Just enough time for a quick post from my phone but…You guys? Can I just say how excited I am that Ry is playing T-ball? She had a blast at the skills assessment last night.
T-Ball is going to be awesome!
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Category Archives: growing up
Currently…Reese at 18 Months
Reesie-bug, last weekend you turned 18 months old. One and a half years you’ve been with our family now. Life is crazy, but that’s status quo these days and you fit right in. In the vein of “life is crazy” your 18 month well-check isn’t for over a month yet. So, instead of that typical update, which I may still do, I thought it’d be fun to do a snap-shot of where you’re at right now.
appreciating pretty much everything. You are so polite…you tell people thank you all the time…especially at meal time when you’re given a bite of something you really love…like a chip. You also say bless you, excuse you and you even say “excuse me” when you burp.
reading the same books over and over again. Right now your two favorites are Eric Carl’s “From Head to Toe” and a book called “I’m a Frog” that’s about a pig that pretends to be a frog and her elephant friend that’s not ok with it.
listening only when you feel like it. You’ve mastered selective hearing and you aren’t even two yet. Bravo? Though there are times you surprise me with choosing to listen…like the other day when I was dropping you off at daycare and we happened to be in the big kid room and you ran over to the lego table and dug right in. I made some comment to you about “You know you’re not supposed to be playing with those” and I figured I’d be ignored. Instead you put the legos back in the tubs and ran over to me with a huge smile on your face.
tasting all of the things. You love almost everything we put in front of you…most recently cous cous. And you even ate some red pepper last night. Some of your favorites are bananas, spaghetti and of course, TACO TUESDAY! When it comes to things you won’t eat, it’s a pretty short list that’s topped off with mac-n-cheese…you crazy kid.
learning at a rate that does not compute with my brain.
noticing EVERYTHING. You are so observant. And you are such a little mimicker. You want to do everything your sister does.
making all sorts of noises. You’ve become a babble-extraordinnaire and I love listening to you and having a “conversation” with you.
watching too much TV. Being a second child is funny that way. When you wake up in the morning you go get the remote and hand it to whomever you think will turn on cartoons for you. You especially love Wild Kratts and Curious George.
organizing a revolution…I’m sure of it. One that starts with waking up every morning at 5:20 a.m., yelling “MAMA!” in the car until I hold your hand and ends with your mother drinking copious amounts of wine or whiskey every night. Just kidding…I don’t drink every night. What your next step in this war is, I’m unsure, but I know all will be revealed soon…you’re just wearing me down.
loving in no particular order: food, Dante, your sister, your binkie, cuddling, brushing your teeth, playing with our ears, ripping toilet paper into tiny pieces and trying to put them in the toilet by sticking them between my legs while I’m peeing and so much more.
embracing anyone who will accept a hug. Despite your fierce nature, you are a cuddle bug and you love “giving loves”. You’re an excellent hug giver and can brighten anyone’s day with just one squeeze.
daring. That’s it. You are so daring. You have no fear, it seems. From climbing to “jumping” there’s nothing you aren’t willing to try. I hope you never lose that spirit.
Little girl, you are fierce. The twinkle in your eye and the crinkle of your nose leaves me constantly wondering what’s going on in that brain of yours.
I know I’ve said it before, but you bring so much joy to our family.
I love you baby girl.
xoxo,
Mama
Rylee Speak
Every kid has certain words they say funny. It’s one of those things that as a parent, you hope they never outgrow because you know when they do, they’re officially not-so-little anymore. Rylee has a few and I love each and every one of them. So much so, that I’ve found myself saying them her way. {Note: it is not nearly as cute coming from a grown adult}
Fableeus = fabulous
Hanguber = hamburger
Pateren = pattern
Redicleeus = ridiculous
But, other than these funny word mishaps, she’s a lot got something else going on…
The other day at gymnasts, Rylee had a new teacher. The introduction went like this:
Teacher: “I’m miss ___ {I never caught her name}. What’s your name?”
Rylee: Rylee
Teacher: Wylee? Nice to meet you!
The teacher then proceeded to call Rylee “Wylee” for the entire rest of the class until the very end when Rylee eventually got so irritated with the teacher she finally spelled it for her.
On the drive home, Rylee expressed her frustration with me about how the teacher kept getting it wrong. Then she said something that simultaneously made me proud and broke my heart.
“Can you teach me how to say my name right?”
Proud in the sense that she realizes she needs to work on something and is willing to do the work to make it happen. Heart broken because no parent wants to hear from their kids about their feelings being hurt particularly because of something related to their development. It really bothers Rylee that she has a hard time saying her “Rs”. Rylee is Wylee. Red is wed.
It’s not as bad as that annoying bear from sesame street, but it’s obviously bad enough that people don’t even understand what her name is.
When I was her age I had a hard time pronouncing my R’s as well. I remember being called into my school’s speech therapist’s office for a speech evaluation. I distinctly remember them asking me to say the word red. It was awful. But I also remember the follow up a couple of years later. I was fine. No intervention, or even “r” practice was needed.
