Merry Christmas

Tomorrow we are headed to Michigan to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends. We are looking forward seeing everyone. Many people will be meeting Reese (& Braden) for the first time.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas while I have a chance.

P.S. If you did not receive a picture of Reese and Braden in your Christmas card let me know. I ended up with more pictures left over than I should have, but I don't know who didn't get one!!!

Keep on trying.......

This is the motto you have to have with a toddler. Keep on trying vegetables, instructions, utensils, etc. If you keep trying eventually they will get the hang of it. Today I took Braden to get his hair-cut and he sat by himself! I was so happy. He didn't have much of a choice because I was holding Reese. He only cried for a bit in the beginning and wasn't so sure about sitting all by himself, but he did it. Keep on trying....

Braden's 2-year check up

I took Braden to his 2-year appointment today. He is about 3o lbs now. He is also in between the 50th and 60th percentile in height, weight and head circumference. Just thought I would let you know.

I broke my leg!

Just kidding. I was just trying to come up with a good reason to explain why I have not updated in such a long time, but I can't. So let's cut to the chase.....

Brian and I have finished graduate school. Yes you heard me correctly, we did not just finish for the semester only to enroll in yet another class in the spring.


We are all finished with our programs!


We will walk on January 6th at 10am, together.....how cool. Brian and I have talked about this day for the last 2 years. Brian will graduate with a Master's of Science in Chemistry Education and I will graduate with a Master's of Science in Community Health Education.

ALSO......
In the past few weeks we have had a cold move through the house. Braden is still trying to kick it, and hopefully will before we travel to Michigan for Christmas. I have been baking cookies for our friends in MD, finalizing my studies at Towson University, Christmas shopping and wiping dripping noses. I also took Braden and Reese to participate in a study at Johns Hopkins University. It was really fun to participate in a study. Braden's study looked at language acquisition. He had a little bit of trouble and didn't complete the activity. I think he was on the lower end of the age range for the study. Reese did just fine. Her study focused on 3 month olds' non-verbal numerical abilities (her ability to recognize a slide that has more dots on it than the other slides). I can't wait to read the articles when they are complete.


PICTURE TIME


Tummy-time (she loves it).
Braden was a little younger when this picture was taken, but I thought it would be fun to compare this picture to the one above it.




Helping with the Christmas lights.



Playing outside

Helping mom find all the blue Christmas ornaments in his favorite PJ's (Diego).She is pretty focused here. As you can also see, her hair just won't give up!

My newest favorite picture.......

My babies!

Happy Birthday Braden!

Yesterday we celebrated Braden's 2nd birthday! We had such a wonderful time. We were joined by all of our close friends and if it weren't for our friends, Maryland would be a lonely place. Braden was able to play with his friends, Preston, Bella, Gabby, Emily, and Carolyn. We also had fun with the babies, Chris and Reese. Pizza and ice-cream cake graced the night along with lots of free entertainment (6 kiddos having fun).

Braden's birthday is not just a great day for him, but for Brian and I. It amazes us that two years ago Braden was just a little baby and he has grown into such a loving little boy. I am excited not only to see his growth each year but to see how Reese will grow and change in her first year of life.

This was sent to me by a friend and it touched me, especially during this time of celebration.

Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom -I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Happy Birthday Braden!

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We were fortunate to have my Dad, Juli and Melanie to spend Thanksgiving with us. We are traveling back to Michigan for Christmas and I know that will be here before we know it. We put our tree up this weekend so we could enjoy it for a little while. We started putting it up this early the year Braden was born and have enjoyed it so much that we just kept that tradition going.

This week I am getting ready for Braden's birthday party this weekend. He will be able to blow out his candles this year. He likes to practice all the time. We are having all our friends over and their little ones. It should be great.

*EXTRA*
Reese is getting so big. She can roll over now and is getting good at it.

Twinkle, Twinkle

One of Braden's new accomplishments is singing songs on his own. I have always loved singing with him before he goes to bed at night and all the sudden he started singing to himself, and you could understand what song it was! He can sing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", You are my sunshine", "Jingle Bells", and" Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" just to name a few. I was able to catch a few on video. He wanted to sit on my lap so the video is pretty shaky. (I couldn't see what I was filming at all!)





Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

I am having trouble uploading the other two videos I have of Braden singing so guess this one will just have to do!

Tammy is pregnant

Many of you already know that my friend Tammy and her husband Curt are expecting. Tammy was my roommate in college. They are currently living in Hawaii where Curt is stationed (he is in the Marines). She is 20 weeks pregnant and I was finally sent a picture of her new look!

Tammy- you look great! I showed Braden your picture and told him you were going to have a baby and he said,"baby boy".....we'll just have to see!

Keeping Busy...

