January Photos

Reese enjoys helping with every cooking project she sees in the kitchen. And yes, that's flour all over her shirt.

Reese decided she wanted to go outside, so she took her step-stool over to the door and tried to unlock it--too bad the door opens inward. Great idea, but the plan was busted.


On a cold day who doesn't love reading in a tent? This was our second "tent" of the afternoon.

Expressions

Mountains of things happen each day (and have been happening) that I forget to mention. A few things that came to mind today include:

* Reese picks up her babydoll and sniffs at its diaper and then tells me it needs a new one.

* When Reese is looking for something, she'll walk around, tilt her head to the side, and say, "hmmm..."

*Reese is obsessed with David from the David Shannon books. She calls him by name and requests the books almost daily. She even saw another one of his books on the shelf (Alice The Fairy) and called it a David book too. I thought it was a great connection since the illustrations are very similar.

* There's been some renewed potty interest--it seems to wax and wane from day to day. Today's there's been 3 successful uses.

Teeth!

In all my posts lately, I've forgotten to keep our tooth count in mind. Reese now has at least 12 teeth. (4 top, 4 bottom, and 4 molars) I can tell that her "i-teeth" are about to come in because they're visible just beneath the gums.

Alas, the potty-time interest was short lived. Now when asked if she wants or needs to go potty Reese always tells us no. We're not forcing the subject since we thought it was early for success anyway. She does enjoy putting her elephant on the potty as well as pointing at it and telling us it's her potty most times we walk by.

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Words: It's strange when you start to understand your child's speech...considering how long we've survived with only points and grunts, now that Reese can make understandable requests it is both exciting and frustrating all at once. I realize that some of her words are completely incomprehensible to everyone except me (including daddy sometimes), but I'm strangely starting to understand her more and more every day. It's even caused some fits and tantrums that she can use words to ask for what she wants, but she doesn't always get it. You can see the frustration and confusion build in her. I imagine her inner dialogue is something like, "But you KNOW what I want. I used my words! Now why can't I have it?!?!" More new words: sit, open (sounds like "up-down"), no-way! (I don't know where to lay blame for this one, it came out of the blue), wrap (like wrap me in the blanket or towel), potty, done, Elmo (*sigh,* after only a few weeks of limited exposure to Sesame Street she is IN LOVE with Elmo), and many many more.

Dress up: I need to get this girl some fake makeup and dress up jewelry stat. Every morning while I get dressed (as quickly as humanly possible), she wants to put on every necklace and bracelet I own. She also insists on using lotion, chap stick, and makeup brushes whenever they are in her sight. I don't consider myself a girly-girl, so I'm not sure where this is coming from.

Chair: Today we bought Reese a booster chair and retired her high chair. It was coming to blows (more like tantrums, really) every meal time when she had to sit in her high chair and saw me (and/or daddy) sitting at the table. She wanted to sit in the chairs at the table every chance she got, and it just wasn't safe for her. We tried lunch in the booster today and so far, so good.


Potty: Because I had a plethora of coupons to use before they expired, we also bought Reese a potty chair today. I have no intention of beginning serious potty training yet, but thought that it wouldn't hurt to have it around for her to get used to. When we got it home, she immediately wanted to sit on it and she actually peed in it on it's inaugural use! A fluke for sure, I thought, although I praised her as if she had just cured cancer anyway. Since 10AM today, she's sat on it three other times and actually pooped in it as well! The other times, she sat on it and grunted and pushed as if she was trying to go to the bathroom, but didn't go. During her pooping experience, I was reading her a book while she sat on the potty, and in the middle of one of the pages, she hopped up and said, "done!" When I looked down, I saw that she certainly was done with her business. I am not going to hold my breath that this interest in using it (or using is successfully) continues, but it is an eventful start.

January Notes

Words: The last few weeks have shown an explosion in Reese's vocabulary. She now parrots every word that she hears--which means Mommy and Daddy need to watch themselves carefully. While she repeats words constantly, it usually takes a few days for her to "own" them and use them consistently. She is also shy about using her words in front of strangers. Just a handful of her new words include: fire, bunny, water (wah-tee), oops, climb, moon, juice, book, blue, green, grandma, and grandpa. I know there's tons more, it's just hard to think of them all on demand.

Helper: Reese has taken on a new chore around the house. Every morning and evening, she insists on feeding the animals. She gets their bowls, takes them to the pantry, lets mommy and daddy scoop the food into them, and carries them back for the animals. So far, we've only had one spill in the process, but Annie didn't mind eating her dinner off the floor.

