In Loving Memory

Matthew William Steinmetz

Born June 12, 2007

I'm so glad that he was able to meet his parents and that Rikki and Chris were able to be with and meet him as well. What a precious and adorable baby they got to spend this time with.

Love,
Melanie, Cameron, and Reagan

My Future's So Bright

I Gotta Wear ....

Uh, Mom, here's the ropes, lets get back to the swinging already.

Sand & Water Table from Grandma Connie

She's already excited and there's no sand or water!

The very next night after work, Cam rushed over to Ace Hardware for a bag of sand and got it all set up on the patio.

Immediately copying Daddy and scooping sand into containers with a very serious and concentrated look ... like a chemist in her lab :-) Thanks Grandma Connie!

June 17: Happy Father's Day ... last day in Phoenix

We went to a great little place with the Kirchhoff side of the family called Greasewood Flats out in the desert. Cowboys, Country Western Music, Burgers, Beer, Wine Coolers, Dirt, and Donkeys. Another late night for Reagan, but we all had fun.

Forgetting to change her diaper often enough happens to us at least once every vacation ... when a lot is happening and we're not on our normal schedule, we don't realize how many hours she's been in the same diaper. Of course, it happened the one day I forgot to pack a backup outfit! So, here she is in her diaper and a white sweater hangin' out with the cowboys in the dirt :-)

No babies are fallin' off this table! (with Carol, Leslie and Andrea)

Just follow me, Grandma Connie. I know the way. (normal outfit before pee-out)

The next morning, bright and early, we headed home. Reagan's briefing herself on the safety card in the pocket on the seat back in front of her. "It says you have to put your mask on first, Mama!"

Uncle Brandon & Aunt Danielle Got Married!

It was a fun, long weekend and a great wedding! We really enjoyed seeing all the extended family and Reagan did a great job despite lots of lost and/or uncomfortable sleep. Here she is at the rehearsal dinner in her make shift stroller bed. It was a gorgeous place up on a mountain overlooking the whole city of Phoenix.

Earlier in the night, Reagan loved the fire and water fountain, which basically has a drop off on the other side as far as we could tell. It was pretty spectacular.

The guests of honor, Brandon and Danielle Back at our hotel, Reagan decides what shoes to wear :-)

and swims in the pool on the roof with Mama!

The Big Day!

We were there early for Cam to be in all the pictures, so Reagan enjoyed running around, breaking my necklace :-( (that's what I get for buying Target jewelry), and finding a surprise teddy bear from Uncle Brandon and Aunt Danielle on her seat at the church ...

Peek-a-boo! No necklace :-(

Look what I got Da Da!
I have another Auntie now! Let's go party!

At the reception, Reagan was the life of the party :-) When the DJ announced "this is for Reagan", everyone got up to dance the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance with her. She was just mesmerized in the middle of the crowd, but managed a couple spins herself.

Heading in from the car ...

Some Head Table time ...

" ya do the Hokey Pokey and ya turn yourself around ... "

Reagan Finally Swims Again ...

I hadn't taken Reagan swimming since last July when she was 3 1/2 months old and I finally took her to the baby pool at our swim club today at almost 14 months old (sorry, no pics, didn't think of it and it was just me and her, so it would've been hard. She was adorable in her Old Navy mock-denim 2-piece though). She went from being scared to touch her foot to the water all the way to standing right next to me, waist deep, splashing her hands and even pushing a ball back and forth with a 2 yr old girl. What really helped was when all the bigger kids came over and played in the baby pool during the 15 min adult swim/break time. She just stared and stared at them like "you can do all that in the water?".

Hmm, a lap, let me sit down in it ...

Harrison is our 20-month old neighbor and not much bigger than Reagan, if at all. She apparently thought he could handle it though.

The Circus ...

Reagan went to her first Circus (www.circuschimera.com) on Wednesday. She was more interested than I thought she'd be. She'd get a little bored during the inbetween clown mime acts, but overall, she was mesmerized with the lights, music, people, objects all flying around. She looked up at the rope acrobats the whole time they performed. And of course when the motorcycles drove around in a huge globe, that kept her attention. We had ringside seats too, so everything was real easy to see. It was only a 1 ring circus, no animals, but right here in town.

A Funny ...

Today when I was putting Reagan down for her nap, singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, she stopped nursing and put her arms up as if to say "all done", something she never does while nursing ... she just sits up if she's done. Just before I asked her what she was all done with, I realized she was just doing what you do when you hear the words "high and sky". One of her songs has a line that says jump up high and reach up for the sky and that's the motion we do. When she heard those words in my song, she was just throwin' down the dance moves to it, no biggie :-)

New Words!

Reagan repeated "not, not" back to us when were saying night, night to her. It's sort of a mix between na, na, ni, ni, and not, not. I hadn't mentioned this on the blog yet, but she can make an "ssss" sound too and has started saying "dis" over the last couple days. So, we're proving that the signing isn't keeping her from talking!

Reagan and Mommy Both "Get Stuff"

Yesterday, I had a nice long day of shopping - baby free (my Mother's Day gift) - and got a lot of great stuff for of course little money. It was fun, I made it through 4 stores and I had to rush to the register at Kohl's when the "our last register is closing in one minute" warning came over the loudspeaker at 10 pm. I need more time!

Cam was home watching Reagan (other than when they met up with me for a late lunch) and when he put her to bed, she kept saying "milk" (in sign) followed by "where?". She must have picked this one up from us since we didn't try to teach it (hands out with palms up). She's been doing it a lot lately and we finally figured out that she's asking "where is it?". duh! We totally do that when we're asking her where something is.

Also, today at our friend's house, I was holding her and she pointed at Leann and said "dat" as usual and we said, yeah, that's Leann. She turned and pointed at my eyes - almost poked one out - and then pointed toward Leann's eyes (who was wearing glasses) and it took me a second to realize what she was saying or even that she was saying something significant at all. I normally wear glasses at home, so she was noticing that Leann had glasses too or maybe she thought Leann was wearing my glasses ... I don't know, but I'm just amazed at how she's making sense of the world and thinks of things that aren't in the here and now.


Trailer Trial

Our first attempt to take Reagan out in the bike trailer (last weekend, May 26) lasted all of 1 whole mile averaging 3 miles per hour! Her helmet finally fit, but she wasn't tall enough for it to clear the back of the seat, so it kept getting pushed over her eyes and when she'd try to lift it, the chin strap would just choke her. She ended up in a screaming fit of frustration even though we stopped and tried to readjust it 3 times over the mile. After our trip around the block, we were done. Good workout! :-)

Favorites

Reagan is infatuated with shoes. She brings her shoes from her shoe basket all the time, wanting us to put them on her. She also brings us our shoes to wear, even if we already have another pair on. I think she's excited about the concept of us all having these things we put on our feet. I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday and she seems a little extra excited about them, pointing them out more often and saying her signature word, "dat". She knows they're new to our shoe family. Here she is trying on Daddy's shoes that are almost as tall as her.

Reagan's other favorite is books. One of her favorites is Cordoroy's Day. You can just see her relating to it as we read it to her. Just like Reagan, he wakes up, puts his clothes on (or gets clothes put on in her case), eats breakfast (she's doing her "hungry" sign for that page),

plays with toys, reads books, eats with friends, takes a bath, and goes to bed. It's the never ending book because she always wants to see him wake up and go through his day again.