Category Archives: growing up

Six Whole Years

I swear I didn’t forget about my kid’s birthday this year. Life has just been hectic and such.

Her birthday came and went like a blur. We had our first ever not-at-home party and it was pretty great. We did a bowling party, complete with little plastic bowling trophies for each of the 9 kiddos.

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After her friend party we headed home and had the family over for Tacos (of course).  All in all a good day and my girl was feeling the love.

As for her 6-year interview? I love doing these things…every year I ask some of the same standard questions, then some Facebook friends chime in with questions they’d like me to ask her.

This is officially the 4th year I’ve done the interview and I think I’m going to go through some of the previous interviews and see how her answers have changed over the years. Don’t worry, I’ll report back.

Taco Tuesday

We’ve been pretty die-hard Taco Tuesday fans in our house for a while now…so long that I can’t actually remember when it started. Over the course of our Taco Tuesdays we’ve even converted a number of people to following along. It often comes up in conversation at daycare drop off or pick up…especially on Tuesday {go figure}.

A few weeks ago, one of Rylee’s friends at daycare asked if she could come over for Taco Tuesday sometime. I laughed, and told her absolutely and I’d chat with her mom about it. We had a Taco Tuesday date set for the following week. Then Rylee had a TBall game that night so we rescheduled for the following week. Then Reese ended up with HFM so we rescheduled, yet again, for the following Tuesday.

Well, that Tuesday was this last Tuesday and the stars aligned and third time’s a charm and such and we made it happen! This is also kind of a big deal because it was both girls’ first time having a “without parents staying” playdate.

It was so much fun to watch the girls play together. They were glued at the hip. They, of course, excluded Reese which kind of made me chuckle because…little sisters. When her mom came to pick her up I had a serious flashback to when I was 6 years old and my best friend would come over. {We would always, always hide her in my closet and tell her mom that she wasn’t here anymore in hopes that she could stay longer. Go figure, it never worked.} Rylee hid her friend in hopes of getting her to stay even just a little longer.

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We all decided a sleep over should happen soon.

I know I’ve said it before, but I am loving this school-age stage that Rylee is in! So many fun milestones to watch her experience.

A 21 month update

Is that a thing? Eh whatever, considering my lack of consistent blogging these days I’ll go ahead and make it a thing.

Reese, you turned 21 months last weekend. You have been changing and growing so much recently that I wanted to take a minute to document it before I forget it.

Food: You still love your groceries. You are super into chips and salsa. Yes…real-deal salsa. Nothing seems to phase you when it comes to food. Sure there are some things you don’t like, but for the most part you will eat whatever is put in front of you. It really helps getting your sister to be less picky too, so thanks for that!

Movement: Oh child, sometimes it seems like you never.stop.moving. You always want to be picked up. You still have a thing for ears. You climb, run and try to follow your sister no matter where she goes.

Potty Training: Believe me, I never imagined I’d be writing anything about your potty training on the interwebs, let alone before you turn two but you are blowing my mind, kid! I’m not saying you are potty trained, but you’re wearing chonies off and on and you’re doing an awesome job using the toilet more than your diaper. I definitely wanted you potty trained before number three makes their debut, but I had no idea you’d show an interest so soon! It’s both great and a challenge but you are pretty much rocking it for your age and I am so proud of you!

Talking: You are talking more and more every day. You can be quite the little parrot, which is often hilarious. You’re saying sentences. No surprise, one of your first sentences was “I HUNGRY!”. 9 out of 10 times during any given meal time out of nowhere you will loudly proclaim “I HAPPY!” One of your favorite conversations to have right now goes like this “Mama. Mama! MAMA!” “Yes Reesie?” “Ummmmm….um. Um. Um.” Then you laugh hysterically. It’s hilarious and annoying all at once.

Dante: Just like your sister did at this age, you love your Dante. You love to greet him when we get home each night. You squat down and get right at his level when he’s lying down and make sure to say “Hi…hi Buddy!” while patting him on his head. When we leave in the morning you are first out the door, making sure to tell him “SIT!” while pointing at the ground then giving him his treat and declaring “good boy.”

Other things you love: {brought to you by the letter B apparently} Bubbles. The Easter Bunny may have brought you that bubble machine just so mama wouldn’t have to blow so many bubbles. Books. You can often be found looking at books. You love to have books read to you. Binkie. You are nowhere near ready to get rid of your binkie…much to my dismay. Baby. You’re all sorts of interested in your sisters baby doll these days. You pretend to feed it. You put it in the basket of your shopping cart, cover it with a blanket and take it for a walk. You rock it. You lay it on the floor and yell “Nigh-nigh baby!” Your daycare teacher just had a baby, so I’m assuming that’s where this interest is coming from.

You continue to amaze me, kiddo. You have an infectious joy and a spunky little attitude. You are fierce. I know I say it all the time, but I hope you never change.

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Pregnancy with a Side of Guilt

Finding out that you are unexpectedly pregnant when you’ve already decided you’re done is markedly different that unexpectedly getting pregnant with your first baby a year ahead of your desired timeline. It does weird things to your psyche.

Shouldn’t I be excited? Aren’t all babies supposed to be considered a blessing? Doesn’t this mean it was meant to be?

But, I wasn’t excited. Or even a little bit happy. I was convinced we were being punished for something… What lesson is God trying to teach us right now? Very funny God…you can make this joke stop any time now. Maybe if we don’t talk about it or tell anyone it will just go away…or I’ll just wake up from this bad dream?

Guilt.

And what about the girls? Rylee will have to start all over again. Will she resent me as she gets older? Will this baby hold her back from being able to do things? That’s not fair to her. And poor Reese…I had so much one-on-one time with Rylee when she was little, I was looking forward to having that time with Reese. Now it will have to be shared.

Guilt.

On top of that, I couldn’t help but think of my friends battling/struggling/coping with infertility. Here I am getting unexpectedly pregnant and just wanting it to be a bad dream while they’re living the opposite nightmare every day.

Guilt.

Then of course I felt awful for not feeling excited. Needless to say I was not in a good place those first few weeks. So many tears. The guilt was all consuming.

Thankfully the guilt surrounding everything has gone away. The excitement is building. And I know we’ll be just fine.

Little one…you need to know that just because you weren’t in our plans, you are meant to be and I am looking forward to having you in our family. xo, Mama

Opening day!

We walked in the house hungry, exhausted and covered in a fine layer of dirt mixed with sun block. My once white shirt was no more and my pants were covered in gold fish cracker crumbs. We all got washed up and I rushed to put dinner on the table…only an hour later than normal. But this is our new normal, I suppose. The life of kids playing organized sports.

When the coach called me to tell me her practice schedule I was a little thrown off. I had figured we’d be looking at two days a week tops, for about an hour each time. But no. Oh no how I was mistaken. We practice MWF from 5:30-7.

Wait, is this kindergarten TBall or the major leagues!?

Maybe the practices will lighten up once the games start?

Maybe I’m just ridiculously naïve?

{lie to me ok!?}

We’ll get into a new routine…what matters right now is that Reese is mastering the slide solo, going between said slide and the field I’m getting all sorts of steps in on my fitbit and of course Rylee is loving TBall!

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When I asked her what her favorite part of practice was, she said it was the very end where they were “actually playing TBall.” For the record, she was in center field and saw no action whatsoever. She did manage to pick me a daisy while she was out there.

Boy does this all bring back memories...

P.S. One of these days I’ll take my real camera out there to snap some photos and write a real blog post on something other than my iPad so the photos are bigger than your thumb…but for now? This is as good as it’s going to get.