Reese's First Dentist Appointment

I took Reese to the dentist today and she did awesome. You are supposed to take them 6 months after their first tooth erupts. Actually when I called I figured we wouldn't get in for a few months but they said they had an opening today so I took it.

She did so awesome. She sat on my lap like a champ and smiled. She let the assistant brush her teeth with the prophy paste and look at her teeth with the mirror. When the Doctor came we laid her down on our laps and she looked at her teeth and gums. Reese even let her put a flouride varnish on her teeth. Everyone kept saying how great she was doing and how almost all kids that age cry the whole time.

She has 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom. #4 on the bottom should be here by the end of the week. The Doctor said she can feel a molar on the top right that will be her next tooth to come in after that (yikes!) I hope she teeths as well with molars as she had with the rest of her teeth.

Anyway- I was super proud of our little girl.

Playing with your food

Happy Hour

We had the most fun tonight. Reese was in a silly mood and the three of us just played and played. Check out this first video- our little girl is starting to WALK! (please ignore my hair and PJ's)

Then she was making funny faces.

And then she laughed... and laughed... and then laughed so hard she fell over!

It was the best night ever!

Reese is 11 months old!

One more month and we will have a 1 year old! That is just CRAZY. Reese is really growing up. She has such personality- she is sweet and stubborn and smart and totally awesome.

Badger Face

This month has brought some changes in her. She is still talking constantly but it has changed. Instead of just 'da da da da' over and over she really changes up the syllables and jabbers. I think she is really wanting to say things- she will get intense and you can tell she is thinking really hard.

Just today she got the hang of walking with her little plastic car/ walker. She gets more and more brave each day trying to walk between the furniture and stuff. Here is a little video of it.

She wants to feed herself more now. She will still take pureed stuff in a spoon but she needs finger foods in between to keep herself occupied. She does really well but it sure gets messy. We are trying to let that go and just roll with it. She will feed herself a bottle too, but we still hold her most of the time because that's as close to cuddling as we get. Also- we have started her on cow's milk. We had been working on it and she just wasn't loving it. But the other day she figured out how to drink out of my Camelbak. So we gave her some milk in it and she went to town. Now she has her own little mini camelbak and has milk with every meal.

Also- she likes to put bites on top of her sippy cup and then eat it off the lid. She will do that with toys too- put them on top of something and then pick them up with her mouth.

She is back to enjoying being read to. She will take a book off the shelf and sit and look at you like 'hey- come read this to me.' She picks the same ones over and over- Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Gossie and Gertie, Count my Kisses, and I Love You Through and Through.

She loves to be chased. All you have to say is "I'm gonna get you..." and she'll take off. She also likes being tickled but only if she is in the mood. But when she is she will just laugh and laugh and it's so cute.

We are trying to give her (and me) more social interaction. We go to play group on Tuesdays and to story time at the library on Fridays. She does well with other kids for the most part. She just doesn't like it when they pull her hair.

She is in a big-girl car seat now. She is well over the weight requirement so we went ahead and faced her forward. She loves being able to see where we are going. She can also see us, which makes her whine a little bit more but she it figuring things out.

 She is just super cute and getting so big and next month she will be 1 year old!

For Grandma

So my sweet Grandma Edna loves Reese. When I call to talk to her the first thing she says is "how's my baby?" I'm so glad that they have a relationship and it's awesome that even though Grandma Edna has a ton of great grandkids and even a few great-great grandkids she still takes a personal interest in Reese. So I shot this video of Reese and wanted to post it so my sister can pull it up on her Iphone and show it to Grandma. We love you!

(we were listening to Disney music so just try to ignore the Pirates Life for Me in the background. Next time I'll pick a cuter song.)

Also, speaking of my Grandma, I have a random cleaning tip for you. Next time you finish cleaning your toilet (everyone's favorite job, I know) try this with the brush:

That way it can drip dry and you don't get gross toilet water in the bottom of your brush holder. My grandma showed me that last time I visited. Then I came home and showed my Mom and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. Maybe everyone does this already but it was a revelation to me so thanks Grandma!

Mama's Girl

Reese is starting to act like she loves us a little bit- finally! She has never been a cuddly, snuggly baby. I mean, we know she likes us but she wouldn't lean into us or let us rock her before she went to sleep or hug her tight. She likes other people, which is definitely a good thing. But now she will be sitting on the floor, look up to me and raise her arms because she wants me to hold her. Spence and I always kiss after we say prayers (his parents always did it, and we just kind of naturally started doing it to.) The other night after family prayers we kissed and Reese tilted her head up to me because she wanted one too. Then she did it to Spence. We have gotten her to give kisses before but that was the first time she wanted to. She has a fever and a cold right now and last night she laid her head on my shoulder and let me rock her for awhile. She loves my Mom and Dad, but now when they are holding her if she is done she will lean toward me so I'll take her. I don't want her to become overly attached to me- separation is healthy. But it is nice that she is starting to show that she loves us because we love her so much.

