Wednesday, July 26, 2017

reid: 2 years

our little baby is two years old and i
remember thinking when brette was this age,
"wow, you're so grown up!"
but with reid, i feel like she's still my baby.
she still seem so young,
thank god.


growth:
both girls have a pediatrician appointment in august.
i had them scheduled for earlier this month but
my dr cancelled on me, so i have no stats on either child
for their birthday. wah wah.
the clothes that fit reid the best are 24 months.
2T are still big on her and the 18 month stuff,
depending on what it is, she can still wear.
she's in a diaper (size 5) at nap time and at night.
besides that, she's rocking undies all day, but
we still see our fair share of accidents.
she does great and then not great.
for example, she went four days with no accidents and
then turned around and had two accidents today.
it's frustrating.
her hair is still growing a lot and is down past her shoulders.
i think its lightened a bit in the summer and i'm
pretty sure we're going to end up with a strawberry blonde.
ps- she still HATES to get her hair done.
it's a battle.
physically, she so much more advanced than
B ever was at this age.
she climbs up ladders and goes down slides.
she pulls over chairs and climbs up on them.
she's everywhere and into everything.
ronnie is still calling her scragglemuff and
his chinese redhead. (because we swear she's speaking chinese.)
we also call her our little make-out queen because
she will quite literally not stop kissing you.
she kisses everyone and is the sweetest little girl.
i'm also proud to report that reid is really starting to talk well.
i love love love when my babies start talking.
she will pretty much repeat anything you ask her to say.
i hear a lot of "mama" except its really drawn out.
maaaaaaamaaaa and it goes up at the end.
she does it to ronnie's name too, because sometimes,
she calls him ronnie and not daddy.
i think it's because ronnie tries to impersonate me so
much that the kids pick up on it.
she is also really polite, saying "peas and tank u."
it's really really cute.
she can name all her animals and tell you
what sounds they make.
we are working on colors,
right now she knows orange, blue and pink.
yay! school is working!
i heard her say her first sentence the other day and
i meant to write it down, but i can't remember it now.
i just remember thinking, oh my gosh, that was more than two words in a row!
i definitely see improvements every week. 

sleeps:
reid still sleeps really well for me.
she goes to bed every night at 8:00 and
wakes up around 7:00.
(i think she would actually sleep longer if it was dark out,
one good thing about the winter months.)
when she started school, i transitioned to their schedule
so reid would have some consistency.
they sleep from 12:30 to 2:30 everyday, but
on the weekends she's been known to sleep 3 or 4 hours.
i don't think she sleeps a full 2 hours at school so
by the weekend she is extra tired.
i still have no troubles putting her down or
getting through the night.
although, one night about a month ago i think
she had her first nightmare.
she woke up super upset trying to climb out of her crib.
poor thing.
but that never happens.
i put her down and see her in the morning.
just how i like it.

eats:
reid has her favorites and
she likes to stick to them.
morning? she either wants blueberry muffins or
a granola bar with any kind of fruit.
the kid loves fruit. 
it's nice to grab and go for school, but
on the weekends i try to do pancakes, eggs - -
something that takes a bit more effort.
lunch? she likes lunch meat, pb&j's,
hamburgers and i get reports back from the school
that she normally eats most of her meal.
that's good because they're serving a wide variety of
things i know my kids wouldn't touch if i made it.
dinner? recently, i found out she loves tacos, corn on the cob, and chicken pot pie.
i make a bunch of different stuff and sometimes she eats
well and other times she doesn't.
it's a toss up.
she normally eats meat really well,
but not side dishes.
for snacks she likes popcorn, cheese sticks, turkey sticks,
cucumbers, FRUIT, crackers and for a treat she
loves ice cream or m&m's.

plays:
i have an announcement!!!!
reid has fallen in love with a
cabbage patch doll.
i know.
her name is Baby. very clever.
do i think she will sleep with her every
night until she's 30?
(so few of us are that cool.)
probably not,
but still, i'm excited.
she carries her around everywhere and
sleeps with her every night.
she loves to cover her with blankets and feed her bottles.
she also really into purse items - -
she always has her phone and keys.
so basically, she's a little mama.
she still likes picking out books, and thank god,
we've made it past Pajama Time everyday.
she does a great job of playing on her own,
which i know 2nd kids are not known for,
but i'm so down with it.
her and brette still don't play well together.
i think the communication gap is still too big.
but i know from watching madeline and eden,
that the day is coming and i'm very excited for it.

t w o  y e a r s  o l d,
i can't believe it.
she's such a sweet baby.
she can shriek with the best of them, but
is so sweet with her 'tank you's' and kisses.
i can't wait to see what the next year brings.

happy birthday, reid elizabeth!
love you.




