Christmas overview

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend celebration, complete with me getting called off work on Christmas day! Saturday my sister came over early and we made some gooey butter cookies and Oreo balls. MMMmmmmm. Then my parents joined us that evening and we ate a nice dinner together and then opened presents. Donovan shocked me with how well he did that night. When my parents got there and brought in all the presents he was so excited but I told him that he had to wait until after we ate dinner to open any. And he was so good! He didn't pitch a fit or whine, although he did ask a few times after that so Grandma had the great idea to let him open one present which was a shake and go Lightning McQueen car that he ended up playing with for the next 20 minutes like a perfect gentleman. He could have not opened any more present that night and he would have been perfectly happy. He actually ate a regular dinner with us too (pulled beef and cheesy potatoes) so that was special (anything not macaroni or grilled cheese these days is kind of a big deal). Then we opened up the rest of the presents and again, he was so good. Helped Reese and myself open our presents and played so nicely with the presents he got. He did have a hard time going to bed that night but that was to be expected.

Reese's booty reindeer.


Big shake n' go lightning was the center of attention for the night.

Donovan would take the presents to grandpa, and grandpa would tell him who to give him to. He needed help with this big one though.
Tom and I got an Ipad from our parents. We fancy!

Donovan cutting his wooden food.
Can you tell Donovan was excited about his drag racer track?





Christmas morning both kids got up early, and Donovan was again so good. Taking turns opening presents and all. Then we did our traditional breakfast casserole with Jenna and got ready and headed out to Tom's parents house. More presents over there and then lunch, which he was way too busy to touch. Somehow we did manage to get him down that day for a nap, and then after that it was straight to my Aunt and Uncle's house for celebration with my extended family. Donovan was wiped by 7:30 so we went home pretty early, but then when he got home and saw all of his toys again, wouldn't you know who got a second wind. All in all a great weekend.

Donovan's cool new garbage truck that Reese got for him for Christmas. It's actually a recycle truck but Donovan pushes it around and says "Gawbidge, gawbidge, gawbidge" and it makes Tom and I laugh so we don"t correct him.
At grammie and paw paw's.

Once again, Donovan passed out all the presents under the direction of Paw Paw.
Reese's new babydoll.
Tom's special brother and his new fiance decided to test out our camera and it"s self timer. I have about 20 variations of this picture.
4 generations of the Q family. Grandma is 97!
4 generations of the H family.

Reese seemed to enjoy her first Christmas. She thinks her presents are ok but brother's are really cool. Brother got a big kitchen that she wants to stand up with and play on constantly. Probably her favorite present is the blanket she got from Donovan that is just like his favorite blanket, except for pink. She wants his sooo bad and he is very possessive of his so it was the perfect gift for her. Good choice of present Donovan! Christmas day was a little over whelming for little missy so she was a little fussier than normal. She is in the beginning of the stranger danger phase so she was a wary of all the strange people.

Random pictures

I was looking through some pictures from the past few months and ran across a few I wanted to share. They are old but I like them.

Back in mid November we got a tricycle from our friends with kids who had grown out of it. Donovan loves it and so do we as it has a handle we can push him around with (without crouching) and also steer with. We even got him to wear his helmet with it the day of these pictures too! (He had only worn it once before, when we got the helmet, and even then he was done after 1 minute).

Rocking the helmet. Safety first.

I love this picture. Leaning back like he is going SO fast.
Looking at me and saying "Cheese" (unprompted) instead of watching where he was going. He forgot to turn.
This is one of my favorite pj's he has ever had. I love everything about them.

One night after a bath Donovan was running around the house naked while I ate a snack. He then requested to have some of my pretzels too. Then he wanted some bread. Then he wanted to make a pretzel sandwich so he put pretzels on his bread and ate it like that. I asked him to put his head near the sandwich for the picture and this was what I got.
In the early part of December when Donovan was having a rough few days we had a disagreement about something (I think it was how much juice he should be having that day and that particular moment) and he threw an epic fit right before nap time. I stayed in his room with him because I was worried if I left him alone he would go so crazy that he would have pulled the dresser over on himself since we still haven't anchored it to the wall (these are the things that keep me up at night people). Anywhos... he was so mad at me he went in his closet and tried to shut the door. He couldn't so I did it for him. He stayed in there, screaming, for 10 minutes before I finally cracked it enough to scratch his back until he fell asleep. So this is how Donovan started his nap that day. Look hard at the first picture. He is there.

Oh did I forget to mention he threw this whole fit while pantsless? Tom helped me hold him down to put his diaper on during his fit and then 4 seconds later he had already ripped it off. So I just waited til he fell asleep, then put his diaper on and put him in bed. It is tough to be 2.

She's been good

Reese just wanted me to take a few pictures of her in this onsie in case Santa was looking at the blog to see how the kids had been. She is right. She has been a very good girl. Her brother on the other hand...

