Saturday, February 19, 2011

life's little moments

It'll be easy to look back years from now and remember all of the "big" moments in Luke and Reagan's lives: vacations, all of their firsts, birthdays. But it's moments like the ones that happened tonight that are equally, if not more important than those "big" memories.

Reagan was asleep and when Luke began screaming and crying for one of his thousands of toys, he woke her up. In my attempt to get her back to sleep, I went into rock her.

She snuggled close to me.

She started to dance along to her music while laying in my arms.

She hummed along too, adding her own piece of musical genius.

She started clapping.
She sat up, pointed to her crib, and then leaned into me some more.

She softly stroked the silky satin edge of her blanket.

She was content laying in my arms, being my girl, as I played gently with her hair, being her momma.

{Of course, she's now screaming in her room again, but I have to take what I can get. :) }

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

mark...get set...

Each day when Keith gets home from work now, Luke lines up his dump truck and the ride-on toy that Reagan received from my parents for her birthday so that they can race. It is seriously one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time. Luke shouts out, "Mark! Get Set! Go!" and they take off. Reagan gets this big old goofy grin on her face and she alternates between laughing and doing this deep breathing thing. Luke shouts things that we don't understand 100% yet and tries to always win by cutting Reagan and Keith off. 


The one thing we learned during some of our first nights of racing is that Reagan does NOT like to ride with Luke. I don't blame her. Luke invades her personal space on a fairly regular basis; why should we encourage him to do it more?

be mine, valentine

I had all kinds of grand things planned to do with the kids on Valentine's Day: crafts, special meals, lots of hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, with losing Rosco the day earlier, most of those things didn't happen. I did make an attempt at getting some pictures of my beautiful babies on the day that celebrates love. Please note that I said attempt

Individual pictures of Luke and Reagan can out just fine in my opinion, but they are just not at an age where they want to sit still, not hurt each other, smile, and look at their crazy momma all at the same time. It would have been an absolute miracle if that had occurred. But like I tell my photography clients, it may not be the perfect picture to you now, but in 20 years when you look back on it, you'll be glad you have those personalities captured on film. Or at least that's what I keep thinking will happen. :)


And the winner for best group shot of the day is...


They do love each other. And I love that they love each other.

I hope everyone had a magical and lovely Valentine's Day; I know we did.

Rosco


On Sunday we had to put our sweet dog, Rosco.


Poor guy had been fighting various health issues since he was born. He had to have surgery on both of his knees before his first birthday to fix a defect in each one. He's had ear problems, eye problems, skin problems, and most recently, kidney problems. In fact, when we took him to the vet in December, we found out his kidney's were failing. Keith and I were just trying to get poor Rosco to last through Christmas. We consider it something near a miracle that he was able to last this long.



Over the weekend, his health took a sharp turn for the worse. He stopped eating all together and couldn't even keep any liquids down. He'd dropped nearly half of his body weight and just looked plain miserable. In my heart, I think it wasn't fair for us to make him hold on any longer when he obviously was in pain and suffering.



I'd like this opportunity to make the rest of this post a celebration of Rosco's life; a way to catalog and keep all of those great, treasured memories here and present for us. Thanks for listening (or reading) as I might ramble along.

In his younger days, Rosco was obsessed with his pig. That pig was his pride and joy. He'd carry it around and make it oink at all hours of the day. He'd snuggle with it and sleep right next to it. He also liked to nibble on it too which created an issue as the pig would not stay together too long with all of his nibbling. Rosco went through a great many pigs in his day, but he loved each and every one of them.



Rosco was our first baby. He was with us before Luke or Reagan came along. When I was pregnant with Luke, Keith even made the attempt at practicing how to hold a baby with Rosco. And Rosco didn't mind a bit. He ate up all the extra attention and love time.



Once the kids did get here, they loved Rosco just as much as we did. Granted, Luke was quite a bit more rough with him than Reagan was, but both of them loved him. A lot. They each liked to pet him and give him hugs and he was so great just to lay there and take it. He never growled, snapped at, or bit either of them. If he got tired of being smothered, he'd get up, walk away, and find a good hiding spot.



When I was teaching, I would tell my students stories about Rosco. One of their favorites was the stories about how many tennis balls Rosco could fit in his mouth at one time. His standing record was four at one time and he could get them all in independently without our help. Pretty tricky dog. The kids also loved to hear about his crazy run. Rosco would bolt through his dog door from outside and tear around the house like his rear was on fire. It was seriously one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen.



