who won 2nd place in her age group.... not me, I'm too old) without stopping in 3 hrs, 49 minutes, a 10 mph pace! I was proud of the not stopping part alone. Danny did a ridiculous, as usual, 5 hrs, 12 min for the 87 miles all the way to Atlanta. We had a great weekend in Atlanta and the flights went very smoothly minus one nice barf session Reagan provided us with to start the trip off on a good note ... before we even pulled away from the gate in San Fran. We enjoyed the rest of the flight, strawberry smoothie stained pants and all. Maybe too much bouncing/moving right after we ate it. It wasn't the smoothie itself, cause I was fine. Anyway, she was of course in love with the doggies, Cooper and Bailey, at Aunt Carol and Uncle Howard's house. Here she is doing her "nice doggy" approach we've taught her before. They needed no particular approach as long it wasn't silent and sudden from behind or something, but it's good practice for Reagan.
Aunt Bethany, why does "beebee" Faire just lay there? (Cousin Faire's 4 1/2 months old!)

Catching Up ... Reagan's 18 Months Old!

I've been thinking about blogging, just not getting "a round tuit". Well, I finally got one :-) Reagan increases her understanding and vocabulary constantly ... I can't even begin to capture every new thing she's doing/saying. She copies almost everything we do. You should see her hold, cuddle, kiss the head of, and pat her baby doll. She "brushes" her teeth, she pretends to go on her potty and even closes the lid when she's done, she cuts food with the side of her fork and spoon, she says 2 word phrases like "mama uppie", "uppie peas" (up please) "dada yummies" (Dada's eating yummies), "nigh nigh beebee" (night night baby), "dada hum" "dada week" (dada's at work). She's enamoured with dogs, says "daggie" and "oof, oof" and just today learned to say "meow" instead of just "me" for cats. She's also able to point out shapes now - circle, square, triangle, heart, star. It seems like she's getting colors too, at least red and blue, but I'll need some more proof before I claim that.

In mid-September, Great Grandma and Grandpa Kalkman were here visiting and we all had a great time. Grandma helped us pick tons of apples and trim our way-out-of-hand rose bushes (we don't have a clue, so we hadn't touched em). What an improvement! I want to know how to trim up all the other plants now too! We made 4 apple pies completely from scratch. Worth it! They were awesome! Here's a couple pics from their visit:


Late September, Grandma Connie sent Reagan a game with those realistic looking plastic animals in it. She loved them so much, we've since bought a bunch more in bigger sizes. Oh yeah, and because of these, she says "warees" now too which is walrus. Thanks Grandma Connie!
A recent playgroup at our house: Reagan's learning from Zoe and Jack how to do Ring Around the Rosie.
Reagan feeds her baby doll "doos".
... and wears the princess purse our neighbor found for her ... um, what? How does she know to stand like that? Do I do that!? :-)
... and here she is cutting her sweet potatoes with her fork

BOZO, Blocks, Benches

Even though she's a little young for this, she thinks the Bozo Clown is pretty cool. She's trying to bring it to me so I can make it work. Thanks Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Martin!

She's also a little young for these huge blocks, but Cam's been waiting so patiently to have an excuse to play with them - they're his from his childhood. She loves when he makes a bench and if I'm in the other room, she calls "mama!", walks over to me, points back toward where she came from saying "dat". I follow and she walks up to the bench, points to it and says "dat" looking at me expectantly. Cameron informs me I'm supposed to sit on the bench. I do and she immediately pushes on my back ... my turn is over ... her turn now.

"Reagan say cheese"

"Tees"

Cam's built a couple elaborate forts and ball mazes for her and she thinks they're pretty cool, but not quite as much as Cam yet.
Putting birdies on top made it way cooler though :-)

Conversations with Reagan

Cameron: "Reagan, do you want some juice?"
Reagan: "Doos [nod nod nod]"

Cameron: "Mama!" [yelling from upstairs]
Reagan: "Mama!" [yelling from upstairs, same tone, relatively same volume]

Melanie: "Do you want more crackers?" [bland diet after puking]
Reagan: "tees"
Melanie: "oh, you want cheese? That'll make you feel yucky right now. Do you want bread?"
Reagan: "ed" [an attempt at 'bread']

Poor Reagan

After going through a 12-hour stomach virus with Reagan Thursday night and then seeing the doc and finding out nothing else was going on, she was fine until last night again (saturday even though this post is dated Fri ... that's when I started writing it ... how do you edit the date?!). She had vomitted 12 times between 6:30 and 4am the first time and then last night, just 3 at night and 3 this morning. Not sure what's going on, but the fever still goes up to 100.something every evening, so now with this, I'm starting to feel like this is more of a thing instead of a few commons issues like sore throat and stomach virus. I'm calling the doc in the morning again since they said to call if there was any more vomitting after the first long night.