Super belated 7 month post

Ok so I found a few minutes so I will try to crank this post out before Reese turns 8 months old.





Eating: Reese is still doing well with bottles and is still breastfeeding when I am here. She is so inquisitive (I restrained myself from saying nosy) so breastfeeding is increasingly becoming a challenge. She is just like her brother was. Eats for a few seconds, pops off and looks around. So annoying. I might have to start feeding her in her room when Tom is here to entertain Donovan. She is eating two solid meals a day. One stage 2 tub of food (or two baby bullets of food, usually veggies) for lunch with some cereal mixed in and one stage 2 tub of fruit with about a table spoon of cereal mixed in as well as a tablespoon plus of cereal and milk for dinner. She does pretty well and is usually a very good and quick eater. She also eats puffs and yogurt melts and is pretty good at getting those in her own mouth. I have too much going on to make all her food so we are doing a little of both, right now she is eating the majority of store bought but I will get streaky and make a bunch of food when I have time and then she will eat a lot of that. Hopefully when the holidays are over and things calm down around here I can start making more again, it was just getting to stressful to try and worry about making all of her food.

Sleep: She is only taking 2 naps most days now. Usually one of them is at least an hour and a half, sometimes 2 and a half. Every day is different. She goes longer between sleeping too, sometimes 5 hours or more. She is still swaddled and sleeps in her crib. Sometimes she has a hard time putting herself to sleep and fusses and cries for 15 min, sometimes she goes to bed wide awake and you don't hear a peep, you just never know what way it is going to be til it happens. She is also still sleeping through the night. Seems like it doesn't matter if she goes to bed at 7:45 or 10, either way she is going to be up at 6-6:30 for a feeding, which she then goes back to bed after until 8:30 or 9 usually. She is usually in bed between 8:15-9:15 at night, depending on what time she got up from her last nap.

Development: This was a big month for Reese as far as she is now sitting! She can't get to a sitting position herself and is kind of stuck there once she is placed in the sitting position so it's kinda nice as it is the only way to keep her stationary for now. When she is down she just jets off, army crawling after you. It is so funny how fast and determined she is. She gets mad if I put her down and walk away so she will chase me into whatever room I have walked too. It is so funny to see her little head peeking around the corner, looking for me. Also, her newest news (as in she started doing this about 3 days before her month bday) is that she is doing a modified pulling up. It is more like pushing up. She needs something about mid body height for her and then she crawls over to it, pushes up, then totally stands up. She loves to stand! So she is practicing standing and trying to walk while holding on to your hands. She is so proud of herself too. (See below pictures). She has yet to do any typical crawling but gets on her hands and knees fairly often. That is how I find her in her crib 90% of the time. She is just so efficient at the army crawl I think the regular crawling is a non-issue. Her newest skill has left our playing on the ground time mostly her fussing until you lay on the ground so she can crawl over to you and push up on you and stand up. So play time with Reese is a lot less of independent Reese time and more you down there with her the whole time.

I tried to get an action shot of her playing with the table but every time I did she would look up and smile like this. She is just so darn proud of herself for being able to stand like this. She is pretty steady too. You can walk away from her and she will be up like this for 10 minutes or more before she falls over. (But man is she unhappy when she falls. Oh the drama.)




All in all another fun month on the books with Reese. Sorry it took me a week plus to get this posted. Life is busy!

One last side note: It has become clear that Donovan thinks Reese's name is "Reesie Poo". That is the only thing he calls her. Even when he is mad at her. He'll yell at her "Don't eat my blanket Reesie Poo!!!!!" or say "Mommy, put Reesie Poo down on the ground". I guess maybe we were using that nickname too often. Poor girl is going to be picked up for a date in highschool and Donovan is going to yell "Have a nice time Reesie Poo!".

More pics

Ok so Thurs and Fri came and went and I still didn't do the post on Reese and I got news for you, I may actually be busier now than I was then so it ain't happening tonight either. But here are some cute pictures of Reese from the other day when I thought we were going to go see Santa but then Donovan had a monster melt down.
The fit thrower taking a pause to get in the way of the camera. (Reese is directly behind him)
Showing off her underoos.
"No more pictures!!!!!!"
"Ok fine, one more"

Happy 7 months Reesie!

Dang you are adorable. Even when you are just eating puffs with no shirt on. I don't have time to write about what she is up to tonight so that will have to wait for Thursday or Friday. This will have to hold you over until then. (In that third picture she is dropping a puff over the edge to Petey. Man kids learn fast!)

Two peas in a pod

Or monkeys on the bed would be more appropriate. Donovan and his best friend Ian. (Although the other day I asked Donovan who his best friend was and instead of saying Ian like I had expected him to he said "Daddy" Awwwww. Tear.)


My favorite one of these two.


They are at such a great age. They play really well together now. Watching them interact is so funny. It is also nice because they entertain each other so well that us adults get to (GASP!) actually talk and enjoy each other. It's been a long time in the making for that.