First Solo Playdate

All the big kids are in school, so we had a playdate with just the babies. If you wonder why Addison is always smiling in pictures, it is because every time she sees a camera pointed her way she says Cheese. It's very cute.

Build a Bear

Regan went to a Build a Bear Workshop Birthday Party today. Addison was invited, but it was during her nap time. Regan had fun. She loves Build a Bear, and we don't ever go there. I usually try to walk as fast as I can past that store when I am in the mall.

The first picture is of her saying build a bear as loud as she can. Apparently she felt that standing up would help her say it louder.

Big, Big Girl

Regan went to her 4 year old well visit today. She had blood work done and got four immunizations. I have to say, my girl did not even flinch. I think I might have Elmo to thank for this. Everyone kept telling me how horrible the four year old shots were. Regan still likes Elmo, and recently picked out an elmo goes to the doctor book at the bookstore. We have read it a couple of times and in it they talk about how shots keep you healthy and you just feel a little pinch when you get them. Now we have all had shots and we all know that it hurts more than just a little pinch. But if a book convinces her of that, then far be it from me to change that perception. The nurses were all telling her how brave she was. They said that they hoped that Addison was that brave when it was her turn. We'll see, but I'm not counting on it. Although, Addison does want to do everything her sister does. She even lifted up her dress so that the doctor could listen to her heartbeat, since he was listening to Regan's.

The Birthday Tour Continues

Today is Regan's actual (or natural, as she says) birthday. Matt, Addison and I went to celebrate with her at her school. She picked out a care bear cupcake cake to bring. The two little boys sitting in front of her were stressing her out, because they kept talking about which care bear they were going to get. Her school friends made a book for her about what they wished they could get her for her birthday. It was cute.

Addison made herself right at home. I think she played with or touched everything in the classroom.

Books

Regan's School does a thing where you can dedicate a book to her for her birthday and the book is then donated to the school's library. They read the book dedications at chapel and the first chapel is September 3rd. If you would like to have a book dedicated to her for her birthday, please send one before then. I will also need for you to let me know what you want the dedication to say. Don't write it in the book. They have a form that they attach to the book. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

P.S. Some of her favorite books include anything princess, Fancy Nancy, Angelina Ballerina and Pinkalicious.

Birthday Party

Regan went to the cutest birthday party today. It was all about dressing up and dancing. Two things that she loves! She had a really good time. I even thanked the mom for having a birthday party for Regan.

Our Very Own Fancy Nancy

For those of you who do not know... Fancy Nancy is a children's book series about a little girl named Nancy who loves for everything to be fancy, and who's family is very "plain." Her family doesn't even ask for sprinkles on their ice cream!

Regan had a very good first day at school. She came home and was a little hyper. I think it was a combination of her first day of school and her granny being here. Granny came to watch the girls while Matt and I ran in a race. It was "cross country" which really means through the woods and was horrible. But it has gotten us back into the swing of things.

First Day of School

Regan's first day of school is today. Matt took some pictures of her before they left. She was very excited to be going, and is already talking about show and tell. This year we have to come up with clues for the other kids to guess what she brought for show and tell. I'm sure it is fun for the kids, but probably not so fun for mom and dad. As you can see, her backpack is as big as she is.

Doctor's Visit

I took Regan to the doctor today. She has been running fever since yesterday with no other symptoms. I swear all mothers should be awarded at least a nursing degree a couple of years after they have children. I can fairly accurately diagnose my children even before we go to the doctor most of the time. I thought that she had a UTI and I was right.

While I was there I had them look at Addison's ears. She has been pulling at her ears, but hasn't had any fever or fluid drainage. He looked in her ears and both of her tubes have dislodged and were sitting in her ears which he said was probably causing her some discomfort. He was able to get the left one out, but couldn't get the right one. He said the right ear looks good, but the left one is retracted (what happens when your ear pops on an airplane) and her hearing is probably muffled through it. If it doesn't fix itself, then we will need to have another set of tubes put in. Which I am all for, because it can't help her speech to hear muffled sounds even if it is only in one ear. I will keep you posted.