Fever with Teething ... Myth or Reality??

So, her fever's still up at night ... low grade ... but there. Today I noticed the corners of molars piercing through on both upper sides. I've heard molars are tough and take a couple months to come in and it's hard to believe she's having this fever for any other reason ... BUT, the doc says it's a myth. The American Academy of Pediatrics book I have as well as everything else I've ever read says they can get a low grade fever from teething. What gives?

Baby Inliner

That's the name of what I'd like to invent. Joggers have baby joggers and bikers have baby bike trailers. It would be like a jogging stroller, but would attach to your hips allowing your arms to be free for counter-movement and balance.

Why do I care about inline skating all of a sudden? I signed up for some torture ... the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate Event ... except this time I'm doing the shortest 38-mile version ... unless I'm feeling gutsy the day before, then I may switch to the 52.4-miles. (In 2004, I had a funeral for my ankles after skating 87 miles in 11 hrs and 45 minutes ... never again.)

Anyway, I dusted off my old inline skates (which still have mucky and now rusted wheels - oops! - from all the rain that made that day in 2004 extra fun ... of course I didn't clean them when I got home ... I wasn't ever touching them again!). I took them for a spin today at the State Park and was a little nervous, especially since I'd be pushing the jogging stroller at the same time. Overall, that part worked fine, especially if I pushed one handed to do the "skater arm swing". It wasn't very fun when it was slightly uphill with a headwind though ... on top of pushing the stroller, which isn't that light cause we got a cheaper one ... oh, and on top of the rusty, sticky wheel - that worked itself out by the time I was heading back with tailwind and slight downhill - ya know, when I didn't need it. My feet were hurting almost immediately, mostly because I wasn't relaxed enough and was clenching them the whole time. I skated for about 25 minutes and that felt like enough right now ... hopefully, skating has a quick feet/knee/hip adaptation period just like biking does with the butt bones ... because I only have a month until the event! My one hip that's really tight is especially feeling it. After today, 38 oughtta do me in just fine. I'm optimistic that it was just rustyness all around though and that I'll feel better next time I go out.

Oh, and Reagan was mesmerized by these crazy wheels attached to my feet. In the middle of my skate today, I parked her and did some circles in front of her on the skates and all I kept getting from her was the sign for "more" while she stared with wide eyes and open jaw.

Banana

Us: "Hey Reagan, say banana ... say ba"
Reagan: "ba"
Us: "na na"
Reagan: "na na"

Us: "ba"
Reagan: "ba"
All in unison: "na na"

Us: "ba"
Reagan: "ba [pause] na na"
Us: "banana"
Reagan: "blblblblblblb"

SLIDESHOW: Reagan 12-16 Months

(Apr 14 - Aug 13, 2007)

Click on this link, then click on the "i" in the center of the first photo to see my captions during the show. At any point, you can click on the picture (or hit the "i" on the keyboard) to take the caption away ... and vise versa to bring it back again.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atcamelot/sets/72157601808666704/show/

Reagan Updates

NOTE: The previous post was actually written today (8/31/07)

Talking:
Yesterday, eyebrows, "eyeboos". This morning, juice, "doos". She really watches our mouths sometimes and tries to mimic the sounds. She also said her first 2 word phrase a week or so ago ... daddy hum. She was asking me if Daddy was home or coming home or something. Since then, she constantly points out Dada in pictures and any sound we hear, especially at the front door, she says "da da!" She's definitely missing him when he's not here now instead of only being aware of him when he's here. She also does a high pitched "mee" for meow and "oof" for woof.

Fever:
She's had a low grade temp at night on and off this month. I'm hoping it's just been a few little bugs in a row. Maybe the camping trips didn't help. Maybe taking her to the gym daycare in the mornings sometimes (her temp's alwasy down then and she seems fine) wasn't helping her get all the way better either. We went to the doc on Tuesday and turns out she has a sore throat. We've layed low this week. The last two days, she's also had 3 poopy diapers (it's usually 1 or 2 max) and they've been a bit softer with undigested food. Her fever's continued to be up between 100.3-100.6 each night since Tuesday and back down in the morning. The doctor has me keeping a record of her evening temp for 3 weeks so we can see if it's just related to the sickness right now or something else going on. So, a little worried in general about all this, but we'll just wait and see for now.

