I love you! or "Rock On!"

Uncle Ben did his best to teach Regan how to sign "I love you". She's been practicing hard since we came back from DC and the result....well, it's her version of the sign. But for Ryan, it's the "Rock On" sign and he loves it!!!

Just a quick story, today Regan was playing with one of Sidney's toys that plays music. It said "Johann Sebastian Bach" before going into a song. Regan looked at me and said "this one is bath tub duck" (i.e. bastian bach)! She cracks me up, I was crying because I laughed so hard!

Ah-chooo!

Someday she'll kill me for taking this picture (Papa, think balloon in my mouth). But for now, we couldn't resist! Unfortunately, there's a story behind the sneeze in that she has a cold and the start of an ear infection. Yesterday she woke up with gunk coming out of her eye and we chalked it up to teeth. Then after nap, her eye was caked shut with gunk so we went into the doctor for an ear check. There's fluid in her ear, but it's not yet infected. Thankfully the on-call doctor realized I didn't need to come back to Urgent Care over the weekend (and pay another co-pay!) when it was finally infected so she prescribed antibiotics to treat. We go back on Monday for her 9 month appointment with her regular doctor so we'll see how she's doing then. She slept terribly last night, and consequently so did we, and she's been tugging at her ear this morning. Poor girl.

When it's 80+ and humid what do we do to stay cool? We go swimming!!! We busted out both swimming pools tonight and let both the girls swim. The water from the hose was freezing but neither one cared. In fact, I was more bothered by it than either of them! Sidney would like to toss her little baby pool in the garbage and prefers to jump around in the big girl pool with Regan. Her favorite is when we hold her and she jumps like she's in the johnny jumper....anyone know how we can set that up permanently?

Pizza and ice cream!

Our "little piggy" ate at least a 1/2 slice of pizza tonight and loved every minute of it! We can't figure out how she doesn't gag on pizza but gags on lots of other harder textures...but then again, who doesn't like pizza! After dinner, daddy asked if anyone wanted to go for ice cream at Dairy Queen!? Regan was so excited she couldn't stand it, she was bouncing off the walls! Sidney was mad while we waited for our ice cream, she was furious that Regan's ice cream came before mine did (who of course shares everything with her). I can see the sibling rivalry already!

Just a little video of Sidney's new found sound!

HAPPY (early) FATHER'S DAY!!

Sidney made a father's day present at school today :) They took pictures of each baby in this pose/outfit and put them into key chains! Thankfully they know how much I love pictures and sent two extra pictures home for me. What a cute idea!

Creature Encounters!

It was "creature encounters" day today at school :) Part of the summer program is to have In-House Field Trips where they bring in various people/things/activities for the kids to explore. I love this picture because you can see Regan checking out the gray fuzzy animal (I have no clue what that thing is!). She looks a little nervous so I'm excited to hear about her day when I pick her up this afternoon :)

Silly silly faces

Regan wanted to get in on the picture taking fun tonight so she made silly faces and then told me to take a picture of her :) Then she'd run over and ask to see how silly it looked! What did we do before digital cameras and we had to wait weeks before we got film developed?!!

Ok, so maybe she won't crawl just yet. Tonight, Sidney saw this toy on the couch and did everything in her power to stand up to grab it. She got about half way up and just couldn't pull the rest of the way so I gave her a little boost. She was more than excited when she was standing next to the couch! She just kept signing "more, more, more"!

Sidney got this cute outfit from aunt Sandi and uncle Bill when she was first born. It fits her perfect now and the weather was just right today to sport her adorable outfit. She got lots of compliments on it too, even one from our waitress tonight :) Thank you Sandi and Bill!

Almost!

I know, "almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" but really, she's almost crawling!! We're ready for her to start moving too, especially because she screams and cries if we leave the room for even a second. And let's just say that carrying her squirmy little body around everywhere is wearing on my wrists.

Buds

We hung out with the Helm's on Sunday and the kids had a great time playing in the pool and going down the slip 'n slide. They have the perfect set up for it with a gigantic hill in their backyard. The kids don't even have to run (although that would help build speed); instead, they just sit down like it's a slide at the park! They had so much fun together and it was nice not to have to break up even one argument!

Cheesy grins

Grandma Sheri babysat yesterday and got some cheesy grins from the girls :)

9 month pictures!

Sidney didn't give us many big smiles, but her 9 month pictures sure turned out pretty cute nonetheless! Penney's finally gave in to my 3 year long request of bringing bubbles to a photo session (they must've realized we've finally spent enough money on their pictures). Then they go and create these "enhanced" multi images and want $25 each! Go figure.

Driving home without her soaking wet dress on. Good thing it was a short drive!

Drenched!

In the beginning she just dipped her toes in.


Having a blast in the fountains!

regan

She won't smile for pictures anymore, we're lucky if she even stops to look at the camera, so I'm getting creative with editing pictures.

Parade of boats!

Sidney signing "more" (she can actually do it the right way now).

Ryan needed some time off today so while he went golfing, I took the girls to the parade of boats at Centennial Lakes! It wasn't much of a real parade, but the girls enjoyed it anyway. I packed a picnic for lunch and then let Regan splash in the water afterwards (pics to come next). Isn't summer weather wonderful!? We love it!