So speaking from personal experience, I am confident that Rylee will grow out of it. That doesn’t mean I just want to ignore it…especially because she is so aware of it herself. Overall, Ry is a pretty confident little girl but I don’t want this to be her hang-up. I don’t want her self esteem effected because of it. It weighed on my heart and mind for the rest of the day.
That same evening she came out of her bedroom holding a pencil and a spiral notebook. She asked me how to spell “fantastic”. Not thinking much of it, I spelled the word for her without ever looking up from my dinner prep. Later when I was putting her to bed I saw the spiral notebook lying on her desk bench…
In case you can’t read it, please allow me to translate: “I am fantastic as can be. The way I am they sure do love me. I am so happy. But do you know why?”
Ha, guess I don’t need to worry too much about her confidence.
She’s going to be just fine.
To this day though I hate saying words like rural.
Christmas Magic
The moment of Christmas Magic officially hit me this year. It came at about 10:30 PM on Christmas Eve as I flopped myself down on the couch after the last gift was assembled…completely exhausted. I pictured the look on Rylee’s face when she saw the pile of gifts under {and around} the tree. How she might react when she realized Santa had come. How excited she would be when she opened her “big gift” from Santa. I imagined how much Reese would enjoy playing with her gifts.
I thought back to all my years of childhood and how much I loved Christmas growing up. Right then is when it hit me.
My parents created this magic for me every year. And not just for me, but for my 3 siblings as well. I never once thought about it before that moment. But right then, I could picture my parents staying up late on Christmas Eve…filling our stockings, pulling gifts from hiding places, finishing last minute wrapping.
Now here I am, getting to create the Magic of Christmas for my kids.
Parenthood is truly a trip. And you better believe the very next day I made sure to thank my parents for all of their hard work over the years keeping that Christmas Magic alive.
*****
We scaled back our typical Christmas decorations this year because of a certain mischievous almost one and a half year old. I put up the Advent calendar for the second year in a row, though Rylee didn’t seem particularly interested in too many of the activities. I didn’t push it. We didn’t have our annual “Sisters Baking Night”. When it came to opening gifts, Reese wanted nothing to do with any of it. I think it was sensory overload for her.
Rylee, on the other hand is right at the perfect age for the Magic of Christmas. This is the first year she truly got it. She colored Santa a picture and rolled it up in her stocking for him to find. She left Rudolf and the other reindeer celery {we were out of carrots} and was thrilled to see that they were gone when she woke up Christmas morning. When she visited Santa earlier in November, she told Santa she wanted an iPod touch. At first, I thought there was no way in hell Santa would bring her one of those…then somewhere along the way, Santa had a change of heart and ended up reformatting my old iPhone; loading it with {free} games and some of her favorite music. Santa even left a little note typed out to read when she turned it on. We hardly took any photos, and we didn’t take any video but her reaction to all that is something I will remember forever.
Christmas this year was exactly what I was expecting, yet nothing like what I was expecting all at the same time.
Overall? The magic was there, and it was perfect.
*****
Our Nativity had a couple extras this year…apparently there was no room at the Inn for Mickey or Minnie either.
Our tree after Santa came…one of 4 total photos I took the entire day with my “good camera”.
Reese checking out her car…pretty much the only thing she wanted to play with…and ironically enough, the only gift that didn’t involve unwrapping something.
Rylee showing her sister her new iPod!
Us.
Family Traditions
I’ve shared here before about how I grew up hunting with my dad. And how it’s a passion I’m hoping to pass down to my girls.
The actual hunting is only a part of it. We don’t hunt for the trophies, we hunt for the meat…as a way to provide for our family. Once the deer is down, the real work begins. Growing up, every year dad got a deer it was the same thing…he’d bring home the deer and hang it up in the shop to cure. A few days later, we’d clear off the dining room table, set up an assembly line and cut and wrap the deer.
When I was Rylee’s age, I was in charge of the tape. I always so bummed all I got to do was the tape. If I was lucky I’d get to help label too. As I got older, and my sisters moved away, I was promoted to wrapper. When Andy came into the picture, he joined in our assembly line. Once we had kids, one of us would be on hand for cut & wrap and the other on kid duty. Sometimes my dad’s siblings will be there to help out. This year, my sister’s boyfriend got to join in the fun while my sister…uhhh…supervised. Our assembly line has changed many times over the years but one thing remains the same: it’s time we all come together and share in a family tradition that I have so many fond memories of.
This year I really looked forward to gathering around the table. This is the first year Rylee has been old enough to participate. After we all ate dinner, Andy took Reese home for bed and Ry stayed with me to help. She was excited and I was excited that she was excited.
We all took our places around the table. She asked Grandad questions about what he was doing.
She was the official taper and labeler. She took great care in taping in just the right spot after Aunt Kathy wrapped up a cut.
Then she took even greater care in labeling each pack. Making sure to write “By Rylee” in case anyone wondered who wrote on it.
We all had our jobs. We shared laughs. We planted the seed of another beloved family tradition. There are so many things in life that now looking back I didn’t truly appreciate at the time. It’s amazing how appreciation and perspective changes and you get older. I hope that it’s something that when she’s an adult she looks back on as fondly as I do.