2 Cool Gifts:
Cam's Aunt Patti sent a huge box of books for Reagan and Aunt Bethany knitted an adorable dress that Uncle Danny brought along with a Dr. Suess book that she loves too. Here she is in the dress checking out her new cool stack of books. She really loves the one where you slide the wheel to find the baby animal to match the mama animal.

Camping Adventures

We took 2 camping trips this month, one in Tahoe Aug 10-11 (1 night) and one on Angel Island Aug 23-25 (2 nights). The Tahoe trip was just the 3 of us and was our practice for Angel Island where we wouldn't be able to bail to our car (30-40 min hike and ferry ride from car). My Dad (Grampa Martin/Galieber) flew out on a free Southwest voucher and joined us for Angel Island and we all had a great time. Reagan enjoyed both trips as long as we were hanging around the camp site or exploring rather than stuffing her into the hiking backpack or bike trailer.

We lost a bit of sleep the first night in Tahoe, waking up every few seconds to make sure she didn't need another layer or to put her hat back on her (still) bald head. We had plans for 2 nights in Tahoe but decided there was no sense losing sleep again ... we knew she could sleep fine in the tent and we'd already done everything we planned to do - gondola at Squaw for dinner with a view, hiking part of the trail to Mt. Tallac, and a buffet dinner at the top of Harrah's Casino in South Lake Tahoe - but I like buffets! Notice a lot of eating and a little hiking in our plans ... and I wonder why I can't drop the rest of the weight!!

Here, we stopped hiking to let Reagan have some fun... little rock climber

Good morning ... this fun jumpy bed is still here!

Anyway, on Angel Island, our view was fantastic and it was really wild to look at San Francsisco and both bridges and Alcatraz while we sat at a camp site roughing it. We saw tons of Deer (or as Reagan calls them, "Dee") and they were so much less skiddish than usual since they don't have any predators on the island. We also saw lots of birds (Reagan flaps her arms for them). Since Reagan wasn't willing to be in the hiking backpack that long, Cam stayed at camp while she napped in the tent and my Dad and I hiked to the top ... even greater view. It took about 45 min to go up and 30/35 to come back down.

Hiking up to camp from the Ferry dropoff point (Ayala Cove)
My Dad at the top, Tiburon in the background Our site
View of SF from our site (enlarge this or you can't really see SF in background) (it was really cool at night all lit up)Reagan's make-shift high chair ... she only lasted a couple minutes like this, but it was funny :-)
Morning hike down to the beach (where we saw a lovely sea lion carcass washed up on shore ... that smelled good!). "So, we sit on this like a chair, huh Grandpa?" Took her a while to go down for a nap, but checking out the iPod & making a few calls on my cell wore her out.
As soon as she realized this water spicket was here, it was non-stop "hand-washing" time
Heading home ... with less stuff, so we were able to squeeze Reagan into a bike trailer and all ride our bikes down to the ferry. Sooo much faster than the walk up! Here's the happy camper:
Ferry ride back to Tiburon
Reagan zonks from a tiring weekend
Still zonked through half our lunch at Cheesecake Factory
We also encountered the "smart" racoons, as the ranger put it with a smirk. We put our food in the food locker thinking it was there to keep food safe ... ya know, like the bear lockers do at yosemite, right? wrong!! They managed to pull 5 bananas, 2 apples, 3 peaches, and 6 hot dog buns through the 1/4 inch gap at the bottom of the food locker door! I am not joking. It certaintly wasn't an easy task ... they obviously struggled based on the insane sounds we heard ... a half shrieky, half growly, really frustrated/mad sound ... we could have swore a pack of lions were fighting outside our tent. We finally heard my Dad unzip his tent (he later told us he sat and contemplated this for a while though) ... and good thing, cause we weren't going out there! :-) ... and he yelled and threw a couple rocks to scare them away. He only saw one racoon ... found it had chewed into the baggie holding the dish sponge. So, he wedged the food locker door shut at the top with a thick stick. There. Now they won't be able to get anything. Ha! That was before the afforementioned feast. After enjoying our bunless hotdogs for lunch the next day, we meant business the second night. They were trying to get serious too... approaching our campsight before it was even dark! One of them was really daring and would come within 10 feet of us. Holy crap, this is war! We wedged a tent stake in the food locker door, wedged a huge log against the front doors so they couldn't be pulled open at all - no 1/4 inch gap this time! - and we didn't store anything on the bottom shelf this time... oh and my Dad rounded up an arsenal of rocks to throw to scare them off. We never heard a peep and everything was untouched in the morning. Ha, we won!