Released!

Addison has been released from Physical Therapy. Their main concern last time was that she was still rolling her feet in when she walked and they were concerned about flat feet. But she is no longer rolling her feet in and arches are developing. They think that the more that she walks the more her arches will develop. They want me to keep her in robeeze, because they are as close to bare feet as you can get. But we don't have to go anymore and she won't have to wear braces. Yay! Now onto Speech Therapy.

Funny little story from Regan: The other night when I put her to bed her room was pitch black. I guess we got to bed later than normal, because usually there is some light from outside in her room when she goes to bed. She was none to happy about it being so dark. I explained to her that as summer ended the days would be getting shorter and thus it would be darker in her room when she went to bed. She says to me... "I don't want them to be shorter. I want them to be taller."

Trip to the Library

As I mentioned in a previous blog, the girls and I have been going to the library this summer. It's nice, because I can request books that I want online and they will call me when they are available. It is also nice, because Regan can check out a variety of books and videos and it doesn't break the bank. In fact it doesn't cost a thing. : ) My mom is in town this week and took some pictures of me and the kids. I was not looking my best, but what can ya do?

Regan's Party

Regan had her birthday party today. I think she had a lot of fun. Her favorite part, of course, was having Belle (a co-worker of Matt's) come to her party.

Addison's Plastic Surgeon Appointment

It is still weird to me that Addison has a plastic surgeon. Anyway, we went today for a check up. He said that everything looks good. He said to make sure that the pediatric dentist watches her teeth, because sometimes they don't grow in properly and she would need braces to fix it. I told him that so far the dentist says that she has a perfect bite. He also said that he would want her to be evaluated by a speech pathologist at two. I told him that we already have her in speech therapy, so I guess we are ahead of the game. She is going at the same place where she does PT. We are doing it through our insurance company. She is going twice a week for a month, so that she can get used to the ST and for them to come up with a plan. After that we will do a home program and go in once a month for evaluation.

We also met Regan's teacher on Thursday. She came for her home visit to meet Regan. She explained how show and tell will work this year and she gave Regan two clown faces to color. They will be talking about the circus for the first two weeks. They can bring show and tell any day that they want, but they have to put it in a bag and have two or three clues as to what it is. It should also correspond to the letter that they are doing that week, which is how we did it last year. Regan seemed to like her. She is very excited for school to start. She keeps asking me why she is still out of school.

New Artwork

I have decided to start scanning some of Regan's drawings into the computer. It's one of her favorite things to do and she does so many that I can't keep all of them. I have been throwing them away, but I thought I might want to keep some. I figure that if I scan them they won't take up space, but I can still keep them for posterity. I will post some to the blog periodically. Here are a couple that she has done recently. The first is Elmo, of course. The second is me. I love how she always makes my hair yellow and brown. She has started adding glasses and I was wearing all blue that day.

Swimming

I talked to Regan's swim teacher today about her continuing through the fall with swim lessons. I was mainly asking her to recommend indoor pools, because the one we went to last year was way to far away from our house (30 min each way for a 30 min lesson). She said that Regan should definitely continue through the fall. She said that she and her friend that she takes with swim really well for their age and that Regan is a really quick learner. I was glad to hear that, because Regan really loves swimming. She loves going to swim lessons, always wants to go to the pool and practices swimming the whole time we are at the pool. So, I'm glad that the teacher thinks she is also good at it. I'm happy that she didn't get my athletic ability (which is none).

Vegetarian?

