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