Monday, January 28, 2008

short update

I am always a little behind on posting things here, so I will give you a brief update of life in our neck of the woods. Reagan and I still remain mainly housebound due to flu season, but we manage to visit Molly and Austin once in awhile (while we anxiously wait for Kalli's arrival into the world!) Reagan was a little under the weather for a couple weeks while she cut two more molars. I am happy to report that she is back to her jolly little self - what a relief! She continues to amaze everyone we see with her outrageous vocabulary and memory! Here are a few of her best "tricks":
  • Counting to ten, by herself. In fact, that is her favorite game - she counts everything she sees.
  • Singing along with songs. When we are singing songs, we will stop and she will finish the lines for us.
  • She can say the majority of the alphabet. She tends to leave out L and W. Also, "QRS" and "TUV" are both one word.
  • She knows many colors - yellow, green, blue, purple, red, orange, pink, black and gold. She enjoys playing with my hair-ties and sorting them by color.
  • Shapes, Animals, Foods... She has known these for awhile, but still loves adding new ones to her vocab. Plus she likes to say "Horse say?" and waits for you to ask her what a horse says, or any other animal. Then she repeatedly makes their respective sounds.
  • Sign language from her Baby Einstein videos. Imitates some of them, and recognizes basically all of them! Rick and I had to memorize them so we could quiz her.
  • She "reads" at least a dozen of her books, which means she has them memorized - so cute! Plus she is at the stage where she wants to read them "again" and again... Sometimes they get a little old after I have read them 25 times a day!
  • She tells us "Thank you Mommy" and "I love you Daddy."
  • Recognizes tons of relatives and calls them by name. This includes all of my immediate family, all of Rick's immediate family, and tons of our extended family.

Now on to a few of her weird quirks:

  • She likes to put her little people and animals on the piano bench, and yells at them if they tip over or face the wrong way. I guess she is a little bit of a perfectionist or something. But then she yells "MESS" and swings her arms and knocks them all flying across the room. Strange, but funny.
  • She likes to stand at the balcony at the top of the stairs and throw stuffed animals overboard. Then she yells "splat" or "bunga."
  • She really dislikes baby dolls at the moment (I'm a little worried about how she will react when her little sister is born). When I hold her baby doll she yanks it out of my arms and throws it on the ground. She loves all stuffed animals though! Maybe we can convince her that her sister is really an animal or something...
  • She loves to hit the low keys on the piano, then runs to the high keys and hits them. She does this repeatedly while giggling the whole time.
  • She is trying to master using a fork to pick up her food and gets really excited when she is successful. Sometimes she gets so excited that she swings her fork to show us and the food flies off, then she squeals with laughter!

She amazes us in every way! I have no idea why we are blessed with such a jolly little genius, but we are so grateful!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

healthy eating

Recently, Reagan has decided to show her independence by being outrageously picky when it comes to eating. I have struggled a bit with trying to get her plenty of calories, while still keeping her meals fairly healthy. Here are a few of the foods I have had success with:
  1. Flax oil on toast instead of butter - tons of calories, but much healthier!
  2. Almond butter - she isn't really a fan of it, but when I use it sparingly with a fruit spread it makes for a new sandwich.
  3. Smart balance peanut butter - since she doesn't enjoy the almond butter very much, I alternate and use this peanut butter that has flax oil in it.
  4. Cheese melts - she will eat open faced sandwiches with chopped veggies under the cheese! Today I got away with carrots, spinach and tomato!
  5. Carrot fries - just cut them in rectangles like fries, toss with some olive oil and bake in the oven till crispy.

I plan on making some pancakes this week with pumpkin in them. If you have any other ideas, please share!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

animal abc's

Reagan has learned all of the animals from her animal alphabet flash cards. Of course we changed a few to make it easier for her. Like instead of Xolo (a hairless dog), we just taught her dog. Also, birdie was much easier to learn than Quetzal. Some are much easier to understand than others... Enjoy!

santa's helper


snow days






amazing bedhead


christmas morning


Monday, January 7, 2008

happy girl


1...2...3...

One of Reagan's newest tricks is counting to ten! She sometimes forgets five, I guess six is more fun to say. You'll need to turn the volume up, she is speaking quietly - which is rare!

loves to lounge