13 months

Here are the 13 month updates.....

• She has 9.5 teeth.....like that? One is still breaking through.
• She is wearing size 4/5 shoes
• She wears size 4 diapers
• She is in 18 to 24 month clothes
• The little squirt will actually say "no, no" when she is doing something that she knows she's not supposed to.
• Loves all dogs
• Absolutely LOVES to be outside.
• She can climb stairs but we have to gate her all the time because she'll climb them without us there. 
• Loves to play in the dishwasher
• She is allllmost off of formula. We are giving her three bottles (morning, snack, and bedtime) with whole milk and one scoop of formula until we kill this last can.
• She loves every book she comes across and particularly likes her Brown Bear, What Do You See? Book. And a big Elmo book in the car.
• She has been forward facing in the car seat since 12 months and loves it.
• She seems to be trying to drop a nap during the day and oddity of all oddities....she isn't sleeping in her little car seat anymore for naps at Sherry's. She is finally in a pack and play and sleeps longer in it.
• She has a little jealous streak when Sherry's other little girl stays the day....she "turns" clingy. 
• She jabbers so much now. Words include: No-No, Dada, Momma, Papa (on occasion), thank you, ready, go, kind of says outside, Night night, bye bye, starting to say more when she signs for more. 
• She can point to her nose finally....used to be her ear.
• She'll pretty much blow kisses on command now, but she still does it from the side of her head or her ear.
• She is walking very well now and can walk up and down our slight incline on the driveway. She has the morning staggers but after that, she is good to go.
• She is starting to run just a little bit and can even walk backwards in small bits.
• Her foods are starting to expand on her terms. She'll eat: Cheerios, Teddy Grahams, Mini Vanilla wafers, of course Yogurt Melts, Goldfish, Ritz and saltine crackers...she is learning to bite but has been known to put the whole cracker in her mouth, she ate a Frito yesterday...we nearly messed ourselves, and then a small piece of a BBQ Chip today.....she also eats good stuff too though. All her veggies come from baby foods, level three foods are no longer a challenge, loves water that is ICE cold, and really doesn't care for foods that are warmed up. No breads yet, no noodles, or real meats. She also loves real pudding too!
• She goes to bed around 8:15p to 8:30p and generally wakes up around 7:30-ish. \
• We've started giving her a little doll or puppy to sleep with at night since she never really leaned on a pacifier or anything like that. She seems to like hanging on to the doll and "smelling" something to soothe her to sleep.
• She needs a hair cut but we're afraid to do it and have it look like crap.....so we're stalling and losing hair clips all the time now. (Reese takes them out every chance she gets)

Most of all...she's so much fun to play with and just watch. She is growing so much everyday and it really is something to see her learning and changing in front of our eyes. We love you Pooks!

Spring around the house....

So, its midday on Monday and I'm working on the blog a little bit.....Vacation day? No...a sick day of sorts. The story goes like this. Reese's room has a palladium window that lets in an enormous amount of light. In my clever mind, I felt like I could close that up rather than buy room darkening curtains to hang over the entire window. So, I cut a half moon out of MDF with intentions of wrapping the cut out in batting and covering with some type of fabric....the cut out would compression fit and seal out the light. PERFECT? Well, yes...to a degree it is perfect. But I haven't wrapped the board yet and so it sort of "sits" up there. Last night it fell on my head as I was messing with it and it knocked me cold. Like, fall to the ground...slobber on the carpet....Kim wake me up kind of cold. So I've had a whale of a headache all night and this morning and nausea that wouldn't quit. Little aspirin, little rest, I feel much better but symptoms persist so I thought this would be a nice rest day...sleep, nibble, sleep, chill. My head is sooooo sore. It hurts into my neck and shoulders which seems alot like a concussion. Joy!

That being the case, I took some pics yesterday of plants in our yard that are blooming right now. You'd think that we were green thumbs or something but we didn't plant any of this stuff.....it just comes back on its own.

