Swimmer in the Making

After swim lessons all summer, check out Reagan's skills:

First Day of School

Reagan started preschool today ... and didn't cry one bit (even though she told me numerous times from the moment she woke up that she didn't want to go). After refusing to get in the pool for lessons without me just a month ago and go into a ballet class without me in the spring, I was pretty surprised how well she did.

"I love it here" she said, as we were walking out.

An excerpt from my friend Tracy about her son JJ and Reagan this morning (a few friends had a harder time, but they all ended up proclaiming their love for the place too):

/Warm Fuzzy Moment of the Day/: JJ bawling his eyes out that I'm leaving the playground. Reagan walks up (out of nowhere) and silently presents a pine cone to JJ. JJ: "I don't want a pine cone!! Snort". Reagan (patiently still holding it out). I give it to JJ and say "tell Reagan thank you". "Thank Youuuu. Snort". Reagan silently retreats to whatever angel cloud she came from....

Waiting to go in this morning (from left): Wesley, Reagan, Jack

Passy Fairy

"The passy fairy takes your passies to give to babies in other cities that need them and she leaves you a gift. You can leave your passies in the passy fairy basket any night that you're ready starting when you're 3 years old ... or she comes on your birthday when you turn 4." - said I, several weeks ago.

This whole idea got discussed here and there until a few weeks ago on a Target trip where Reagan was getting very excited about "The Little Mermaid" themed dolls/toys and especially one where you could change Ariel from a mermaid to a human (we had to describe it to her since they were out of stock).

We started mentioning how maybe we could leave a message with the passy fairy. This got her suddenly very ready to give up the passy. We convinced her that a practice night or two (she only slept with it, so it was only an issue at night and naps) would be good to see if she's ready since the passy fairy couldn't buy the gift until it was in the store anyway. She only got about 10 minutes in and got out of bed to grab the passy off her bookshelf ... too tempting.

On the way home that night, she made sure ... over and over during the ride home ... that we knew she wanted the "tail on/tail off" Ariel and not the other ones. We found the toy (on Ebay finally) and told Reagan it was available for the passy fairy to buy so when Cam suggested she go for it, she was game.

We put her 2 passies in a basket and I left a little note from the passy fairy saying how generous it was of her to give her passies to babies that need them. She was beside herself the next morning with her "tail on/tail off" Ariel and has been playing with it almost non-stop ever since.

It hasn't been the easiest transition though. The first two nights she woke up around 4 am out of sorts, wanting her passy, unable to fall back asleep. When she wanted us to play "Ariel" with her the next day, we explained that we were too tired because we missed so much sleep when she wouldn't sleep in the middle of the night. She hasn't done that since!

She's had some trouble at the beginning of the night too, not wanting to go to sleep. Tonight is the first night she didn't fight it at all - only took 5 nights to get back to normal, not bad. The best was when she whined about needing something in her mouth and when I suggested her thumb, she said, "no, I need something the size of a passy!" Sneaky, Reagan, sneaky.

Yellow
I'm not sure when Reagan learned how to pronounce her "L"s, but now she does it pretty well. For the longest time, they would come out like "Y"s, so for the word "yellow", she would always say "yeh-yo". Now that the "L"s are sounding perfect, she's changing too many "Y"s to "L"s. "Yellow" always sounds like "Lellow" now. This is the last bit of mispronunciation she still has, and it's too cute to correct.

First Real-ish Haircut

A while back, I took 2 tiny snips to her bangs since they were hanging in her eyes a little, but on Jan 26th, I cut real bangs for her, so I'm counting it at the first haircut at just over 2 3/4 yrs old! She could really use a trim all around, but I'm going as long as I can without paying for it.

Big Girl Bed

This is a bit older news, but we converted the crib to a toddler bed in early August and here's Reagan proudly standing on it the first night. She continues to call for us when she wakes up as if the crib rail is still there ... although if she sees something in her room she wants to look at or play with, she'll get out of bed, grab it and get back in to wait on us.

All Done Nursing

... Since November 28th! She was down to 1 pre-bed nursing that was only lasting a couple minutes and after singing her back to sleep one night on our thanksgiving weekend trip, I just incorporated that (the singing, but not until she's asleep ... no need make a habit of that) with her bedtime routine at home. So, after bath and jammies, it's a cup of cow's milk, one book, a review of her day, and then she lays down while I sing about 5 songs, say "nigh nigh, have a good sleepy with teddy and passy, I love you" and leave. She's only asked for "milkies" 2 times since then and as soon as I explained it was all gone, but she could have a cup of milk downstairs, she was fine with that. So, voila! Didn't think it'd be that easy!

Ready For Breakfast With Santa

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

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?

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 :-)

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! :-)

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.