Regan is 17 months old!

Regan is 17 months old. The highlight this month is Regan says no. She says it all the time! Any question you ask her, the answer is no. The best part, 2 days ago I asked her if she wanted something to eat. She crossed her arms and yelled,"NO!" She is showing some major attitude! Another thing Regan has started doing is yelling at the dinner table. If she wants more food, she screams,"MORE,MORE,MORE," until we give her food. She will also yell,"WATER, WATER, WATER," which really comes out 'wawer.' Ryan gets very upset when she yells at the table. He says she is hurting his ears and will either yell back at her or cover his ears and whine. I am trying to be patient with her and tell her to say, "More, please," before giving her more food. I try to do the same with the water. Needless to say, dinnertime has not been enjoyable for the last few weeks. Regan's little personality is starting to come out more and more. I think she may be my stubborn, challenging, but very loving little girl!

Regan is 16 Months Old

Regan is 16 months old. She now has 9 teeth. She loves to hear her own voice. She repeats any word that Ryan says. Some new things she does are she says thank you (and sometimes will sign it at the same time) and is obsessed with her water bottle and calls it "wawer." My favorite thing that she does now is she sings. When she is sitting in the car, just the 2 of us, or when she is playing by herself I hear her trying to sing some of her favorite tunes. Some of the songs I have heard her try to sing are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, ABCs, and for those of you familiar with the Music Together program, she sings Trot Ol' Joe and Me, You, We from that class. She also will finish any of the songs that we sing, if she recognizes it. If I sing the first verse to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, she'll mumble the next verse and then laugh at her accomplishment. She is a smart little cookie. We are also finding out what a tough little girl she is. She takes some nasty spills and tumbles and most times won't cry. If she does cry, it is usually just for a minute and then she is up and ready to play again.

Ryan is 4 years old!!

And just like that, Ryan turned 4! We celebrated Ryan's 4th birthday with about 24 of Ryan's closest friends and classmates at a local place that has bounce houses, slides, ziplines and all things that will exhaust children. Ryan had a blast! We saw him at the start of the party and again at the end. He was so busy playing with his friends. Ryan is still as sweet as ever. The older he gets, the more sensitive he is becoming. He is also becoming more cuddly and likes to get lots of hugs and kisses. When he is melting down he will say," I just need a hug!" Sometimes that makes things all better. Ryan is very outgoing and independent. At his parent/teacher conference, his teacher told us she wished she had a class full of students like Ryan. She said he is eager to participate in class and is amazed at how smart he is. He also continues to amaze us everyday. He loves to try to read "harder" books that Mommy and Daddy read aloud to him. I must say I am impressed with how well he reads these books. At home I have been focusing on sight words with him. He is currently on the second grade sight word list. I also found a great phonics website that Ryan has been using, and he is able to sound out words that he doesn't know when reading. He also loves to write and will spend time practicing his letters and writing his name. For Valentine's Day he wrote his name on his Valentine cards for his 24 classmates. He was really proud of himself. I was really proud of him too. We just finished up another session of swim class. In this particular class the kids have to swim in the small pool where their feet can touch the bottom and the big pool, where their feet cannot touch. Ryan is having a rough time in the big pool. To his credit, the big pool is a bit colder than the small pool, and it bothers him that he cannot touch his feet to the bottom. His swim instructor has been so patient with him and will, most times, carry him on her back just to keep him from crying while in the big pool. He is getting braver as of recent. At his last class he was able to kick off the wall and swim underwater to the teacher. Hopefully, Ryan will be as brave as he was last class when class starts again. Here are some pictures from Ryan's 4th birthday.

Christmas 2011

Christmas came and went with the blink of an eye. Ryan tried so hard to behave before Christmas because he knew 'Santa was watching,' that it backfired on us, and we had breakdown after breakdown and lots of timeout time. It was exhausting. Every night as I put him to bed he would tell me,"Mommy, I was naughty today. I'm sorry, I'm not going to be naughty tomorrow." The next day the same behavior would rear it's ugly head followed by time out and another evening of promises. It's hard to be 3 and behave when there is so much to look forward to. Aside from that, this was Regan's first Christmas where I felt like she actually 'got it.' She opened up some presents and actually played with the toys inside instead of being entertained by the wrapping paper and boxes.

Ryan reminding me how he stands with Santa. He had to wear this shirt many times before Christmas to convince me that it was true.

Santa picture #1

Santa picture #2, not so successful

Picking out our tree at the Christmas tree lot

Ryan's picture in our local paper. We walked in the Holiday parade and he was lucky enough to have his picture taken and published in the paper.

All smiles on Christmas morning.

Regan is 15 months and a few days old!

Regan turned 15 months old on the 5th. She is quite a steady walker now and loves to walk away from me as fast as her little feet will take her. She is not very fond of being held these days and will wiggle her way out of my arms. She just wants to walk on her own.

Her vocabulary is expanding everyday. She clearly says, Hi Daddy, Hi Ryan, milk, cheese, book, please (peez), oh baby, oh blanket, pretty and touchdown complete with her hands in the air (thanks to Daddy).

Regan will repeat anything you ask her to, so Ryan loves to tell her to say things. Of course he says things like,"Regan say pack n play," "Regan say motorcycle." He will never ask her to say easy one syllable words, it must be a complex word. It is pretty funny to listen to her try to say these words.

Some other noteworthy details: Regan's eighth tooth came in this month, she loves to dance when she hears music, peek a boo is still a favorite game of hers, she loves to run to her Daddy and give him kisses and snuggle with Ryan in our bed each morning.

Regan is 14 Months Old!

Regan turned 14 months old yesterday. She really made my day. She said, "Mommy," twice. This is a very big deal because she does not call me anything. I'm not quite sure why, but all she says is Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. She gets very excited when she sees me, but doesn't say anything, so for her to finally call me Mommy, not once but twice was a huge deal.

Regan also took 6 steps by herself yesterday, twice. I knew she was on her way to walking, but was very surprised when I took her to the park today and she took off walking, all by herself! Now when I pick her up, she just wants to walk. It is the cutest thing! I know my life just got way more interesting, but what a great couple of milestones!

Some Late Fall Pictures

Halloween 2011, the fireman and ladybug


Hanging out in the stroller for Mommy's workout












Family picture on Thanksgiving



I like this one too!











The cousins