What Donovan ate for lunch today

Eggs, with cheese and sprinkles. Per his request apparently (it was a Grammie Q day).

Where did he get all that hair?

Fun with a shirt and a mirror

Winter update

So other than the newest walking lady in our house, there isn't much new to report as of late. Reese is doing well at daycare, her and her boyfriend Nicholas seem to be really enjoying each other's company. Unfortunately, almost everyday she has gone to day care one or both of them has been sick, or at least had a cold. The baby make-out sessions are partly to blame I suppose. Both Donovan and Reese have had colds off and on the past month plus. More on than off. Donovan had a nasty cough, (you know, the one that came from his mouth) and then sprouted a 4 day fever, and then gave the cough and congestion to Reese so they both got taken to the Dr's a couple weeks ago. First double sick visit for this family. Both of them were diagnosed with double ear infections and put on antibiotics. Donovan was great at drinking his medication at first. But by day 10 of the antibiotics it was a real struggle getting him to drink it, even after we had mixed juice in with it. Reese was the exact opposite. Didn't care for the meds at first, but by day 10 was sucking on the syringe, looking for more.

Donovan has had an up and down time with day care. The first week, he could have cared less when I dropped him off and barely batted an eye when I picked him up. It went downhill after that. Most days now he gets teary when I leave, but only once was there all out tears. The teachers are very good about taking him on their laps and distracting him so he doesn't completely melt down. Almost every day I pick him up now though, he runs to me and into my arms saying "Mommy! Mommy!" as he starts to tear up and get the frowny face. This doesn't mean he had a bad day, as his teachers have assured me most days are good. I just think he see's me then he realizes I had left him all day and he is sad all over again. Only one day did the teachers say he had a really rough one. That was a day he got up way too early and had a rough morning at home too so I was not surprised. They said he cried almost the whole afternoon. It made us all feel so bad that my mom called and offered to pick him up the next day, two hours earlier than I would have been able to. So his rough day got erased by a Grandma save the next. Tom's mom asked Donovan why he cried that day and he said he cried for his mama, because he missed her. Dang kid. Making my eyes get all wet. He seems to have rebounded though and today there were no tears and no hesitation when I leave.

Donovan is so loving when I pick him up. He tells me he loves me about 30 times from pick up to home. He also sprinkles about 45 "You picked me up, mommy" in there like he thought I wasn't going to. I love that he knows the routine at school and that they are teaching him how to be a little more independent. This morning I took him to the bathroom when we got there as he said he had to go when I asked. He knows right what to do. We go to the littlest potty (the only one he will go on apparently) and he lifts the lid. Pulls down his own pants and underwear, bows his body towards the potty and does his business. When he is done he flushes, then "You put the seat down, quietly", and pulls his own underwear, then pants up. This is a feat. Before preschool, he would never even attempt to pull his own pants up or down and truthfully we are mostly to blame because it is easier and faster if we do it for him so we never pushed the issue. But at school, he has to do it because there are so many kids. Half the time he gives himself a wedgie or his pants are on sideways but it is so dang cute. Then he knows to push his sleeves up, and climb up on the stool next to the sink but only after he has positioned the stool so one leg is resting on the lever that needs to be depressed to turn on the water. When he steps on the stool the water turns on, then he wets his hands, gets soap, lathers, rinses and hops on down. He gets a paper towel, dries and is done. When did he get to be such a big boy that can do all that by himself. It amazes me what pre-school and a little bit of peer pressure can do for life skills.

Donovan is still having a rough time with the transition but it is getting a little better. He is reverting to baby times now. He found one of the random binkies around here the other day and insisted it was his. "Where is my BAN-kie?" He says it in the most southern of accents. Then he pretends to walk like a baby when Reese is walking around. Also, he wants me to call him baby Donovan. Whatever. I just play along. If this is what helps him feel better than so be it. Nights are still hard. Some nights the fight is long and drawn out, some nights he barely fusses. Either way though, at some point, he tells us at least 10 times, that he does not like his bed, and he want's to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed. Since he sleeps like a crazy person on caffeine pills, that is not going to happen. Hopefully this phase is over soon. That or Reese get's old enough that they can sleep together and he will stop throwing fits. Seeing as though that is over a year away, I vote for the former happening soon.

