Da Girls Lately

Now that things are back to a realistic pace in our household, I have a little more time to reflect and enjoy everything. A large part of that is the girls and how quickly they are growing up. It really wakes you up when you get your child’s kindergarten placement and knowing that Reese will be in grade school in the fall really makes you realize how fast time flies. And Brooke, well these days she is hardly a little baby anymore but really a small child. A small child who follows her fearless sister around everywhere she goes.

Like I said, Brooke is always on an adventure it seems these days, to explore and seek out new things. She loves Reese and is already her biggest fan, watching her closely if at gymnastics or a park or swim class and pointing and clapping when she does something. At home she follows Reese a lot and if Reese does something she wants to do it too. Many nights she isn’t touching her dinner but if Reese feeds her (the same food) off of her plate the girl will then appear ravenous. She is getting better at utensils and feeding herself. She is saying a lot more words, “hot”, “ball”, “bath”, “more”, “cheese”, “swing” and generally just blabs and talk a lot. She definitely can follow most directions these days. She does love playing with balls and babies. She loves reading books, alone or with others. She still loves suckers and popsicles but especially chocolate and the few times she’s sat down with a bowl of ice cream she is all about it. She’s pretty social and loves the attention of other kids and adults when we are out and about. She is waving hello and goodbye these days and just learned to blow kisses. She still loves being outside and we’ve taught her how to smell flowers (after she picked about five tulips from Reese’s school’s garden). She’s taking a little longer for bed these days and going to bed a little later but sleeping fairly well at night not waking until later in the night. It is looking like she will be starting in a daycare down the street from us at the beginning of June which is bittersweet because she loves her nanny Katie and buddy Maya but Maya might be going with her!

Reese these days is a story teller, game inventor, and leader extraordinaire. She does not like to follow or lose a race. She still much enjoys gymnastics class and now swimming with Lottie where she is learning to float, kick and really get her face in the water. She is still extremely particular on choices of clothes and rarely wants me to do her hair which is a shame because there is some hair monster that attacks that crazy head of hair she has every night it seems. For such a deep sleeper I don’t know how it ends up like it does in the morning. Reese loves her friends still and is generally a very good friend to them. Reese is also a great big sister, letting Brooke learn what she does, sharing things with her in their daily bike ride, and giving her a big hug each night before bed. Reese is starting to pick up on letter and number recognition, can count pretty darn high, and is starting to ask the “why?” question a lot, particularly during movies. Just in the past week or two she’s gotten really into dressing herself, which I’m very happy about. This all started with her fascination of the changing cubbies at swim class and since then it’s progressed. Reese is about to have her first slumber party with three of girlfriends this weekend. I’m drawing back on my own memories of slumber parties in getting ready for this upcoming one.

And as for me, I’ve rediscovered time and hobbies and it is wonderful. I started reading my first book in forever, and it’s a good one! The book is called My Notorious Life. I’ve done a bit of journaling and coloring. I have tried to get into the spring cleaning I wanted to do but it’s hard with the nanny share at our house, one of the reasons I’m ready for Brooke in daycare. The springtime is such a wonderful time and the birds and flowers make me want to go on daily walks. I played my first soccer game in quite some time and I scored the first goal for our team, the first for me in a very long time. It was a beautiful goal too! And I’ve been almost obsessively looking up hiking routes for mom and I to go on in the fall.

And although not a girl, let’s not forget about Bryan. Bryan is filling in for a coworker this week but is now full time at the office. He went for his first bike ride of the year this weekend and has been trying to workout in the morning before work when he can which is really amazing! He still makes us our weekend breakfasts and just got the bubble water back up and running. He’s been putting Brooke to sleep every night and is all around a great dad to the girls.

We are doing well! Mexico in less than a week and I can’t wait to get there, but really, lets just skip the trip to get there!

Chelsea