Blabber mouth

We have some spare bottles laying around that Regan uses for her babies. Tonight, Sidney grabbed hold of it and starting talking into it. Adorable!

I like sand....

...but it doesn't taste very good :)

I looked away for a second and turned back to see Sidney with sand in her mouth; yuck!

Play date!

Today was the last day of my 5 day weekend :( However, we spent the day playing with Kari, Thomas and Natalie Schwartz so it might have been the best day of my time off from work! They drove up this morning and spent the entire day here; the kids had a blast. My favorite time was nap time so we could actually have a conversation and not be interrupted 10 times with "will you help me {put this on}, {take me potty}, {get me a snack}", etc! You'd think after 18 years of friendship we'd run out of things to talk about...not with us! It's great that the kids play so nicely together. I'm not sure they argued even once over a toy! Thomas and Sidney were best buds all day; she adores him! It was good practice for him as they have a new baby joining the family in November!

Hudson's 1st birthday party!

We celebrated Hudson's first birthday on Saturday with a Handy Manny Party! He was nice enough to share his toys, his beloved swing and even his swimming pool! Regan even got to help him open all of his fun presents :)

Sidney just loved giving Hudson kisses; he kept trying to figure out a break away!

Hudson and Sidney (they're 3 months apart)

Sidney all dressed up

Sidney and Hope

We spent the weekend in New Ulm hanging out with family, watching lots of softball games (while Ryan golfed) and playing at Grandparent Friederich's house. It was super fun and thankfully the weather held up for all the outdoor fun we had :)

Hair cut #2

Regan got her second hair cut this weekend. She was again pretty apprehensive at first, but warmed up as soon as she heard she'd get a sucker when it was over :) Plus it's not so bad getting your hair cut when your Godmother cuts it! Thanks Vicky!!

Rub a dub dub

two girls in the tub! I've been bathing Sidney without the bath seat for quite some time and am now getting brave enough to put Regan in with her (keep in mind she's 3 and likes to get a little crazy in the tub!). Both girls have a great time splashing in the tub separately, well, they love it even more when the other is in the tub too.

Videos of Regan

Here are a few short videos of Regan. One is of her dancing/singing; if only it was longer! We tried hiding behind the door while recording but she caught us. The other is of her telling me she needs to write a text message?! Never thought I'd hear that from my 3 year old :)

Kisses!

Minihaha Falls

This afternoon, I took the girls to see the Minihaha Falls. Of course, I forgot there is construction work going on at the falls and it's not like it normally is. We still had fun. Sidney gets so excited when she sees water and started kicking her legs and waving her arms as if to tell us she wanted to join the swimmers :) Don't worry Grandma Jan, I didn't let her jump over into the falls!

5 day weekend!!!

Sidney was waaayyyy to busy to look at the camera today!

Regan "swimming" onto the baby side.

Can you believe it! I'm actually taking a vacation :) Five days off from work IN A ROW! It dawned on me earlier this month that I no longer need to save my vacation. For 4 years I've been saving vacations for maternity leaves. Well, with no more kiddos in the works, I decided to take some vacation time this summer; starting today!! I took the girls to Lynnhurst wading pool in Minneapolis and we had a blast! Regan is such a people watcher that for the first 30 min, she just checks it all out from the edge or on her own, but after that, look out! She had a great time "swimming" on the baby side of the pool and chasing things around on the big kid side of the pool. Sidney had fun just being in water :) We packed a picnic so we could make the outing over the lunch hour and what kid doesn't like a picnic!?

Swimming

Grandma and Grandpa got an idea today....fill up the wagon and put Sidney inside :) She loved it! Saves us on the back aches bending over. After I got home from work, I put on my suit and sat down in the pool with her; she's in her glory in the swimming pool.

9 month appointment

I took Sidney in today for her 9 month check up. I was excited that we wouldn't be getting shots, and then was told that she needed a finger prick to check lead levels :( I'm not sure which is worse, shots or a finger prick. Her poor thumb bled for a long time (see the bandage?!). Other than that, the appointment went well. She continues to be little in that she is 17 lbs 9 oz and 26 1/4 inches long (that puts her in the 25th and 10th percentiles). I have no other reference than Regan's 9 month appointment and by this time, she was already over 20 lbs and 29 inches long! It makes sense now why none of Sidney's 9 month clothes fit her correctly; they're all too big :) Good news in that her ear is clear and we can stop the antibiotic and also do a trial off her reflux medication! Last night we gave her vitamins and that was it, what a relief! She's overall a healthy baby and developmentally right on track :)

Happy Father's Day!

We hung out at home on Father's Day and the kids played all day with dad. His favorite part of the day was when it started raining so that he didn't have to go outside to water the grass :)

Chocolate toes!?

We all know how much grandma Sheri loves desserts, especially chocolate...here's the story. Tonight we went out to eat and the waitress screwed up the order so we got a free chocolate cake and ice cream dessert. Grandma Sheri was holding Sidney while eating dessert and apparently she was too close to the plate because Sidney's toes were filthy with chocolate when we left the resturant! We joked that she could suck on her toes all the way home to clean them :)

Sidney couldn't take her eyes off Logan's pretty hair band!
We took the girls to Logan's softball games on Saturday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and the girls enjoyed being out in the sun. Sidney was exhausted from all the action!

Summer fun!

The intent was to let Sidney hang out in Regan's big girl pool and give my back a break from trying to hold her above water. Regan decided she wanted to use the inner tube herself.

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!