disney: the arrival

Luke is slightly obsessed with all things Disney, so Keith and I thought that for our family vacation and for his birthday this year, we could take him and Reagan to Disneyland. Really, I wanted to go and this was a marvelous excuse to get Keith to finally agree.

With fears of horrific traffic in our future, we set our early so we wouldn’t have to deal with it. As it turns out there was hardly any to deal with anyways, so we were lucky. The kidlets did remarkably well and we had only a few minor distractions along the way.

Before we even made it out of the Phoenix Metro area, we had heard, “DAD! Mack Truck right there!” 23 times. Seriously. We counted. With Luke fresh off of potty training, we were really worried that our ride would be accident after accident and a complete disaster. Luke was a champ; when he needed to go, he let us know. Of course when he did tell us, he needed to go in the middle of nowhere so Keith had to take him in the bushes to do his business.

I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Luke has a special bond with his baseball potty and has a difficult time doing his business without it. Going poo in a random plastic crate that Keith found on the side of the road just wasn’t working for him, but it was dang cute to watch. We headed down the road a while further until we reached Love’s, the truck stop mecca. I watched as Luke and Keith headed off to the bathroom, baseball potty in hand. Reagan and I had a few moments for an impromptu photo shoot and Luke was finally able to go and we headed right on our way.

We’re now sitting in our hotel as Luke and Reagan are taking naps. Or Luke is taking a nap and Reagan is sliding all over the pack and play wasting time and refusing to nap. At least she’s quiet for the most part.  Keith and I are praying this last, because this is what we currently look like:

Speaking of hotel, I feel like there are a few points that need to be said about it:

1.       It is absolutely gorgeous. I’d really expect nothing less from a Hyatt Regency, but this is by far the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at. Ever.

2.       This is the only hotel I’ve ever stayed at that has a valet and a doorman and a bell hop. Amazing.

3.       I’m fairly certain we are a solid 20 years younger than any other parent in this building.

4.       This is the kind of hotel that has a pseudo-blanket placed at the end of the bed; I refer to it lovingly as the bed scarf. There is no real purpose to it other than to look pretty. I never knew that hotel had anything other than weirdly uncomfortable polyester bedspreads.

5.       I feel really out of place. I kept apologizing to the door man for the state of our luggage and the quantity. And yes, it is the same luggage that I bought with one of my first paychecks at my first job when I was 17. (Side note: Who buys luggage when they’re 17? Me apparently.)

I am so incredibly excited to take Disneyland tomorrow and I can’t wait to see his face when he sees everything for the first time. Fingers crossed he doesn’t freak out when the characters come near him.

Fast forward three hours later…

Reagan has upped her game tonight. For the first time and certainly not the last, I had “that kid.” You know, the screaming, thrashing, snarling toddler that everyone cringes at and thinks to themselves, “Why don’t her parents do anything about that?” or “What is wrong with her?” In typical Reagan fashion, she refused to sleep this afternoon which was our main culprit for the hideous outburst. Do you know what finally calmed her down? Food...or empty coffee cups. Oh that girl…

We spent some time walking around Downtown Disney tonight and if Luke’s reaction is any indication to what tomorrow will be like, we should be in for an awesome time tomorrow.

little man luke

Friday was our little man’s birthday and I am having a tough time wrapping my head around the idea that he is three already. I feel like he’s been such a huge part of our family for so long, but that these past three years have flown by. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was being induced and that he was refusing to come out. I remember how tiny he was laying on my chest, looking to me for comfort after what he just went through.

I remember his first smile, his first tooth, his first steps, his first trip to the hospital, and now, his first trip to Disneyland. I am so happy to be his momma.

Happy birthday my sweet Luke.

flashback

Sometimes when I'm having a day that is harder than expected or when I need a good reminder of how  truly blessed I am, I go back and look at old pictures. Sure I'm a sucker for pictures in the first place; I'm a photographer, right? But there is just something so calming and refreshing about looking back on moments passed, remembering the story or emotion of that single moment in time my camera caught.

Today was rough and today I needed those reminders.

Just like the widely used phrase says: Keep calm and carry on.

curses

You know, it occurred to me yesterday as I was typing those fateful "sleeping through the night" words that I might later come to regret such a bold statement. And I do. I solemnly vow to never comment on Reagan's positive sleep status ever again. Cross my heart.

I'm fairly certain that our poor little miss is cutting some new teeth. Aside from the fabulous night of sleep, we've got a super runny nose, a serious lack of appetite, and all-around general crankiness. When you factor in Luke's incessant need to squeeze, push, taunt, and pinch Reagan, our outlook over here isn't looking so great for the day.

Apparently our calm, peaceful phase of life was coming to a close yesterday and although I wasn't aware at the time, yesterday's post seemed a fitting adios to a purely enjoyable space of time. But with all good things, there will be some not-so-good and hopefully this phase will pass quickly.