Ok my eyelids feel like rocks. Enough updating for the night.

9 months stats

Are as follows:

Weight: 16 lbs 14oz- 16% (yikes!)
Height: 29 inches-91%
Head Circumference: 18 inches- 90%

Tom took Reese to the Dr today by himself, a first for the well visits. He said the doctor had no concerns for us. I myself, am a little concerned about the weight drop off. She is a pretty good eater, not the best ever, but she is decreasing her milk intake. Also, she is a busy body and now with the walking she is burning more calories. So add those together and it makes sense she is so skinny, and that is what I would tell my friend's if she was their daughter. But she is not. She is mine so therefore I am a little worried. I am a mom. That's my job.

As far as the walking, she gets markedly better every day. Today she was walking with a toy in her hands and turning, changing her direction and continuing to walk. She is also increasing the number of bruises on her head exponentially. She needs a tiny helmet stat. Preferably a cool looking biker chick one.

Reesie Walking!!

DAD POST: In between Donovan throwing fits and trying to hit his sister tonight we managed to get a few seconds of Reesie testing out her new walking skills!



As you can see, she has no fear and even a nice faceplant won't stop her!


Please note Donovan's exceptional walking skills at the end as well.

It's her 9 month birthday...

and she'll take her first (official) steps if she wants too!!!!!!

Please read her 9 month birthday post to catch yourself up to speed with her walking but tonight, she took 5 steps, twice, and it was all her idea.

The first time she was hanging on to the ottoman and Tom's feet as he was sitting on the couch snuggling with Donovan. I was sitting on the floor about 3-4 feet away from her and she was reaching for me, doing that "come here" thing she does with her hand that she does when she wants you or wants something. So I held out my arms and said, "Ok come here" not thinking she would and just like that, she let go, and took 5 steps all the way to me! We were shocked! She did it without us having to give her the idea first (ie pull our fingers out of her hands). Then, just like that she did it again. Then she tried to do it about 50 more times but this was 7:15pm and she was obviously happy and tired and excited all at the same time so after the first two, the rest were pretty good tries, but pretty sloppy. She was just speed walking/diving all over the place. But still, the first two tries really counted and she was great! And she really knows how to take a licking and keep ticking. She just wipes out and gets back up and tries again. Falling does not phase her. We will try to get some video of it soon. We got some tonight but it was after her better tries and it is really long and we are too tired to crop it right now. Exciting non-the-less!

9 months old

Here is what Reese is up to now:

Eating: Reese is still going strong with the nursing. In fact, she is kind of reverting with the bottle and not taking it as easy as she had been. She is down to about 4 milk feedings per day and eats 3 meals of solids. We are starting to offer her more finger foods like shells and cheese (left over from what Dono doesn't eat), cheese, soft apples, steamed carrots, green beans, crackers, tortilla chips (that was her idea when she snatched it off the table herself), cheerios, and meat sticks (baby food variety). She does really well and really likes feeding herself. She still gets one tub of stage 2's for morning and lunch, then a tub and some milk and cereal mixed for dinner. She is doing so much better with her sippy cup too. She has figured out that she needs to tip it up a little to be able to get her water out so it is nice that we don't have to do it for her every time now. (We do still have to do it sometimes though).
Enjoying Dono's leftover mac and cheese.


Talking: Reese is saying mama now! Yeay! I don't think she knows what it means but I still love hearing her say it.

Speaking of mama: Reese is a total mama's girl right now. If she doesn't see me, she is usually perfectly happy with someone else. But when she realizes I am there and she is not in my arms, DRAMA. Tears, reaching, more tears. Home girl knows how to get what she wants.

