Ok, so I know it’s been a while since I blogged, but winters out here are so boring. Most of the things that we like to go see and do are outdoors. Even though there’s not much going on, I figured I had still better go ahead and blog before I get any more hate mail. So, here are some mostly-true stories that hopefully brighten up your day.
Well, Reagan is officially mobile. She’s crawling all over the place these days. As exciting as that is, it’s been a nice little reminder that we have a bunch of stuff that we now have to guard. Baskets stand watch in front of the computer as chairs take their post as centurions blocking the pathway into the kitchen.
The other day it all became worth it though. Normally when I arrive home from work, Tyler will run and meet me at the door and give me a big hug. Then I’ll give him either my lunch box or a piece of mail or something and while he’s distracted I’ll say hello to Thesha (or as Tyler like’s to say, “Hi to babe” – I give Thesha a kiss and say “Hi, babe.”). Then I’ll go and find Reagan and hold her for a few minutes. Well the other day she was following Tyler around so as I came in the door and got my hug from Tyler, here came Reagan following close behind. She crawled – well, she was still lunging at that point – down the hallway to meet me at the door. She came the whole way and was laughing and smiling the whole way. It was adorable.
In addition to gaining mobility, Reagan’s personality is really starting to shine through these days. I’m sure parent’s of daughters know exactly what I mean by that sentence. When Tyler is upset he’ll cry or throw a tantrum or something. When Reagan gets upset, she just yells at me. Yes, she looks me straight in the face and her demeanor goes from this…
to this…
Yes, we’re all learning to get (and stay) on Reagan’s good side.
In addition to crawling all over the place, Reagan is learning to pull herself up onto toys, the couch, our legs, or whatever’s in her way. One day she was crawling up on the little push cart (I don’t know what they’re really called, but you’ll see what I mean in the picture) so we decided to sit her in it and let her push herself around.
I instantly became the dad in the car insurance commercials nervously watching as his daughter started to “drive” for the first time. A proud but nervous moment. Here she is so excited to go out and explore on her new toy.
In my mind I thought of all the scary, dangerous, and life-changing events that might happen when she’s really out on her own. It went a little something like this…
It’s late on a Friday night. Everyone was celebrating the homecoming victory of the local high school football team. Suddenly the silence of the cool fall evening is disrupted by flashing red and blue lights. Now pulled off to the side of the road, an officer shines his flashlight into the driver’s side window of a classic 1st driver car and asks, “Excuse me miss…
… but have you been drinking?”
To her relief, her brother is there to distract the officer.
“Whu sheems to be the problem… Occifer?
As the Officer turns his head to avoid getting contact drunk from their breath, Reagan quickly throws the half-empty cup from the car. Looking back at the officer with her big blue eyes she asks…
“Can’t we just make this a warning? Wink…wink…”
NO…No…, oh… it was just a nightmare.
Still. I’ve already grounded Reagan for life and explained to her that driving is a total drag and that she should never learn how to do it. Tyler’s punishment is that he now has to clean up Reagan’s spit-up off the carpet so he realizes how bad it would really be to spend time with a bunch of drunks.
Ok, back to reality. If you look down to our blog about this year’s Christmas, you’ll see a picture of Tyler opening up a present that is full of books. Those of you from Thesha’s family are probably thinking, “Oh that’s so great that you’re getting him interested in reading.” Those of you from my side of the family are probably thinking, “You got him something cool, too, right?” Actually, Tyler has gotten more enjoyment out of these books than probably any other gift we’ve ever given him. I can’t imagine where he get’s his love of books from, but it looks like Thesha won’t be the only one around here getting books for every birthday, Christmas, or Cinco de Mayo … what? Mexican’s love to read.
Every night we get to sit together and read about Lego City, or Lightning McQueen, or the Cat in the Hat.
Reagan loves to reach out and touch the pictures and this drives Tyler nuts. He’s always pushing her hands away and sighing at her for disrupting the story. Ahh the start of wrestling matches which are sure to come.
As the final thought for this blog, we are excited that Reagan’s hair has started to get long enough that Thesha can do a little styling. We thought the earrings would be enough to help people realize she wasn’t a little boy (as if all the pink crap wasn’t enough) but apparently there are still some nice but dumb people out there. With her hair done, it’s impossible to mistake her for a boy anymore. Here are some glamour shots. (Well, as glamorous as you can get with a runny nose and a bib on.)
If anyone mistakes her for a boy now I’m pretty sure I’m legally bound to kick them in the throat.
