Precious Moments

So the other night I had a little breakdown. I have always felt I had a poor memory, but it never bothered me much. I can tell you silly little details from Harry Potter, but I can't remember anything from our family vacation to Hawaii 3 years ago. Last week I was talking to a woman with a 7 week old little girl and I just couldn't remember what it was like when Reese was that small. I couldn't remember anything about it! She is only 5 months old, how can I not remember? I cried about it a bit and then my sweet husband started reminding me of things; telling me stories and helping me remember. I left the experience with a renewed desire to keep a good journal and take lots of pictures. So today I want to remember:

Reese curls her toes constantly- it makes it so hard to put shoes on her. 

She sleeps on her tummy now and wakes up with red marks and sleep creases all over her face.  
When I hold her, she likes to open and close her hand in the hair at the base of my neck. 

Spence can't talk to her when she's eating because she just grins at him and milk runs down her chin. 

When I sign the word 'book' to her, she kicks her legs and waves her arms because she is so excited. 

If she is fussy, she quiets right down when we sing "Open and Shut Them".

Being outside is her favorite- she sits so quietly and observes everything. She loves God's creations.

When Spencer gets home from work, she gives him the biggest smile and can't take her eyes off him.

We can't keep socks on her- she kicks so much and rubs her feet together until they come off.   

She grabs your face when you hold her close.

She loves her Exercauser and Jumper- she wants to stand up all the time.

Reese keeps her arms straight all the time- it's like she wants to take flight.

She did not like it when Daddy tried to feed her peas.

She rolls all around her crib when she is trying to fall asleep. We usually have to reposition her.   

When you hold her in your lap, she has started to arch her neck to look up at you- I love that.   

Her smiles are free, but it takes a little work to get her to laugh.

You can tell she is smart just by looking at her- she thinks with her face.

 She brings me more joy than I ever thought possible.   

 

Happy 5 month birthday

Reese is 5 months old today. She loves lots of things- Mommy and Daddy, her stuffed cow, sucking on stuff, eating rice cereal, kisses on her tummy that make her laugh, the book "The Cow that Laid an Egg," taking baths, the song Baby Beluga, walks in the stroller and sitting in her bouncy chair. She is very smart- we have been signing with her and even though she can't sign back yet she totally knows what's going on. When she sees something new, her eye brows knit together while she is thinking about it. She looks at things very intently, especially when we read books to her. She is also going to be an independent little thing- she already wants to stand up all the time and when she is on her belly she tries to scoot forward, and often succeeds. She brings Spence and I so much joy and we love her so much.

Pros and Cons

Why Washington is awesome: We took the boat out on Lake Sammamish yesterday. It was sunny, clear skies and just beautiful on the lake. One of the resident Bald Eagles was out flying. Almen almost nailed his 360 and Spence did a rockin awesome board grab. My parents are super fun to hang out with on the boat. We have awesome friends the Hoopes who watched Reese even though they had 8 other kids at their house.

Why Washington sucks: It was August 14th, and that was the first time we have gone boating!

Baby Food

So we gave Reese her first official food- tasty rice cereal. She has unofficially tried yogurt, tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, ice cream, asparagus soup, mac and cheese sauce and chicken pot pie. She has been acting like she wants more than just bottles for awhile now so she was pretty excited... and messy!

San Diego

We just got back from San Diego and we had an awesome time. It was a week full of firsts for Reese. We went to the beach. She did ok, but refused to take a nap. There was just too much to see and do.

Spence loves to boogie board. Unfortunately I am lame and won't get in the ocean if it's too cold. Luckily he had his boys to go with him. Josh (Kara's hubby), my cute brother Almen, and Boone (Megan's new husband)

We took Reese swimming. She loved it- we knew she would. She even put her face in the water! I'm pretty sure she did it on accident but she didn't mind. It was so fun.

We went to Sea World. Don't worry- no trainers were eaten while we were there. When I was a kid I wanted to be a whale trainer. I would check out books on Orcas at the library and take notes in a notebook. A lot of the trainers are actually psychologists who specialized in animal behavior, and I was a psych major. Oh well- we have to let some of our dreams go, right?

Reese loves the song Baby Beluga, so we had to get a picture of her with the Beluga whale. They became great friends. We also bought her a little plastic whale for the bath tub- 9 bucks!

We also went to Universal Studios. It was so crowded, but we really had a good time. We used the Single Rider lines so we wouldn't have to wait in line, so that really helped.

We took Reese on the Studio Tour and she did great. She made it through the King Kong part, the Subway crash and the flash flood. Unfortunately by the end she was tired and hungry, so when the water cannon went off and Jaws came up to the boat she started to cry. She didn't mind him so much here- I guess because he was dead.

Reese is loving to sit up, but of course we couldn't bring her chairs. So she spent a lot of the week in her pillow-throne. She is the queen baby!

But the best part of the weekend was hands-down when we played Minute to Win It. Spence and I had gotten on the website and picked a bunch of the challenges and brought all the supplies. If you want a good time with a group of friends or a really fun FHE, play this game. Watching my Mom try to move an Oreo from her forehead to her mouth without using her hands was hilarious. Seeing my sister Kara try to knock stuff over using a baseball in a leg of pantyhose attached to her head was so funny. It was awesome!