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Sometimes it is just to ridiculously hot to attempt going outside in the afternoon, but for the sake of grilling dinner, you just have to brave the onslaught of heat and make it work. The kids have decided it's a requirement for them to be outside any and all times that Keith goes out, so I tagged along this particular time with camera in hand.

Usually it's Reagan that lets me take pictures of her, but on this day she wanted nothing to do with the camera and since Luke was content rolling around in the grass playing with his cars, poor kid became the main target of the paparazzi.

I love how carefree he is in these pictures. Luke takes after my nervousness and anxiety about, oh, everything, so I love when I get to capture him completely relaxed and at peace. Reagan, being the polar opposite of Luke, is full of sass and spice. She was happy to show off how strong she's getting...

...waving adios...



...and telling me how old she is.

Luke just told me to be quiet.

The last picture cracks me up. Oh, he is his father's son. Love it.

i'm a big girl now

Well, as of Thursday, Reagan will be 18 months old, the same age Luke was when we transitioned him into a toddler bed. At the time, I was almost six months pregnant with Reagan so his transition was born out of necessity.

Luke did surprisingly well at the time, so Keith is convinced Reagan will do equally as well.





He is so confident, in fact, that he convinced me to switch up Reagan's crib at the same age. Luke was happy to help with the tools and I was begrudgingly ready with the camera. See, for some reason, I had no desire to switch it. There is a very real chance that Miss Reagan could be our last baby and I'm having a hard time coming to grips with not having a "baby" anymore.

She seems to like it so far. It's hard to not want to give this sweet girl everything that she wants when she grins up at me like that.

I guess its time to come to grips with the fact that no matter how hard I fight it, my babies will keep getting older. Is it weird that I completely understand where the lady from 19 Kids and Counting is coming from--sort of?

my sunshine

When I was little, I distinctly remember my dad singing "You Are My Sunshine" to me and that is one of my most favorite and treasured memories with him. After Reagan came along, I decided that I needed to implement something that was just for Luke and I, something that would always remind him how much I do treasure him.

Each night (and sometimes even more during the day), Luke asks for "Baby Luke." All this basically consists of is me cradling and rocking him and softly singing that same "You Are My Sunshine" to him. It's become a special time for the two of us and I dread the day he's too big for my to hold him like "Baby Luke." For now, I'll snuggle him and love him away and hope that he knows he is my sunshine.

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

Everyday

You'll never know dear

How much I love you

Please don't take

My sunshine

Away



bink breakdown

So.

The debinkification process has encountered some bumps in our journey. We're still holding strong with bink at sleep times only, but every now and then, Reagan wants absolutely nothing to do with the new plan. This happened to be one of those days.

She knows right where the binks are hidden and makes a beeline straight for them when she feels the need arise. Which was *really* often at first.

This particular tantrum lasted a solid twenty minutes. There was screaming, crying, runny noses, thrashing, head shaking, running from me, and scaring the crap out of Luke. Keith and I made the mistake of commenting when Luke was about Reagan's age that we had never heard him scream.

Reagan has more than made up for that.

Luckily things are going better. She now waves bye-bye to her bink each morning and after nap time and as soon as I say "Night-night," she runs as fast as her chubby legs will carry her to get it. Much better.