Toys for tots

This weekend proved to me that Reagan is ready for older toys. I've known that for a while, but have a little reluctant to invest more money without being sure. While we were in Alabama, she played with John's and Katie's toys. She also played in the church nursery with some things that I was amazed at.

Because I was so impressed, Jordan and I went out last night to Target and purchased "Parents Busy Zoo". It was one of the things that she played with quite a bit and was really fascinated by. It has a ton of stuff on it for her to play with and learn a tons of stuff. I really hope it is worth the money spent. :)

I am so freakin' tired!

Oh My Gosh! I have only had one solid night's sleep in an entire week. I can't wait until Reagan gets back into her habit of sleeping again. Ever since she had the infection, she's been struggling to sleep through the night consistently. And unfortunately, I am usually the one that wakes up and goes to her side.

Last night, I tried to let her cry it out simply because I was way too tired to climb the stairs and Jim couldn't handle it. So up I went. But not without a fight ;).

What does this door do?

Reagan is just amazing to watch. She is pulling herself up like crazy and just getting into everything. I'll turn my head for a moment to change the channel on the TV or even to look at the dog, and she'll be pulled up and into something. Wow. Tonight, we hung out in the Bonus Room upstairs since she wouldn't sleep. I sat her down on the floor and she crawled up on the entertainment center. She stood there for quite a while "patting" the TV (which was off) and opening and closing the glass door to the DVDs and VCR tapes. At one point, she decided to try her luck at putting her head inside the door and closing it. That didn't workout too well for her, but she didn't cry about it. She just opened it back up and looked back like "hey that wasn't right!".

She is doing wonderful at cruising around the house. She is able to move from one object to another, pull herself up from a squatted position and basically get anywhere she wants. She is also standing much better and for longer periods of time.

The one thing I need to work with her on is the falling down thing. She gets up and stays there, but hasn't quite figured out how to get back down. According to Amy (at LRS), she pulls herself up and gets stuck. Then she criiieeessssssss until you put her down. Hmmmm. I gotta fix that. I think Emily actually worked with Sean on that one too. Once she can figure that out, I may be in complete trouble.

I guess I really need to get those baby gates up huh?

I got some rest

Well, tonight I had my therapy appointment. But because Jordan had soccer, I had to get help from my dad to watch Reagan. I think by the time I got home (with the crazy day that I had at work), Jim felt bad enough for me that he said "I'll just go get Reagan and take her to the park while Jordan is at soccer." PERFECT!!! Yes I thanked him for doing daddy duty. I was really tired and was stressing a little about my ability to "do it all". Some days I hate being a working mom. :(

He took off and so did I. I went to therapy and was able to just relax on the way home without any pressure to hurry up and get done. Jim had Reagan.

On my way home, I saw Dad at the new house so I stopped in. I took another tour of their new home and just chilled out with him. It was really nice to just relax.

My weekend in Mobile wrapped up

Reagan and I went to Mobile over Columbus Day weekend (with my parents) to visit my brother and his family. Chris and Lee have three beautiful children - Sarah, Katie and John - and a wonderful family environment. Chris is the pastor of Dauphin Island Baptist Resort which is located on a barrier island (Dauphine) off the coast of Mobile, Alabama.

This was Reagan’s first plane ride and first vacation since she was born. She did extremely well on both legs of the trip to Mobile and was in a good mood (and rested). We arrived in Mobile on Saturday and saw five smiling faces as we entered into the main part of the airport. Reagan smiled and waved at the kids as they swarmed around her. It was soooo good to see them again. We only typically get to see Chris’ family about once a year unless something happens in the family which causes them to travel up north. This was a treat for us. The last time they saw Reagan, she was only about 10 days old.

We took a quick trip over to O’Charleys for lunch and then made our way over to Wally World to get our supplies for the weekend. Once back on the island, we unloaded the cars and got settled. We didn’t really have anything to do, but I know Reagan was ready to play.

I stuck her on the floor with the kids and started unloading things and getting unpacked. Sarah, Katie and John all played with her. It was a completely new experience for her because she is used to such a quiet environment. Everything was just louder there because there are so many more of them LOL. Over the weekend, the kids played all day. It took Reagan some time to get used to everything, but she quickly adapted to the home and just excelled. She played with all the toys, crawled, climbed, walked with Sarah and even rode on John’s toddler bike. How cute is that? I caught her a few times trying to stand up without any support at all (uh oh I’m in trouble). We even went to the beach (another first for Reagan) and got her to go into the surf some.

