Copy Cat

Reagan stood intently watching me snap my fingers today, then acted uninterested and walked away, but a few steps later, facing away from me, stopped and attempted it. She managed to sort of touch her finger to her thumb for a few seconds, but it was interesting how she decided to go off on her own and try it rather than in front of me where she could see another example.

She also copies the turning around part of Hokey Pokey by spinning in circles during the song. She touches her head to Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and also 5 Little Monkeys (one fell off and bumped his *head*). She has a sign for "music" now and asks for it mulitple times a day. It's kinda nice cause I don't always think to put music on and now she reminds me to do it! Between songs, she'll sign "music" again and look at me like, hey, I said I wanted music, why did it stop?

Dancing Queen

The other night, Cam was reading her a book on the couch and her music was on in the background. A particularly favorite song came on and she excitedly sat up, pointed toward the stereo, and motioned to get down on the floor. She then stood there bopping her knees to the beat. It was like a real person going "ooh, my favorite song, hold on, I gotta dance to this"!

A Real Memory

It's not always "out of sight, out of mind" anymore these days. Yesterday, I sat down on the floor to read her a book and as usual, she situated herself on my lap to get ready. As she got situated, she was trying to grab the pen and paper in my hand, so I quickly set them on the floor just under my leg, out of her sight. She continued sitting on my lap and I thought, cool, that still works, she's forgotten about the pen and paper. 2 pages into the book, she pushes the book aside, gets up off my lap and walks around my knee looking down under my leg for the pen and paper. So, not only did she not forget that I had put something forbidden down there, but the book wasn't even distracting her ... she was apparently too consumed with the lingering curiosity that she couldn't forget about!

Introducing Reagan's New Cousin!
(or as Copernicus would have us call her, Faire Tesla Soule-Reeves)

Faire was born on May 19, 2007 at 12:18 am
weighing 7 lbs 1 oz

She's Grown A Little :-)

5 days old

13 months old

Tough Times

Pink Teddy Bear had to go on a little vacation to a nearby Washing Machine Rehab Center after a traumatic dip in the toilet. Reagan had a tough time going to sleep for her nap without her, but told me all about how the white teddy bear slept with her ... it went something like da da da da da. That night, she had a tough time again, but Teddy was able to return in the middle of the night so she could wake up with her. Phew.

Reagan Kisses Back!

She also kisses the animals and characters she likes in her books :-)

The only way to keep her from adding to my emails ... don't look at our clean desk :-)

Weeeee ....

We bought this cute little swing, partially with Brandon and Danielle's gift card as well, from Target. We're leaving the rope longer for a "big girl" swing later. She hardly screams at all on the swings at the park, but this was non-stop ... we got out the video camera. She was acting like she was on the big drop of a roller coaster the whole time.

Daddy, it says you have to do it like this ...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Stuck

She got herself in a little predicament here. It was just cute :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

We went to Marie Callendar's Mother's Day Brunch Buffet ... yum. For the first time, Reagan ate 100% restaurant food without us bringing anything from home for her. As we digested, we decided to catch some of her baby sign language on camera :-)

"Outside" (supposed to pull fingers out of hand, but she pulls her thumb ... close enough)

"Please" (actually a rubbing motion, but we taught her to just touch her chest ... easier)

"All Done" (I don't think we taught her this, just reinforced it. Babies seem to do this when they want out of whatever they're strapped into)"Water" (I think this is the sign for bottle, but she has a bottle so rarely that she didn't need a sign for it, so we used it for water, which is what she drinks when she's not nursing)

"More" (already seen on the blog ... taught this one wrong unknowingly, but that doesn't change it's affect of course) "Book" (the hands are supposed to open, which she sort of does, but ends up separating her hands so much, it looks like "all done", so we're settling on just putting the hands together)
"You're Funny" JK :-)

Top Teeth!

Just noticed a few days ago that a couple top teeth, maybe even 3, are poking through a little!

Gift From Uncle Brandon & Aunt Danielle

We bought her this ball toy with the gift card they sent and she was all about putting the balls into the toy the first couple days. Now, all she cares about are the balls. She has a blast chasing them around, banging them together, watching them bounce and roll, and hearing them click on the floor (they're plastic). It's pretty funny... I missed a great shot of her commando crawling under the rocking chair to retrieve it earlier.

Triathlon Adventures

Did the Napa Valley Sprint Triathlon today ... 1/2 mile swim (875 yds), 15 mile bike, 4 mile run. This is a little longer than I usually do and I was ready for it to be done.