Maxwells!

All you Maxwells fans are gonna be jealous! We just got done with a wonderful dinner out :) For those of you that don't know Maxwells, it's Ryan's favorite and one of my favs as well (I just love any place where I don't have to clean up the mess!). Let's just say that we frequent Maxwells enough to know that they don't have kid menus, kid sized cups or even booster/high chairs so we bring our own :) Regan took her lemonade in a coffee to go cup tonight...it seemed to work better than a gigantic adult sized soda glass!

These outfits were bought separately and I think without knowing about each other. I couldn't resist to have the girls wear them on the same day though, they were so cute!

A little confusion...

This morning, it's just me and Sidney awake while the rest of the house sleeps, so I was teaching her body parts (i.e. nose, eyes, etc). After a while she got bored so we dumped out some toys to play with. Well, she was getting into some things she wasn't supposed to be (a cord plugged into an outlet) so I said "no no" and she looked up at me and tried to grab my nose!!! Nose, no, it's all the same to a 9 month old!

As promised...

here's a video of some squeals. Seriously, our ears hurt today! Even Regan says that Sidney screams too loud!

9 months old!

Sidney turned 9 months old today! Seems like just yesterday she was a tiny newborn baby. These last 9 months have gone by so fast. Here's a little bit about what she's doing at 9 months:

* rolls over like crazy

* crawls / scoots while laying on the bed (grabs the blanket and pulls herself along!)

* enjoys walking around holding someone's fingers

* stranger / separation anxiety is peaking

* giggles whenever Regan is around

* still sticks everything into her mouth (food and toys)

* less interested in baby food, wants whatever the rest of us are having

* favorite thing to do.....swing at the park!

Her stats:

16 lbs 1 oz (last week at the doctor's office)

~28 inches

We won't get her official 9 month stats until her check up in a couple of weeks, but according to the ones above, she's definately a peanut! Her weight puts her under 10th percentile and her height puts her around 50th percentile. It's no wonder all of her pants fall down from her waist :)

Somewhere in my archives of pictures I have a similar picture of Regan wearing this outfit and I'm still searching for it :) Yes, Sidney wears Regan's "hand-me down" clothes. Because why not!? With all the clothes she had, Regan's clothes still look brand new!

Sidney's been going barefoot these last few (cold) days as she continues to practice walking. She's nowhere near doing it on her own, but she does so much better without socks/shoes on with our slippery wood floors.

Ba, Ba, Ba

Sidney has learned a new "word" and likes to say it over and over and over "ba ba ba". She's also figured out how to squeal the highest soprano pitch squeak that hurts everyone's ears (I'll try to capture that sometime when I'm not busy plugging my ears!).

Gotta wear shades!

Sidney borrowed Regan's shades tonight, we all cracked up as she looked around trying to figure out what was on her face!

Regan and Grandma Jan!

We hung out in New Ulm this weekend and Regan got to spend lots of time with Grandma Jan (Sidney wasn't feeling so well and therefore, wanted only mom all weekend----my arms are so tired!). Grandma Jan found some paint for Regan to use and then they climbed into Papa's boat (in the garage of course)!! Regan even found her lifejacket, she was all ready to go!

Bird house!

Grandma Jan brought up this bird-feeder for her and Regan to paint last Monday. Regan did a great job! She loves watching the birds out grandma Jan/Papa's window....but we're still waiting for the birds to use this feeder.

Lost video

We took this video while out in DC walking along the river. This guy is amazing; even Regan pulled herself away from feeding the ducks to watch him.

My peonies are in full bloom! The girls couldn't look at the camera because the sun was too bright but I managed to snap a picture when they were both looking in the same direction. Never mind the Tylenol bottle in Sidney's hand.... Poor girl just can't break the fever so that thing goes with us everywhere and she screamed when I took it away so it was hers to keep for the morning.

We haven't had a very fun last few days. Sidney came down with a fever on Tuesday night and by Wednesday, she wasn't eating much and daycare called with concerns. After a call to her pediatrician, we headed in for an office visit. They did some poking, proding and even checked her for influenza; thankfully it all came back negative. She woke up Thursday morning and was fever free until close to 4pm when she spiked a temp of nearly 104! I rushed her back to the office and the doctor thinks this is all teeth related. The poor girl was so lethargic and just laid on my chest the whole visit. She tried so hard to smile at Regan but she was just so tired. So now we're pushing the Tylenol, occassionally giving her some Motrin and she's getting her favorite snack, Mr. Freeze! It's a good thing I'm off the next 3 days because she's definately going to get some good TLC! Maybe our next picture she'll have her top 2 teeth?!

Family picture!

We had a little celebration on Sunday for Ryan's 33rd birthday! The girls were all dressed up for the party so of course we had to take a picture. Unfortunately, we waited until the party was nearly over before taking the picture and both girls were worn out. At least they slept well last night!

Boys are icky!

Sidney just wouldn't let him sit close to her!

Although it's just her cousin Hudson, and he's certainly not icky, Sidney's learning early that boys are icky! Dad's so proud :)