We have been keeping busy around the house lately. Brian put new counter top in our kitchen. The previous owners put in an island but it had counter top that was much newer than the other stuff, so Brian and I bought some matching stuff. Brian did a fabulous job putting in on this weekend. I don't know how may people would have noticed that it didn't match before, but it looks great now.


Reese is doing well. She is starting to reach for toys in front of her. I can't believe she is three months old! She is staying awake much longer and isn't interested in napping as much. She is still doing great during the night though.

Braden is doing well. He is repeating EVERY word we say. He is also acting more like a two-year old in the screaming/whining kind of way.

I can't believe he is going to be 2 years old in 3 weeks. We have been practicing saying his age. I am having people over for his birthday this year. I was going to take him to Chuck-e-Cheese this year, but we decided to wait until he is a little bigger and can enjoy more of the games that they have.

In this picture he is giving his sister a kiss.

Extras..

I take Braden to the library on Fridays from time to time for story time. He really enjoys it. He is sitting in the center. He has on a gray jacket with white stripes . He loves to keep his hood up. They aslso have a train table that he loves to play at. This trip to the library ended in tears when it was time to go. Unfortunetly the tears did not end until we got home.

Reese slept the whole time.
Here is a picture of her very awake.

Great News

Reese is sleeping through the night! She is sleeping from around 8pm to 6am! It is wonderful. I had to share our good news because there is nothing better than an uninterrupted night of sleep.

Halloween Night

Braden did go up to a few houses to "trick-or-treat". He ended up going with his favorite girls...

Halloween with Corinne & at Tots

Corinne, Braden and Reese. (They were all tired)

Corinne is the daughter of our friends, Jess and Ira. She was a lobster.

Halloween at Tots


The other little boy is a turtle.

Halloween is almost here

If you know me well, you know I LOVE Halloween. Carving pumpkins is one of my favorite activities. Braden wasn't into it this year but I was. This year we have two jack-o-lanterns for the kiddos. I also carved two big pumpkins. One is a bat and the other is a castle. Not my best work, but it was fun none the less.

Costumes: It took me a very long time to get out to the store to buy costumes this year, but Braden will be a dragon and Reese will be a lion! We are going to a Halloween party tonight so they will be dressed up two days in a row. I can't wait!







Miscellaneous: This is a video of Braden's attempt to play with his sister.

Our trip to North Carolina

Two weekends ago we visited our friends Adi and Eliza. Braden and Reese traveled as well as can be expected. We bought one of those DVD players for the car for Braden. (9 hours is a long time for a little boy!) Braden had a wonderful time playing with Adi and Sam. Sam is the son of Leslie and Joe, Adi & Eliza's very good friends.

Braden and Sam ran around the house for hours. This is just small clip of them running around. Braden says "Adi" and "Where is Sam?"

Update coming soon....

An update will come as soon as I finish a project for my grad class! Stay tuned.......

Pumpkin Meltdowns

On Friday Brian and I decided to take Braden to a local farm to get cider, donuts and of course pumpkins. It wasn't too crowded, thank goodness, because our little boy was having a fit. They leave wheelbarrows and wagons around so you can shop for your pumpkins easily and Braden did not understand that he could not pull the wagon himself. He screamed and screamed and screamed! After a trip to the car to cool off, he finally was able to relax enough for us to go back. At the farm they have a lot of stuff for kids to do. We fed goats, drove small tractors, went down a big slide, and took a hayride. Unfortunately they were out of donuts and cider. I guess we will have to go back just for that.

We also had some visitors this weekend. My friend Jenine and her boyfriend Miles were in Baltimore for a wedding. It was so much fun to see spend time with them. Braden also enjoyed himself. They brought him a ride-on firetruck. He LOVES it.

2-month appointment

Reese had her 2-month well baby check up yesterday. She is healthy as can be. She weights a hearty 12 lbs 10 oz! That puts her in the 90th percentile (heavier than 90 percent of girls her age) for weight and at 23.5 inches long, she is in the 82nd percentile for height. Her head is in the 55th percentile! She had three shots and did pretty well. Braden was cringing in the background as his sister screamed. He told her, "OK Reesie" which really means "it's OK Reesie". :-)

Reese Smiling (video)

Reese has come alive lately. You can see so much more spirit in her eyes now. She is also turning into a great nighttime sleeper. I am optimistic that she will be through the night within the next few weeks. Last night she went down around 9pm, woke up at 3am and then 7:30am! Braden even slept until around 6:45 this morning. This was the best scenario for me since Brian is at a conference in DC all week. I need all the sleep I can get. He is staying with Melanie since her place is much closer to DC and right next to a Metro stop. He can take the subway to the conference in the morning instead of trying to fight Baltimore/DC traffic.

Reese Smiles

Reese is now smiling when she us up. It is so nice to start to see her interact with me. This is Reese in a dress that Steve and Yi bought when they were in China. She looks very nice in it.

Braden wanted to sit with Reese on the couch and take a picture.