Coming Home

When Spence and I were first married we met this awesome couple in our ward- Scott and Michelle Hart. They are great friends and they introduced us to rock climbing. There was a gym in Logan like 3 minutes from our house and we would go climbing 3-4 times a week. It is the best sport to do as couples because you can totally go at your own pace and skill level without slowing anyone else down (or making them feel bad because you are better at it than them.) When we were able to go that often we really saw ourselves improve. Of course, life changes and with a baby we have not exactly had the time to dedicate to this 'wholesome recreational activity.' But as part of our New Year's Resolutions we have decided to go rock climbing at least once a month. So yesterday we went with my mom and dad. Mom watched Reese while the other 3 of us climbed. I know this is going to sound way too deep for what I'm talking about but it was like coming home. I had the best time. Sure, I'm not nearly as good as I was before but it was so nice to be just me and my little muscles and the wall.

Spence aka Spider Man. He is just so tall he skips holds all the time and is up the wall before I can even blink.

My dad is 53 and totally keeps up with me. He and I were doing all the same climbs.

You can't see my face but it is beaming with joy.

Even Reese enjoyed herself. We will be getting her into a climbing harness as soon as possible.

It would have been so easy to be discouraged because it has been so long and I kind of have to start over. But kind of the opposite things happened- I want to go back as much as I can so I can work back up to it. I love it- and when you have something in your life that you enjoy that much you have to figure out a way to make it work.

Reese is 10 months old

We celebrated Reese's 10 month birthday by going to a one year old birthday of a little boy in our ward. I can't believe that will be Reese in 2 months- with frosting smeared all over her little face. There is nothing really new to report- she is still crawling around like a mad woman, standing and pulling stuff off of shelves, and still smiling at everyone she sees. She doesn't have any new teeth and still says 'da da' for everything. But there are some fun and quirky things that she has been doing that I never want to forget.

 We are so fortunate that she has not yet figured out how to open drawers and cabinets. But when I'm cooking and she wants to be with me in the kitchen I'll open the tuperware drawer for her. She loves taking them all out and carrying them around the kitchen. Too bad she doesn't love putting them back in.

 She has started growling. She has always been such a happy and noisy baby, but now she growls constantly. It's so funny to hear the grainy quality to her voice.

 She wants to climb over everything. She loves to have you lay on the ground so she can crawl over you. Anytime we hold her on the couch she tries to crawl over the edge of the arm. We have to keep a close eye on her because I know one of these days she is going to leap off.

 She likes to put something in her mouth while she is doing something else. So she often has a toy in each hand and one in her mouth. Or something in her mouth while she is crawling around.

 I wish I could buy this child a little baby jungle gym. She likes to crawl under the table and weave her way in and out of the chair legs. It's amazing to watch her problem solving abilities. Sometimes she will get stuck but she doesn't cry, she just keeps trying different things until something works.

 I started renting Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to limit the Elmo time. She is starting to talk like a muppet. She will say 'da da da' and will move her head up and down like Elmo and his friends. She is our little muppet baby.

She has way more fun taking her toys and books off of the shelves then actually playing with them. She likes to grab the DVD cases and look at the pictures and slobber all over them.

Happy 10 month birthday to little Reese!

I can't live without...

 If I could keep this in a holster on my belt- I would. Reese spits up regularly and almost always on the carpet... or my pants... or Spencer's shirt.

 Reese loves Elmo's World so much. She will not sit still on her own unless this is on. She is in love with Mr. Noodle- the second he comes on screen she laughs and laughs. This is how I get things done while she is awake. (I'm not a bad mom- she only gets 30 minutes a day.)

 The best high chair for apartment living. Plus, Reese is a social girl and wouldn't be happy unless she was at the table with us. This is also how we read books because she won't sit still if she isn't strapped in.

This is Lovey. If Reese has this little guy to suck on, she goes to sleep like a champ.

And of course, these two :)

Hooray!

Reese's pictures came in the mail today and I LOVE THEM! Spence does too :) I have picked out a few... well actually a lot... of our favorites. We need to pick one to blow up big to hang in our house- let me know which one you like best.

More Christmas Fun

 So this year we did a lot of fun things to celebrate the season. We took Reese to get her picture with Santa (which reminds me, I need to scan it so I can post it- so stay tuned.) We went to the Festival of the Nativities at our church building. It was amazing- there were nativities from all around the world. They also had a live nativity (someone in our ward asked if we had volunteered. We laughed so hard- not only is Reese huge now but she is so noisy. It would not have been spiritual at all.) We went into Seattle to see the gingerbread competition they do at the Sheraton to benefit research for juvenile diabetes. We took our good pals Brett and Jenna Alvey with us. It was fun to take this picture because Reese was smiling and drawing the attention of everyone standing around waiting. She is such a babe.

We also went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens again this year. They recreate the plants they have there in the Spring out of Christmas lights. It is amazing. This year they had a scavenger hunt to find all the animals throughout the gardens. It was for kids, but we had fun looking for them anyway.

The last thing we did (after Christmas actually, but that's ok) was go down to Tacoma to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for Zoo Lights. It is similar to the Botanical Gardens but they have lots of animal scenes. They also have an old antique carousel that we took Reese on. It was so fun- we picked a tiger that didn't go up and down just to be safe. But she loved going round and round and waving at all the people.

 Here is a short little video of us on the carousel. Enjoy!