With the recent rains the pollen has had less of an effect on both Kim and I and would seem that little Mama is not even phased by allergies at all....PLEASE let this last. Right now all Reese cares about is going OUTSIDE! She can't really say it but that's all she seems to be interested in. She loves the deck, she loves walking in the yard, she loves walking around the cul de sac....she loves being outside. In fact, she just sat at the door part of the day Saturday looking outside at the rain, just dying for a reason to go play in the rain.

She is so adorable and it just so much fun.

The little fit streak is still sort of hot and cold. The rule of thumb is that if she is tired...we're gonna have fits. Small ones, but fits. Little outbursts of displeasure but certainly not full blown tantrums. More of a protest than anything. We've got to prep for month 13 updates so I won't cover the gamut of things she is doing until that post which will be sometime this week but suffice it to say that she is changing daily.

Well...I think I've covered the high spots. Time to rest again and chill for the afternoon with quality day time TV...belch.

Oh our little girl....

So this week we hit a milestone. Our first quality fits.

Don't get me wrong....they're not like thrash around fits and they don't last long at all because you can redirect Reese so easily but she LOVES going outside and until I get a gate built for the deck its just sort of dangerous for her.....she doesn't grasp that concept yet. And apparently she doesn't care about that. She wants to go outside so anything other than outside the other night resulted in a small little stomp and a little bit of a jerky scream. If she wasn't so darn cute when she did it I'd be all like we need to address this but I've decided that the ol' redirect trick works about as good as anything.

The other thing we're noticing is that she's getting a little more liberal with food type items that she'll put in her mouth. So now we've started her on the mustard diet. Forget the bottle man....this is where its at.

I'll make some time for a better weekly update this weekend and share more pics of our wild woman.

Doesn't this pic just scream mischievous?

Quick Update....

Life has been getting in the way of posting so we've had a bit of a drought in updates. I've traveled pretty hard for the past couple weeks - for me anyway - and it seems like you get back to the office and work twice as hard to get just "sort of" caught up and it never seems to end....I could go on about stuff at work but this blog is our happy place so work stays where it is. And all of the fine people that complicate my life between the hours of 8am to mostly 6pm.......

Ok...So, Reese is just changing so much right now. Her comprehension of what we're saying to her and the way she just listens to us is amazing for her being so young. She is trying so hard to expand her vocabulary but you'd really have to be around us to know that she's saying certain things. For instance, she says Chief which is Sherry's dog. But to a stranger it may sound alot like Cheese. She says "ready......go" but the ready part sounds like ja-jeeeee....and then GO! She is clearly saying dog. Sometimes a random Thank you....that sounds like Chank chuuuu. But regardless of what it sounds like, she's trying to communicate with us and that's pretty cool. She signs MORE to us when she is hungry...particularly if she wants yogurt melts but will generally sign for "more" when she wants something to eat. I suppose the context that she is using the sign is probably wrong but we're consistent with her so it seems to work. She is getting more sure footed with her walking and is starting a little trot of sorts. I guess running is right around the corner!

Something that has kind of been the case since she started crawling is that she has to be in your business if you're in another room. Today, however, curiosity sort of got the best of her. Kim and I were cleaning out the refrigerator and little mama just had to see what the heck was up....she tripped and dotted her eye and cheek on the inside of the fridge......horrible parents right? We both felt horrible but in true Reese fashion, she recovered reasonably quick and was back under foot in no time.

One nice thing about the coming weeks is that I plan on being HOME for a good run so I'm excited about that and I'll more than likely be able to get back to my introspective self and come up with some good post material. Until then.....Reesie pics.

Sunday stroll in the neighborhood.....

Addison's Birthday party

New friends checking things out

Addison's bounce house

Mommy and Reese on a beautiful afternoon

Addison in deep thought

Matthew and Andrew playing hard

Today was a beautiful day...good friends, good kids, good times. All Saturdays should be like these.

What is that?