Out of my two Addison definitely has the sweet tooth. Whereas Regan will take two licks of a sucker and be done with it, Addison will practically eat the stick and Regan's too. But I think Addison makes up for it with her love of vegetables. She doesn't always want to eat meat, but I am constantly amazed at the vegetables she will eat. She and Regan usually eat their dinner around 5:30 and then Addison will help me eat mine after Matt and I cook around 6pm. The other night we made a dish that had red bell pepper in it and Addison loved the red bell pepper. Tonight we ate a dish with Asparagus and Addison ate almost all of my asparagus and was asking for more. She will usually try whatever meat we are having, but will chew it a few times and then spit it out. I don't know if it's because she doesn't like the taste or if it is because it is harder to chew up. She will eat some meat, but she definitely likes fruit and vegetables more.

More Bowling Pictures

My friend just sent me these pictures. The last picture was Matt's "disappointed" face after a bad bowl.

Bowling

We usually go to the pool on Sunday's, but we decided to switch it up today and go bowling with some friends instead. It was a lot of fun and we all wondered why we haven't been doing this all summer. Matt would like for everyone to know that he won both games with a score of 178 and 199 respectively. He thinks he bowled well because he has his own shoes. I actually bowled the best I have probably ever bowled. I bowled a 107 and a 102 respectively. I was thrilled to break a 100 and I only had two gutter balls the entire game. At some point early in the game I must have been near Matt in score because one of our friends asked me if Matt would be upset if I beat him. The answer is.... most definitely, yes. We are not sure of Regan's first score, but her second score was 56. She had fun, but had a couple of "moments" when she couldn't figure out that she had to wait through her friends before it was her turn again. Our friends little girl, Charlotte, had the most fun. She got very excited everytime she bowled and hit pins. It was very cute!

Update: Matt says that I don't ever have to worry about him being upset about me beating him, because it is never going to happen. Competive much?

Playdates

I have been forgetting my camera a lot lately, which is really starting to distress me. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have friends who have their cameras and will send me their pictures. That's how I got the above pictures. But on Friday we met Elle (the little girl of Regan's prek3 teacher) for our last playdate before she is permanently in BR and I forgot my camera. I was so disappointed! Oh well! I guess we will have to make a roadtrip to BR and hopefully I will remember my camera.

We had a busy week last week. Regan had dance camp M - TH from 9am -10am. The 9am almost killed me. I know, I know... if I had to work I would have to be there a lot earlier than that. But I don't have to work, and I am not a morning person and having to be somewhere at 9 am when you have two little people to get ready who both have to have their hair fixed plus getting yourself ready. It's no easy feat. Especially if you're not a morning person. It's going to be an adjustmentAnyway, I digress.... On Tuesday, Regan had her regular gymnastics and she was very excited to have two activities to go to. Her mom, not so excited.... but that's beside the point. On Wednesday we met our playgroup friends after dance camp at Kart Ranch. I forgot to bring a change of clothes and she was none to happy with me, because it was hard for her to climb in tights. We then went to Wendy's for lunch (which is where the above pictures are from) and that is why she has a leotard and tights on in the picture. On Thursday we met Matt for lunch and on Friday we went to the library in the morning and then to our playdate with Elle in the afternoon.

We have just sort of discovered the library this summer. I am embarrassed to say that we never really used it before. I guess I never realized how easy things are now with it being online. And Regan really likes to go (mostly because you can check out videos, too). We only made it to storytime a couple of times, but I hope we will continue to go during the school year and make storytime more often next summer.

Dance Camp

Regan has dance camp this week. What was the only thing she wanted to know? "Is there going to be a stage at dance camp?"

Mom's Shopping Trip

First let me say that I don't like how I look in the first picture. I am not very photogenic and it was the end of the day. But I wanted to show a group picture, so what are ya gonna do? Also, this post has very little to do with my children other than to thank Matt and all of the dad's for giving us a kid free shopping day. We had a blast and we are better mom's for it. And before anyone makes fun of me for the mural pictures, let me just say that we had all had at least one margarita and what can I say..... we are mom's.... we don't get out much.

Addison's First Haircut

I put off cutting Addison's hair as long as I could, but it was really starting to look like a mullet. She wanted no part of getting her hair cut. I guess she liked the mullet.