Monday, July 17, 2017

a dress

normally my blog posts are not just
about one dress, but i feel the need to share
because i'm assuming most of my readers are either,
1 - my friends/family
2 - other mom's
in which case, i think you all should know
about this crazy cheap, amazing dress.

hello world, i just bought my #1 go-to summer
dress at Wal-Mart and i'm not ashamed to admit it.
when i was pregnant you could basically find me
in a black t-shirt dress on most days.
it was comfortable.
it fit great.
and it didn't make me feel sloppy.
it's the one piece of maternity clothing that i truly miss.

(see below, i literally wore it all the time.)

so when kassie's sister showed up to elle's birthday
party in a non-maternity version of this dress,
i had to have it.
when she told me it was from Wal-Mart and it was
E I G H T   D O L L A R S,
i ordered two.
one black and one red.
and i'm in love.
a great length and a little bit of stretch.
wear it plain with converse or sandals.
put on a scarf and some flats.
throw on some booties and a jean jacket.
i literally want to wear it everyday.

see if you like it.
i mean, it's only $8, so
what's the harm in giving it a try.

you can thank me later.



Thursday, July 13, 2017

happy birthday, ronald!

after our weekend away to illinois we
came back just in time to celebrate the 4th of july with kassie's family and


to celebrate ronnie's  t h i r t y - e i g h t h  birthday on friday.

ew.
so old.

my parent's were already planning on having the girls
that afternoon because i had an event at work
so they had to pick them up from school.
i conned them into turning it into a sleepover so ronnie
and i could actually go out and do something fun - - without kids.
i sent a group text to ronnie's friends to get everyone together and
try to set up a little night on the town.
have you ever tried to plan something with a bunch of guys?
it's heinous.
i know us girls might over plan and maybe design a t-shirt, but
at least we're all excited and constantly texting.
guys will sporadically respond back or not at all.
and if they do, it's just to suggest something else or
change something or to talk about something
that i should never have read.
literally, like herding cats.
by the end of it, i was like - whatever, i made reservations,
show up if you want.
and by some miracle, every one of ronnie's friends came out.
it was super nice of them because they actually have to drive
up here to go out and then drive an hour back home, but
i'm really glad we got together and i know ronnie had a good time.
(there might have been a few shots and moonwalking involved)
but i'm bummed because i forgot my phone at home so
this is literally the only photo of the whole night.


we spent saturday getting the girls back and doing a bit of shopping.
sunday we worked in the yard and finally got that fallen tree
completely removed, grass sowed and then a friend of ours
picked up all the wood that i've been staring at for almost a year.
yesssss! fist pump.
ronnie's already planning the next dead tree he wants to cut down,
but I told him to give me a minute to enjoy a yard without
a half a tree laying around and a pile of wood.
my yard feels a little less cluttered and i'm always down for that.
that afternoon we went to miss elle's first birthday.
she had a little 'merica themed party for
our favorite little july 3rd birthday girl.
she rocked her cake.






 it was a good weekend.
and now we're ready for our next!


Monday, July 10, 2017

grandma jean

we had been planning on a long weekend away
to illinois over the 4th of july since this spring.
it was time to go see ronnie's family.
we hadn't taken the girls back since i was pregnant with reid,
over two years ago.
normally, ronnie and i visit once or twice a year.
somehow times gets away from you and traveling with
a toddler and a baby seem like the worst option ever.
unfortunately, we missed seeing ronnie's grandma jean by three days.
she passed away the monday night before we were set to leave and
it was a bit heartbreaking for ronnie.
growing up, he spent a month every summer with his grandparents and he
has such fond memories of the farm and playing with his cousins.
it's a little hard to accept that we didn't get to say goodbye and  
i know he's struggling with the fact that our kids are so young
that they will never remember her and she didn't get to see them grow up.
i try to remind him how awesome it is that she even got to meet them at all.
not a lot of people live until they are 94 and get to meet all their great grandchildren.
what a blessing.
i'm so glad that they came to visit us in march and ronnie actually spent
an evening alone with his grandma taking her to dinner.
(she needed a break from the chaos, lol.)
i know he wasn't expecting it to be the last time he spent with her and
i'm so thankful he got that time to sit and talk with jean without
everyone else around.
it helped to go back and be surrounded by family all weekend and
although it was not the trip we originally planned, it ended being a nice weekend.
we took the camper so we had our own space, but
we spent the whole time with family.
we got to see old pictures of his grandma growing up and meet a lot of her
family that we normally wouldn't see otherwise.
we went to a tractor pull and swimming with his cousins.
we stayed up drinking, listening to don william and george strait.
it was exactly what ronnie needed.
he wasn't ready to leave and i promised that we would go back this fall.
she will definitely be missed and visiting the farm wasn't the same
without her, but i know she was ready.
and now my girls have a special lady looking down on them.