The never-ending Winter of 2013

We have kept ourselves fairly busy on weekends this Winter, so this is going to be one massive blog post.

We went out to La Crosse for a weekend in February and Dan and I were able to go out and spend time with my brother and some new friends and some old friends.  I can't tell you the last time we went out two nights in a row.  We had such a great time...I have not laughed that hard in a long time.  We went sledding one of the days as well.  I also can't remember the last time I have done that.  Rylie hasn't ever been on a big sledding hill; she has been pulled around our house in her sled and that is the extent of it.  One of the sledding hills in La Crosse is on a golf course (one that we took wedding photos at) and is across the street from a local tavern (one that we visited with our wedding party).  So we dropped off mom, dad and Reagan at the bar to watch out the window and I went up to take some pictures of the kids. We had a small group of people and the kids had a great time.  Reagan took one of the best naps of her life in the noisy bar.  My mom stuffed her pockets with cans of beer to take up to the guys.  And after a couple hours, everyone came down to the bar and we were those people that had about 6 kids in the bar eating popcorn and drinking soda.

Rylie was able to do a Winter gymnastics session on Tuesday mornings. Thanks to Auntie Leslie who signed Sophie up and asked if Rylie wanted to do it as well and picked her up and returned her to Beth's house each week, so it worked out great!  I didn't want her to miss out on the session because she loves it, but obviously wouldn't be able to transport her while at work. We're looking forward to the next session.  

Her teacher, Miss Tina, is great! I was able to make it to her last class and got some pictures.

My little Valentines:

Dan and I attended the Taste of Milwaukee for the third year to benefit United Cerebral Palsy of SE WI. It's a great event for a great cause and we have a great time attending with the United Heartland group, trying food from tons of area restaurants, and listening to our friend Stephanie speak!

Dan and I were able to get away for a weekend in March.  Since this Winter is never-ending, we were able to go up late in the year and snowmobile over St. Paddy's weekend. We stayed at the same cabin that we stay at with my parents for a week in the Summer. They got a bunch of snow while we were there so the trails were great and there was nobody on them.  The last time that we went away just the two of us overnight was for a New Year's Eve 2010 wedding.  That is also the only other time we have been away from our kids (just Rylie at the time) for more than one night. So two times in the last 4 years have we spent a weekend away...and the consensus was that we should try to do that more often.  We had a great time and enjoyed spending time just the two of us- which is pretty easy to do when you take away work, kids, cooking, laundry, house cleaning, baths, etc.

slightly different view than we're used to

The girls spent the weekend at Grr and Grr Mom's.  They had fun celebrating St. Paddy's weekend with their three cousins having dance parties.

9 Months Old!

At  9 months old, Reagan is crawling like crazy and pulling up on everything.  She tries to gnaw on everything, but still doesn't have any toofers!  She soaks through shirts in a matter of minutes, but there aren't any signs of the little buggers poking through.  At her 9 month appointment she was 16lbs 15 oz and 27.5 inches (Rylie was 17lbs 3 oz and 27.5 inches).

She fights sleep like crazy...at both naptime and bedtime.  The only time it comes easy is if she falls asleep during a bottle or in the car.  Other than that she pushes away like crazy while rubbing her eyes and if you lay her down she screams and if you pick her up and she pushes away again. So it's a pretty good time. I wish I would have savored more those days where we could just sit and rock.  Every night of this might be less frustrating if we knew she was down for the night, but more often than not, that isn't the case.  Every once in a while, she takes pity on us and gives us a full night of sleep.  But by the time those come around, I'm so used to getting up, that I'm getting up checking on her to make sure she's ok!  

Aside from the sleep department, she is such an easy baby.  She's a very happy girl and fusses very little.  I love seeing her big smile when I get home from work as she crawls right to me.  She is the sweetest thing. 

Rylie is still a great big sister...even when Reagan is getting into her things.  She's fairly relaxed about it.  Rylie was coloring one afternoon and Reagan crawled into her room and pulled half the books off her shelf, and then crawled over to her closet and pulled all of her shoes out.  Rylie just sat and colored and when I asked what babers was doing, she said "just playing".  On another afternoon Rylie and I were downstairs switching the laundry while Reagan was napping and I heard Reagan start to cry.  So I asked Rylie if she could run upstairs and sing to her (she loves when Ry sings ABC's) while I finished.  A few minutes later as I got to the top of the stairs, all was quiet.  I walked into Reagan's room and there they were both in the crib playing.  Rylie had launched herself over the side and "kept her company" until I got there. 

It is so hard to believe that 9 months has passed already.  If feels like it's going so much faster this time I think for a couple of reasons.  One being that in general the older I get the faster time goes.  And the other is that Reagan is doing everything a little earlier than Rylie did, so she already seems to be closer to a toddler than baby at this point in time.  It's just as fun to cheer for her and be proud of her as she hits all of those milestones as it was with Rylie.  Before we know it we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday which is just plain crazy!

8 Months Old!

Reagan is 8 months old already.  As usual, the months are just flying by.  It seems as though Reagan started crawling as soon as she mastered sitting up.  She is officially into everything.  The gate went back up at the top of the stairs and we tell Rylie over and over and over that we need to keep all of the small pieces away from babers.  So far so good.  Reagan's favorite things to get into are anything in the bathroom and power cords. She loves to go straight for the power cords. And as soon as she mastered crawling, she started pulling herself up.  Rylie wasn't doing any of this by 9 months, so I have a feeling that someone is just trying to keep up with her big sister and she'll be walking before we know it! 

Reagan has tried all of the 1st foods and 2nd foods.  I have made some homemade foods as well- avocado, blueberry banana, peas and sweet potatoes.  I still nurse her in the morning and at night, but she takes formula during the day.  She's not crazy about it, but I haven't figured out a way to manufacture breast milk yet, so she doesn't have a choice. She eats cereal with fruit in the morning and then veg. and fruit at lunch and dinner.  She is a good little eater and can usually finish off two containers of 2nd foods.  She has tried a couple of cheerios and yogurt melts and some baby mum mums, but isn't real crazy about any of them yet.  I've also started giving her a sippy of water with her meals. She seems to be thriving in all areas...except for the sleep department.  This girl does.not.sleep.  And we have yet to figure out how to fix that!

She still loves to laugh at her silly sister.  She screams when she's excited.  When she's upset she quiets right down when Rylie sings the ABC's to her. Rylie is the only one that can hold her hands. And so far Rylie loves playing with her.  She takes her big Mr. Potato head and dumps it out next to Reagan.  Or they play with Reagan's alphabet train together. Or Rylie's doll house. They love taking baths together.  I just love watching them interact together.  Rylie has all kinds of nick names for her.  She responds to babers, Reag-a-boo, and Reagan...hopefully she'll recognize which one is her actual name.

Here are some pictures from her 8 month photo shoot:

 

Kalahari

 

Dan's Mom and Dad/Grr and Grr Mom celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on January 6th.  To celebrate, they wanted to spend a long weekend with family at the Kalahari as we did a couple of year ago.  We had such a great time!  They have remodeled since the last time we were there and now had a much bigger and more toddler friendly area for the little ones to play in.  It included a toddler sized lazy river, which Rylie LOVED.  They also put in a swim up bar in a hot tub (which was basically the temperature of a warm bath) which Dan and I enjoyed!  We did get Rylie to go on a couple of the larger tube rides with us and Dan and I went on a few ourselves.  She said it was fun, but had no desire to go again.   The pictures below pretty well illustrate the good time had by all!