I'm a little skeptical of the swim distance since I went off course a bit (turned the triangular swim into somewhat of a "V" - Oops!) ... and still managed to average 1:27 per 100 yds. That would mean that I shaved 5-7 seconds from each 100 compared to my pool times. The numbness could have helped ... BEJEESUS, it was cold! I felt like I was swimming really fast, but couldn't feel a damn thing. I was beet red when I came out of the water and that was no 8 am sunburn! I did the swim in 12:46.

The balls of my feet are really sore from running on rock splattered asphalt for a good 100 yds (?) to my bike. The bike and run were both out and back with some pretty bad head wind and considerably more uphill on the way out. I only averaged 14 mph on the 1st 1/2 of the bike, then was able to bring it up to 16 by going 20-30 on the way back - thank you tail wind and downhills! Same with my run. I went out in 19.5 mintues and back in 18. My total bike time for 15 miles was 55:50 and total run time for 4 miles was 37:30 (9:22 mile pace) - not bad with the hills.

I ended up 14th overall - out of 66 - in my age group (still 25-29 ... for the last time unless I race before August) and 43rd over all females out of 292 (138th including men out of 790 total). My next planned race is "See Jane Tri", Sept 29th ... 500 yd swim, 11 mile bike, 5k run. I'll see what those 30-somethings have got ... bring it!


Reagan and Cam were great spectators and fans ... awaiting Mommy's grand entrance for her grand finish ... I outsprinted a guy and girl! and realized I saved too much energy ... oops.


My friend Kate also did this race with a gnarly knot on her foot, a head cold, and a double earrache... go Kate! She did well too (27th in age group) and here we are before the race.

Pedicures

After watching me clip her toenails over time (not easy without majorly distracting her for each side of each toenail), she decided this is something else she does on her own now and will tirelessly grab at it until I give in and give it to her. She then touches it to her toes so it can work it's clipping magic. Independence, here I come!

So then I asked if she could do Mommy's toenails.

Room Rearranging Again ...

A few months ago, we decided another work station in the living room would be nice and moved a desk from the too crowded guest room. It was a good arrangement and worked pretty well (served as my sewing/quilting station). Not everything was ideal though. So this week, I decided that since Reagan's a little sick and I couldn't take her to the gym daycare, I'd have Cam set up his bike trainer so I could ride during her naps (I wouldn't normally care to ride my bike that much, but my triathlon is 3 days away now!). He quickly set it up over his lunch hour in the middle of the room. This won't do, it's time to draw up a new plan, make a permanent spot for the bike! What, an excuse to rearrange? Well, I ditched the pen and paper and started moving stuff around pretty quickly. It never looks right just sketched out ... you have to spend oodles of time with a tape measure and graph paper or excel ... no time for that right now. I'm blogging about this because I have never so geniously rearranged a room before ... well, there's no spot for the papasan chair anymore, but we hardly ever sat in it. Something had to go with the addition of the bike. I met every criteria you could think of (anyone need to hire me? :-))

1. TV sitting area still it's own cozy compact area and all spots can view TV well
2. Reagan's play area in plain view of the couches (never been the case before)
3. Bike and Sewing/workstation both facing the TV (also never been the case before)
4. Reagan's play area in plain view of the kitchen and dining room too!
5. Still room behind the TV to store the physio balls
6. Room looks and feels sectioned into different areas yet extremely open as well
7. Bike right next to the window; open if you're hot and the sill holds water, remote, towel, etc.

With all this hard work, I still haven't cared/had the time to ride that much ... or at all. Oops! :-)

From dining room...

Stepping in, looking right (bike is under blue tarp, sewing/workstation in foreground behind Cam on the couch)

From the sewing/workstation toward the new play area

Fearless Bather!

After several months of refusing to sit down in the bath, we have a seated bather! I tried a gradual strategy; a few nights ago, I took a bath with her and pointed out over and over again how Mommy was in the water, the duckies were in the water, the cups were in the water, the balls were in the water ... can Reagan go in the water? ... and I got her to sit with me! Progress!

A few nights later, which was last night, I coaxed her to touch her toes, touch the water with her fingers and splash and make bubbles, grab the washcloth ... but she wouldn't sit down on her own. I guided her down and got all excited and told her to clap with me and she did, but would promptly stand up again. This repeated a few times and then she decided to stay there a little longer.

Tonight, she still wouldn't sit on her own at first, but stayed down for a long time when I sat her down ... and even stood and sat again on her own a couple times. She spent almost the entire bath sitting and sticking foam letters to the side while I poured water over her, even dripping it over her eyes several times! She tensed up like she wanted to stand, but I reassured her with a few "it's ok's" and she decided to let it go and keep on playing. Major progress!

Standing Up On Her Own!

As of Sunday, we suddenly noticed she doean't need a wall or a leg or a chair or anything to get to a standing position now. She goes from ape to human in a matter of seconds. It's like a Darwin flip book!