So...take a look at this photo. My left cheek (the right cheek when looking at the pic. Or the cheek closest to Reese.) Do you see that darkening on top of my cheek bone? Almost freckle-ish. Yeah...that hasn't been here all my life. In fact it probably hasn't been all that prevalent for much more than a year. So I've been intrigued.

Worried with the recent loss of two young men very close to the same age as myself.....In fact, very quietly petrified because of the "sudden" appearance of two spots. Yep...another one even darker and (in my opinion) a more visible circle on the same cheek just more toward my jaw bone. Just a random spot that started getting darker and larger.

I start noticing this about two months ago. They didn't catch my eye until after the first of the year and at the time I thought nothing of them. Then one day the spots both stood out. Like HEY!!!! LOOK AT ME!!!! So I start asking folks if they had noticed them. Most had not but then I start looking at pictures of me and the hard thing is that I'm not the most photogenic person in the world and therefor not often in a wide variety of photos. But the scary thing was that the spots seemed to come from no where. Just appearing.....I'm weirded out.

Skip to my new dermatologist that wants me to take some super $4 Million dollar drug that will curb my psoriasis and probably fund a nice down payment for balancing our nations budget. The drug in all actuality costs $9000 PER SHOT and they want me to take 4 doses each year...my portion is yet to be determined. I'm pulling for zero but even at 10% this is making Soriatane look like a walk in the Pharmaceutical park. But I'm too worried about these spots to even care about the new drug.

Back up a few weeks now.....After making the first trip to the new doc and knowing that I would have a follow up sometime this week...I struggled with myself because I should have said something the first time. So I have quietly....very secretly started a mild panic about these spots. During this drought between doc visits I read about Shane's struggle with cancer....I read about another struggle with cancer with a man named Sweeney.....naturally, my mind runs, sprints, hurdles toward cancer. Why? Because worry is human and we never worry about the best case scenario. We worry about the very worst case....

Fast forward to today....weeks of unrest in the morning after my showers...I secretly feel my face in mornings in the bathroom alone. Feeling for any change in the dark areas. Noticing that the spots on my cheek will peel occasionally but only in one spot...Why? I'm quietly building a panic in my soul. What if? Nothing? Something? The appointment seemed to be taking forever to get here. So, I get to the docs office and literally bring this up first and foremost before we even have time to go over the Hi, how are you's. Check this out doc....what is it? I nearly mess my pants.

"Pre-cancer on the cheek bone...probably nothing on the jaw." HUH???!!! Layman's terms doc?! Well...not really CANCER cancer but a localized version a skin affliction. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?? Here.....she sprays me with the coldest, grittiest, burning-est stuff EVAR! Both places. She shrugs her shoulders and tells me its no big deal. All done. She essentially killed the problem. It was just that easy.....

You know what I just did? I breathed a sigh of relief about something that was really nothing at all. I was so worried and so terrified over a spot that would never really become anything more than unsightly. Tonight though....I'm so relieved and while I got all wound up over nothing. Sometimes you just never know....until you know.

Ok....I can breathe now. Thank you Lord! Thank you, thank you, thank you.....

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

Reese seems to be in deep thought in this picture and while I'd love to assign thoughts to that little mind of hers, I'm sure she is just enjoying being a little girl. Life is so simple for her and that's the key...Mommy and Daddy are supposed to handle her every need and protect her until she is prepared for the world. What a task we've been assigned and we are loving every second of it.

This is Reese's second Easter but she was only weeks old last year so one might call this one her first. And while she is far too little to comprehend the gravity of this day...I think the complete scale of it escapes even Kim and I....its the innocent nature of little ones makes this day so special. God was looking out for us and he saved us from the mistakes he knew that we would make. Just like we're doing with Reese....we love her unconditionally and there is nothing that can change that. We're guiding her to a path that is straighter than our own...fewer bumps and bruises. The best of everything.

Easter, to me, means much the same. God is guiding us. Making it possible for us to have the best of everything. Thank you for the ultimate sacrifice....Happy Easter everyone!