I was very happy to see her go straight to Lee when we got there and that she had no problem with Chris. Anytime she was with me and caught a glimpse of Grampy, she started wiggling to get away from me and get to him. I am sure he loved that. I was able to hear my brother preach twice and even attend Lee’s Sunday school class on Sunday morning. Both things were a blessing to me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

Their kids are growing up so fast… Sarah is lovely, beautiful and mature and was definitely the mother-hen. Katie was the energetic excited one that just wanted to play, play, play. John was very curious and gentle with Reagan. He is a year older than her and just took to her so well.

The weekend was too short. I didn’t get enough time with my brother or anyone, but I’m not sure I’d ever feel like I got enough time with them even if I was there for a week. My flight home was busy with Reagan alone and I was glad to be back to our routine. Reagan was definitely happy to see Daddy at the airport. As soon as she saw him, she started waving and didn’t stop until he picked her up out of the stroller. Now that I am home, I think I’ll try to sleep. :)

My new camera has a cool zoom

I did get some really cool pictures while Aunt Lee was holding onto Reagan for me. I got a new camera before this trip that apparently has an incredible zoom on it. I wanted something that I could get pictures of Jordan playing ball. The camera I had couldn’t get any close ups of her and it was very frustrating. So here are some cool examples of my new zoom capabilities. Woo hooo. I love it.

A house on the beach from where I was standing.
The close up with the zoom at 100%.
Oil rig out in the bay
Close up.

Loving the camera!

Traveling home from Mobile

On the way home, Reagan did really well. It was just me which meant that I was very busy in the airports. I had to make sure she had her food prepared and fed before the next plane ride. It was way too hard to get on the plane and feed her with someone sitting right next to me. The first leg of the trip was not too bad. I had a seat between me and someone else, so we had some room to spread out. I got a ton of compliments on how well the baby did. The flight attendants were really helpful on this flight – even holding her while I collapsed the stroller at the entrance to the plane. The second flight wasn’t quite as easy, although she still did really well. It was very cramped quarters and the person sitting next to me was at least 6 foot and 240. It didn’t leave a lot of room for me, let alone me and the baby. Oh well. She eventually went to sleep and I just sat there watching her for about an hour. I didn’t hurry off of either flight figuring it would be easier to just wait for the crowd to die down some. When we got home, we hurried to the baggage claim to see “daddy”. Reagan saw him from quite a distance – which surprised me – and just started waving like crazy. She was very happy to see her daddy and so was I! :)

Dauphin Island Beach!

Today was busy again. My flight didn’t take off until 3:45 pm which meant I had the morning at my brother’s house. We went to the beach in the morning which was Reagan’s first experience in the sand and near the water. She had a blast!

We walked onto the sand and the wind picked up immediately. Reagan loves any type of breeze. I plopped her down in the sand and her cousin Sarah joined her. She started piling the sand up on her feet and legs and Reagan just watched with curiosity. She played with Sarah for a while before we picked up and went closer to the water. Katie and her two friends (and everyone else) had already beaten us to the water. The Dauphin Island public beach was quiet that day and absolutely beautiful. I tried a couple of times to get Reagan into the water by dunking her feet in the surf and she was NOT happy about it. She didn’t like it. I think she was probably unsure more than anything, but I didn’t force it on her.

The funny thing is that Sarah was able to convince both my mom and dad to go out into the water pretty far. They both had their shorts hiked up to their booties and they were still getting a little wet. I got some good pics of them wading hip high in the water. They tried to coax me into the water, but I am not real big on ocean water. It is a little scary to me since I got pulled under about 20 years ago. I’ve never forgotten it. Put me in a lake and I’m good, but the ocean… nope. On our way back in from the water, mom was apparently trying to reach for John and turned a little too much and fell on all fours. The best part was that she couldn’t get up because she was laughing so hard. I wish I had gotten that on camera. It was apparently really funny.