New business: Reese learned how to play peek-a-boo yesterday and it is adorable. She puts a toy or tag blanket on her head, then brings it down over her eyes, then we say, "Where's Reesie Poo?" and then she rips that toy/blanket down and smiles so big as we say "There she is!!!!!!". She is so proud of herself and I love it. Also, yesterday I decided to test out her walking on her own and I got her to take probably 5 steps unaided to me repeatedly. So then we showed daddy and Donovan, and Donovan loved it and thought it was so cool she could take some steps on her own. Then of course he wanted to get in on the action so he walked like a Frankenstein to us with his arms out like Reese, and we all clapped and said "Look, baby Donovan is walking too!" The things we do so our kids don't have to go to therapy later in life. Anyways, back to Reese. She even performed for my parents as we facetimed them to show them her moves. Today we practiced again with her walking about 4 feet from Tom to me and back again. We did it for probably 10 minutes straight and she loved it, but she wasn't very good at it today. She was trying to walk diagonally so she was doing a lot of diving into our arms. But it was fun anyways. I think she will be walking by 10 months, if she can get her confidence up. She is definitely steady enough and she knows how to fall gracefully so she is close. She usually just holds on to one finger on one of our hands now so it is much better on our backs then two hands. It is so cute just walking side by side with this tiny thing, holding her hand like I do with Donovan now. She just doesn't believe in herself enough yet. Tom and I will both be walking with her and she is so steady that we both wiggle our fingers out of her hands so she is walking by herself but after she takes max 2 steps and realizes we left her hanging, she lowers herself to the ground and starts crawling. (That is how we got her to walk back and forth to us, by pulling our hands out when she is walking to the other person). Yesterday she took 2 steps by herself, unprompted from the ottoman in her room to her dresser, but that was the first time she has ever done that and she didn't do that at all today. So she will be walking soon hopefully so our back can get a break and she can be happier.

High chair hijinx: With Donovan, we never even had to strap him in his high chair one time. We didn't even pull them through the seat cover. Reese is the exact opposite. A couple weeks ago I watched her basically try to throw herself over the side of the chair while she was reaching for a bowl full of tortilla chips. I had to grab her legs to keep her from going overboard. So then we decided that she was to be strapped in at all times. Only we didn't have them super duper tight so the little Houdini would twist and wiggle herself out of them anyways and get whatever she was reaching for on the table. And almost launch herself out of the chair in the meantime. She is so crafty. She puts her foot on the side of the chair and pushes until she can get the other foot up and she is almost standing in her chair. What a turd. So anyways, Tom tightened the straps but she still wiggles and tries to get herself out so we are never far when she is in that highchair.

Reese still loves Petey, Donovan and is still being wrapped when she goes to sleep. Still taking just 2 naps a day, at least one usually over an hour and a half. Since I started this new job she has a routine bed time, which is 8pm. Sometimes is later sometimes it's earlier but the vast majority of nights she is in bed by 8. It is wonderful. She is our little sweety pie and we are so lucky she is in our family.

(editor's note: I actually wrote this post last night to allow me more sleep tonight so change the days of when she is doing things appropriately- I only say this because of the big event she had tonight!)

"Take a picture of me, mommy!"

Me first please

Everyone in this house needed to take baths/showers today. Reese volunteered to go first by using the universal sign for "I would like a bath sooner rather than later", which of course is a half eaten animal cracker on your head.



She makes that look good.

Easy entertainment

Easy entertainment for Reese tonight meant that a)she was nakey b)she was sitting on our bed and c)there was a wipe box within reach that had the top opened up. She sat there on two separate occasions for at least 10 minutes combined and tried to shut that flap. She loved it. And so did I.







On a separate note, RIP seal/army crawl. You did us well for a long time but as of this past week, Reese is over you. Crawling on all fours, Speedy Gonzales-stylee, is the new hotness. Only when she is not using one of our fingers to help balance her as she walks everywhere, of course.