Fingers crossed.

life

Sigh.

I love life. I really do.

I love all of the small, precious moments. I love all of the holy-crap-fall-out-of-your-seat big moments. I love the inspirational moments and the learning moments. I love the still, quiet, peaceful moments. Lately, my life has been filled with crazy busy moments and that's okay with me.

Life is filled with many varied stages and steps that we get to walk through. The first part of this year was admittedly really hard for me. I was constantly surrounded with turmoil and medical issues for people that I love most and trying to keep a positive spin on everything when you're just trying to keep your head above water can be a daunting and difficult task. I felt at times like the life was being sucked out of me. From Randy's seizures and resulting coma to Reagan's lactose and tummy issues to all of the sickness that a typical winter can bring, life was getting really hard.

Since the weather has changed, life is perking up. As we move onto spring (or really summer for those of us in Arizona), all aspects of life are starting to make a change for the better. I feel like my life is moving past the trying phase it was just in and I've only got eyes looking at the present and future. Randy is still on the road to recovery and still has hurdles to cross, but he's awake and laughing and not currently strapped to a hospital bed. Reagan has adjusted well to her new lactose-free diet and is even celebrating by smiling and sleeping through the night. My fledgling little business is taking off and keeping me more busy than I would have ever thought possible.

I'm loving life and this phase I'm in right now. I know that just as seasons change, so will this stage, but I am bound and determined to soak up every single positive second of right now.

Sigh.

it's a potty!

Ready or not, Luke has begun the potty training process.

Keith and I have been trying to wait until he told us he was ready, but with that day not appearing to come any time soon, we had to take matters into our own hands. If I'm being completely honest about our motives, we leave for Disneyland soon and neither Keith nor I have any desire to change Luke's diapers in the park. I mean, where would we even change him? On that plastic shelf e that folds down in a stall? Umm, he'd either snap that thing clean off the wall or his legs would probably dangle long enough to graze the ground. Do we change him out in some spare stretch of grass somewhere? I think we might get more than one crazy stare from passersby. And the size of his poo recently is ginormous. I really don't want to have to deal with that anymore and Keith doesn't want to either.

After encouragement from our friend Paula, we decided to dive head first into the potty training experience. Luke has actually done much better than we had initially anticipated. He's pretty much got the "pee pee" aspect down, we just need to have the same amount of success with poo.

So, in the spirit of fair warning, if you come to our home in the near future, you might see that adorable booty running around our house pants-less. You might see us doing a very animated potty dance celebrating Luke's pee progress (and fingers crossed poo progress too). Luke, myself, or really any piece of furniture might be covered in reward stickers. We are definitely shooting for a positive experience with positive rewards.

I just wish he would positively poop on the potty. A momma can dream...

Soobie Monsters

Luke and Reagan are seriously obsessed with the "soobie" (fruit smoothies) from Costco. Luke even asks to go to Costco now just so he can get a "soobie." I just think its super adorable how he says it and how excited he gets for them.

Now that Luke is talking more, its only increased the hilarious things that he thinks up. Here are some of the randoms that have come out of Luke's mouth recently:

• In reference to Reagan's crying: Chill baby, chill.
• Not to be confused with "soobie," but Luke has to have his daily dose of "soovie." That's movie, for all of you who may not speak the difficult-to-decipher language of toddler.

I really should start writing these down as I hear them because I'm, of course, drawing a complete blank now that I've sat down to write this. But don't you worry, it's never a dull moment, I tell you.

pajamas and piggie tails and peek-a-boo

A lovely blanket of sickness has seemed to hover over the Waltemeyer household these past few weeks and on one particular day, we were between my stomach bug and Reagan's impending ear infection. I decided that we needed a low-key, relaxed type of day; that's also code for stay-in-our-jammies-all-morning, in case you weren't aware.

Reagan has been doing much better with her almond milk. She loves the stuff, but we still can't giver her more than a half cup or so a day otherwise we're right back to not-goodness.

Reagan's hair has grown very quickly now that she's actually able to eat and keep nutrients from her food. This seemed like a great day to attempt piggy tails in her hair for the first time. Ummm, hello cuteness! I really thought that I wasn't going to like the piggy tails on the top of her head, but I was wrong. I think I really do love them.

It was an absolutely beautiful day outside so we went to run and play and blow bubbles. That was until Luke panicked when he spotted a grasshopper and a fly.

Luke is ridiculously fast. I can hardly get him to slow down long enough for me to get him in my viewfinder, let alone take a picture of him. He does like to come full speed at Reagan and she's learned to brace herself. There is even a solid chance she could aspire to become a teacher someday with that sweet stink eye she's got going on.

I love having proof that they do actually love each other. These moments may be fleeting, but I love them still the same.

We ended our simple day with a sweet game of family peek-a-boo.

Sometimes after a rough patch, its days like these that help me to remember why I love my life so much. Simple, sweet, special.

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. :) }

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.