Last day in Mobile

Today was busy again. My flight didn’t take off until 3:45 pm which meant I had the morning at my brother’s house. We went to the beach in the morning which was Reagan’s first experience in the sand and near the water. She had a blast!
We walked onto the sand and the wind picked up immediately. Reagan loves any type of breeze. I plopped her down in the sand and her cousin Sarah joined her. She started piling the sand up on her feet and legs and Reagan just watched with curiosity. She played with Sarah for a while before we picked up and went closer to the water. Katie and her two friends (and everyone else) had already beaten us to the water. The Dauphin Island public beach was quiet that day and absolutely beautiful. I tried a couple of times to get Reagan into the water by dunking her feet in the surf and she was NOT happy about it. She didn’t like it. I think she was probably unsure more than anything, but I didn’t force it on her. The funny thing is that Sarah was able to convince both my mom and dad to go out into the water pretty far. They both had their shorts hiked up to their booties and they were still getting a little wet. I got some good pics of them wading hip high in the water. They tried to coax me into the water, but I am not real big on ocean water. It is a little scary to me since I got pulled under about 20 years ago. I’ve never forgotten it. Put me in a lake and I’m good, but the ocean… nope. On our way back in from the water, mom was apparently trying to reach for John and turned a little too much and fell on all fours. The best part was that she couldn’t get up because she was laughing so hard. I wish I had gotten that on camera. It was apparently really funny.

On the way home, Reagan did really well. It was just me which meant that I was very busy in the airports. I had to make sure she had her food prepared and fed before the next plane ride. It was way too hard to get on the plane and feed her with someone sitting right next to me. The first leg of the trip was not too bad. I had a seat between me and someone else, so we had some room to spread out. I got a ton of compliments on how well the baby did. The flight attendants were really helpful on this flight – even holding her while I collapsed the stroller at the entrance to the plane. The second flight wasn’t quite as easy, although she still did really well. It was very cramped quarters and the person sitting next to me was at least 6 foot and 240. It didn’t leave a lot of room for me, let alone me and the baby. Oh well. She eventually went to sleep and I just sat there watching her for about an hour. I didn’t hurry off of either flight figuring it would be easier to just wait for the crowd to die down some. When we got home, we hurried to the baggage claim to see “daddy”. Reagan saw him from quite a distance – which surprised me – and just started waving like crazy. She was very happy to see her daddy and so was I! J

Don't take my cup

Tonight after we got home from the airport, Jim gave Reagan a cup out of the cabinet to play with. We discovered while we were on vacation that ordinary objects are much more fun than real toys. So in an effort to let her explore this idea, he put her down on the living room floor with a cup. Apparently Carson really wanted the cup too. He walked over and sniffed and left. He came back again and again sniffing more and more until he finally took the cup from her (oh so gently I might add).

She just had a puzzled look on her face. Not too bad. We got it back to her and watched the process all over again. Carson's curiosity got the better of him and he decided to take it again. This time Reagan resisted this effort. She tried so hard to hold on - her face looked so determined. But she failed. I don't think she was too happy.

So yes, we tried again and let her play with it this time. poor thing.

Sunday in Mobile

Sundays are always crazy in Mobile. My brother is the pastor of a Baptist Resort ministry and he leads service every Sunday morning and evening. Lee also leads the Sunday School group, the singing and other stuff to keep it humming. So needless to say, we were busy busy busy.

Sunday morning started off well. Reagan did sleep ok the night before in the pack and play. I was a little surprised by that, but she woke up happy. We all spent some time just relaxing and eating Lee's wonderful food before getting ready for church. I really debated going to sunday school because it was right during Reagan's nap time and I wasn't sure she'd sleep at the nursery. I eventually decided to just bundle her up and take off with my mom. Other than a few short crying spells when I dropped her off, she did fabulous with Ms. Ann. She said she went "right to sleep" and slept for over an hour. Yea Reagan!!!

She played all afternoon in the playroom with the other kids. She was able to get acclimated pretty quickly to the "older" toys and had a ball with the other three kids. There was this one toy - the caterpillar with the letters on the feet - that she just LOVED!!! Oh My! I would hit the button on the top and music would start. As soon as the music started, she would start rocking on her butt - back and forth to the music SMILING SOOOO BIG!! She just had a blast. Eventually she started reaching over and turning it on herself.

I really feel like she was able to “stretch” some today. Their house is all new to her which meant she was going everywhere looking at everything. She would find something new and pull up on it. She even tried to just stand up on her own and ended up getting stuck a little bit in “downward dog” position. It was amazing to watch what she learned in just a day! All three of the kids were just wonderful with her. John tried to play with her and the ball. Whenever she would crawl anywhere, he’d follow beside her with his hand on her shoulder. So darn cute… and protective. Awwwwww.

The interesting thing about a different family is the different dynamics of the home and the effect on Reagan. She is very used to a quiet environment even when Jordan is home. She is by nature a quieter child and very content to just hang out and play. Chris’ family is much more active with three children and the house is much louder than ours is right now. I think all the activity kept her wildly awake at night and she didn’t settle down until everyone else went to bed. While that was a little frustrating, I loved watching her interact with her surroundings and think she did fabulous!