Time Out: Reese had one of her first MAJOR time outs last week. We were getting ready to go to the mailbox, and I told Reese she had to wear her jacket. When I pulled the jacket out of the closet, she immediately began a game of chase. I didn't partake and waited for her to come back to me. When she did, I began putting on her jacket. I stood behind her and got one arm in while she was squirming and trashing, and as I reached across to begin her other arm, she leaned forward and bit me on the elbow. Her bite was hard enough to break the skin and leave an immediate bruise. Suffice to say, a swift time out followed. I've still got the mark from the incident, but after a tearful minute or two in her crib alone, she hasn't attempted any repeat performances.

And Elephant and Baby Too!: When ever it's time for Reese to do something (get dressed, eat, brush her hair, wash her hands...you name it), she now wants to involve her elephant or baby doll in the activity. Recently after washing her hands and drying them on a towel hanging by the sink, she went and got Elephant and proceeded to dry his hands on the towel. Elephant also gets his hair brushed every morning and occasionally has to wear bows and hair clips if Reese is. Reese's baby doll eats five to six times a day from Reese's kitchen--usually yogurt, although I saw her putting a strawberry up to her mouth the other day also.

New Shoes: Last week Reese got a new pair of shoes. While most of her size 4s are still a little big, her Stride Rites were growing small and were getting a little beat up. We went to Sandy's Shoes and she picked out a pair of brown saddle shoes as replacements (size 5). It was a close call between the saddle shoes and a pair of eye-shocking neon pink ones. Needless to say, mommy breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her choice.

Grocery Cart

Last week Reese took her new grocery cart to HEB for a test run. While she had been pushing it around the house for days, I was unsure about how it would work in the super-market setting. Since we were only getting three items, I figured it was the perfect trip to find out.

Getting the cart into the car was more of a production that I anticipated. While Reese was thrilled that we were going to take the cart out of the house, she got very upset when I took it away from her to load in the in the car. It wasn't until we were around the corner from the house that she stopped letting me know about her confusion and disappointment (ie screaming at me and trying to point to the cart in the trunk).

When we got to HEB everything went great. She loaded her babydoll in the front seat of the cart and we were off. She followed directions and loved putting the food in the cart. Since it was just after 8AM, we had the store mostly to ourselves. The HEB partners all remarked that it was one of the "cutest things they'd ever seen."

Reese's attention span lasted long enough to get the cart to the check out, but after that, mommy ended up pushing the cart (carrying the grocery bag, and carrying the kid) back to the car.

We haven't had the need for a quick trip to the store this week, but next time we do, I think we'll be taking the cart with us again.

Christmas and New Years

This Christmas, we celebrated Christmas Eve and morning at home in Austin and then packed up the family for a trip to San Antonio to celebrate with the grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

On Christmas morning Reese woke up to find that Santa had brought her some great gifts. She received several books as well as a play kitchen--complete with pretend foods.

This was Reese's first experience opening presents since her birthday, and she was very meticulous about the process. While in love with bows (and tearing them off EVERY package she saw--regardless of whether it belonged to her), she was very meticulous about removing the wrapping paper from her packages. She would tear small strips of paper off and and place them down next to her until she had uncovered most of the present.


Her kitchen set was a BIG hit and she's used it multiple times a day ever since. Her favorite activities are using the microwave, making eggs, and washing her hands in the sink. When she puts items in the microwave, she closes the door, and makes beeping noises when she presses the buttons. She also loves "cracking" plastic Easter eggs into her pots and stirring them around.

When we went to San Antonio she also received some great presents from her extended family. Grandma and Grandpa Righter gave her a large arm chair that now lives in our living room as well as some puzzles and a Good Night Moon game. (While she can't exactly play the game as suggested, she insists on playing her version of it EVERYday. ) Aunt Kim got her a babydoll which she carries around the house, feeds food from her kitchen, and generally snuggles. Aunt Kate and Uncle Richard got Reese some pots and pans for her kitchen as well as a grocery cart which has already had its inaugural trip to HEB (more on that later). The big gift from Grandma and Grandpa Bailey was a Radio Flyer wagon which is now her preferred mode of transportation.

At the end of our San Antonio trip we attended a surprise birthday party for Larry and got to spend time with the Muenchows, Allens, and all the grandbabies.

When we got back to Austin Reese promptly got sick. She began running a terribly high fever (104F) and wasn't sleeping very well. When we took her to the pediatrician, they ruled out ear and throat infections and told us it was most likely a virus. We had to let it run its course. Several days of listless, cranky baby ensued and her fever finally broke on New Years Day. (Suffice to say our New Year's Eve was a little less than celebratory.) Unfortunately the fever came back and we took her to the afterhours clinic where we discovered that her viral infection (and the congestion that came with it) caused an ear infection. We're now on the mend and finishing off our 10 day round of antibiotics. Mix in a few trips to the dentist for Mommy and we had a very full Christmas.

Pictures and video coming soon.