Reese Lately

It has been a hot minute since I have written a post on Reese and her ever evolving developments and personality. But, I feel like just in the past month or two, Reese has matured quite a bit. She’s developed new interests and is having full on conversations with those around her. It’s really something to see…

• The biggest change I have noticed in Reese is her interest and focus for more sit and play activities lately. Reese has really gotten into puzzles and coloring and I’m all for it. She started out not really sure how to work some fairly simple puzzles but just lately has finished some (with minimal help) that were like 50 pieces. We’ve colored with crayons which is fun but we’ve also been really big fans about the magic ink coloring books and paper since they are free of messes. Reese has gone from just freely coloring, to doing really well staying in the lines, and now is even helping coloring in the sky, grass and surroundings in pictures.
• Reese is trying to strike up conversations with anyone around her. We first noticed this in Hawaii when we would ride elevators with strangers and Reese would start a conversation with “Hi. I am Reese. I am from Seattle. I am three years old.” She’s done this more at parks around here too and is a great story teller if she has caught someone’s attention, being able to talk for long stretches of time, and what always gets me is that she recounts and retells real life events in very great detail, even about events that have happened a long time ago. She’s not just making up stories.
• Reese is learning the concept of time. She is starting to get the difference between a minute, five minutes and ten minutes, as well as the concept of later, tomorrow, yesterday, today, etc. Similarly, she is actually understanding that if we say two more times, that means two more times and if she goes one time then she has one time left. That’s a big step!
• Reese has gotten excellent on her scooter. The scooter riding really clicked in February during our Covid times and has only gotten better. She’s learned to use her brake to feel more comfortable on gradual descents and we often bring it to school in the afternoon at pick up and she can ride it the whole way home (1.5 miles).
• Reese can pull herself up a pole. This she has demonstrated to me a few times on her jumping gym in the backyard. She can also flip over a bar and is getting better at walking a balance beam by herself.
• Reese has finally been sleeping through the night in her own bed. We have had a few wakeups just recently where she has gotten upset about something, whether it’s been a bad dream or not having one of us in the room with her is unclear, but we are finally there. She’s also been sleeping in and we are now having to wake her up sometimes around 7:30 in order to get ready for school (this weekend she woke up around 8 am each day although she wasn’t going to sleep until nearly 10 pm). Unfortunately, Brooke doesn’t sleep in that late.
• Reese loves toast. Sugar toast or Nutella toast she is all about right now. She still loves pizza, mac n cheese, pasta, chicken nuggets, and French fries, and of course fruit and sweets and hummus with veggies. She also ate a coconut shrimp in Hawaii which really surprised me. Also while we were in Hawaii she got into potato chips and this is still a rather hot commodity these days.

Reese really is growing up and we both just love her so much. Brooke does too!

Chelsea