Rosco was an absolute joy to have around our home.  As much as I may have complained about how he was always underfoot or how much he smelled or how much he shed, I would love to have him back with all those undesirable qualities in a heartbeat. We still have his food and water bowls out because we aren't quite sure what to do with them yet. As Keith and I were laying in bed last night, talking about Rosco, we both realized that we both went to refill his water bowl yesterday evening out of habit. And it was sad this morning as we came home from the gym and I realized he wouldn't be greeting us at the door anymore.


But he's in a better place. And that's the best place for him now.


We love you Rosco.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

mr. fix-it


Luke loves to "help" fix all kinds of things around the house with his tools. He hasn't quite figured out 100% the accurate uses for each tool, but he has a great time trying. For instance, when he uses his screwdriver, he turns it like he's supposed to, but he'll do that on an area with no screw in sight.


I've even found Luke sitting on a couch, hugging his tools. Not doing anything else with them, just hugging them. He is just too cute.

woody boots

Every Wednesday Keith's parents and sister come over for dinner and for some reason, Don's shoes have become a topic of conversation on more than one occasion. This past Wednesday he showed up wearing cowboy boots for the first time and Luke went crazy for Tata's "Woody Boots." It wasn't long before Luke had convinced Don to take his boots off so Luke could have a turn wearing them.

Yee haw!

Luke started to purposely fall down so that he would get a reaction out of us.


Somehow Luke even managed to get Don to become his horse at one point. As they were riding around, Luke spotted the dog's leash and demanded that we give it to him so that he could have "the rope." He automatically wrapped it around poor Don's neck just like a bridle and continued to ride him around. I think maybe Luke's seen Toy Story one too many times.


Luke eventually figured out that he had "Woody boots" and the coordinating rope, so he needed to complete the ensemble with "Woody hat." Luke can run ridiculously fast and this time was no exception. He made it down to the play room and back in record time. Please note that he is completely cross eyed in this picture because he couldn't take his eyes off his "Woody hat."



Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

year of the chair

2 days
1 month
 2 months
 3 months
4 months
5 months
 6 months
 7 months
 8 months 
 9 months 
10 months didn't happen...
 11 months
12 months

one year

My dear, sweet Reagan is now one year old.


A full 12 months have passed since she joined us in this world. I can't say that I have enjoyed every.single.second this past year, but I would not give back this time with her for anything. She is my precious girl and I love every little piece of her: her new "stink face," her excited giggle, her deep give-me-more-food grunt, her chubby pointing fingers, her sassy looks.


Reagan has smiled and laughed more in the this last month than I think I've heard or seen from her the previous 11 months combined. She loves to play peek-a-boo and she thinks its hilarious when you try to chase her. Reagan has also started to bob back and forth when she hears music and will hold her hand up to her mouth when asked to blow kisses.


She has a cheeseball grin when she gets really excited. You can see her bitty bottom two teeth and usually a whole mess of drool will come out at the same time. I'd like to think the drool can be attributed to teething and not some sweet reaction that could be potentially embarrassing to her as she gets older. Speaking of teeth, Reagan now has four top teeth and two bottom ones, although I really am quite sure there have to be more poking through soon.


And we can't forget the stink face. When she gets irritated or even when she smiles sometimes, Reagan "stink face."


At her one year check, Reagan weighed in at 20.04 lbs (36%) and was just over 30 inces tall (86%). She continues to be one tall, lean girl...but I have a feeling her percentile for her weight might be jumping up rather quickly considering the amount of food she is now eating.


Reagan still isn't walking. Well, she isn't walking all of the time and when it does happen, it is totally on her own time. I'll watch her take 5-10 steps independently while we're in the playroom, but she absolutely refuses to walk if you try to help her or you try to trick her into it. And when she sees Luke heading her direction, she falls on purpose now so he doesn't get the chance to push her over.



For all the drama we've experienced over the course of the past few months with Reagan and her tummy issues, this month was remarkably better, especially since I stopped nursing. Meal time has taken on a life of its own at this point; the girl puts away way more food than Luke does. Breakfast is a great example. Some days I can convince Luke to eat something, anything and I usually offer him a laundry list of options praying that something piques his interest enough to eat. This morning he wanted a Pop-Tart and that single Pop-Tart took him nearly 30 minutes to eat. In that same amount of time, Reagan will eat a waffle and a cereal bar and an entire banana and a large handful of Cheerios before I have to cut her off. The girl is a maniac now where food is concerned!


Reagan still possess that insane amount of drama in her tiny body, but it doesn't always look like this now:


Most days I see this:


She is just full of wide-eyed wonder, curiosity, and amazement. Just the same way I feel every time I look at her, my daughter.