That's gotta hurt

Regan took a digger again at daycare this morning. Apparently she tripped over her own feet and fell hard into the bathroom door. She wound up with a large goose-egg on her forehead and it's now turned pink and blue....a little late for Easter. Good thing kids are so resilient because she doesn't even remember it's there. In fact, after she fell, Alyson gave her some ice and Regan exclaimed "all better!".

One more thing, tonight she was playing with Playdough and dropped a piece. She looked down from her chair in disgust and said "oh, man!". It was hilarious!!

Bring on the rain!

For Easter, Grandma Sheri bought Regan a rain jacket complete with a hat and adorable boots; now she's all set for the rain! If only it would warm up a bit so we could get rid of the rest of this snow. For now, she's completely content wearing her new outfit around the house.

Happy Easter today!

We celebrated Easter this morning by waking up at 6:30am, that's just Regan's daily routine :) She stopped dead in her tracks when she came upon her chair in the living room stacked full of an Easter basket and presents! It was so cute. She excitedly opened her presents and we headed to church with the grandparents. She was so cute in church, singing songs and repeating what the priest had to say (including Amen, Jesus and Halleluia!); the best part was she said them when the rest of church was silent so everyone got to hear her cute voice ringing out! We came home and the Easter bunny had left eggs for her to find and she went on a hunt through the house picking up all of her eggs. In between all the gifts from the grandparents and Godparents, we had dinner and played with all of her new toys! She's now asking daddy to go to drum lessons. We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Coloring Easter eggs

Mommy and Regan spent this morning coloring Easter eggs. Regan was pretty excited when mommy gave her the go ahead to actually put an egg in a bucket of colored water! She kept looking up with a "are you sure I'm not going to get in trouble?" look on her face! When we were all finished, we took the colored water and threw it out into the snow; colored snow!! Oh yea, and she only dropped one egg onto the floor and completely cracked it open. Not bad!

Happy Easter!!!

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Easter! Drive safely to your destinations this weekend, it's a snowy wet mess out there.

New hat

Regan continues to have an infatuation with hats. Tonight she asked mom to empty out her purse and use it as a hat. We couldn't resist...check out this picture!

Visitors

We had a chance to spend some time with daddy's college friend, Paul (who now lives in Germany) and his wife and son. It was the first time we were able to meet each other's children so we had a lot of catching up to do! Regan seemed to enjoy giving toys to Niklas to play with, but she continues to struggle with names-every baby is still "Baby Natalie" (her friend from the Duluth area)!

Como Conservatory

Today we visited the Como Conservatory to take some spring photos! Regan got to wear a pretty dress from Shane/Amy and she was so cute smelling all of the flowers. She's been a bit of a stinker lately, we're full force into the "two's"! For example, now that she's potty trained, it means going with mommy into the women's public bathroom. As all of us know, public bathrooms are full of germs, so we have rules (#1: don't touch ANY garbarge can). Today she insisted on touching the small garbage hanging on the stall wall while she sat on the potty----gross!!! I'm thinking it was more sanitary when she wore diapers!

A day with nana

Regan got to spend today with Nana at home playing with all of her toys. From the looks of these pictures, they had quite the large picnic and Regan went off somewhere in her "truck". She tends to tell us she's going to school these days....that'll be a day of a lot of tears for mom! When Nana left tonight, she asked if Nana was going to come and play today? Apparently she had fun!

New shirt

Regan showed off her new shirt during her birthday party two weeks ago. For those of you having a hard time reading it, it says "big sister"! Come September, she will be a proud big sister! All is going well so far and she enjoys "wistening to the baby" using the heartbeat monitor we rented. She has no concept that there's a baby in there, but she'll figure it out once we bring him/her home from the hospital and she realizes he/she isn't going anywhere!

On the mend

We've had a busy last two weeks and just when we thought things were settling down, Regan threw us for a loop! Mom got a call from daycare on Tuesday afternoon saying before nap, they were "jumping into pillows" and Regan hurt her leg or ankle and was now unable to stand or walk on it. Unlike most first time parents, we opted to keep her at home for the evening and not rush into the ER. The next morning she still couldn't walk on it so we called the doctor and were told to bring her in for xrays as it could most certainly be a toddler break. Apparently that's how children break their very limber bones, not a clean break like adults. Thankfully the xrays came back negative and it's most likely a sprain or a pulled muscle somewhere, unfortunately we aren't sure where! She's able to limp around and tonight even ran for the first time so she's obviously on the mend! She was such a trooper at the doctor and sat so nicely while they took pictures of her leg (aka: xrays); maybe it helped that mom told her to "say cheese"! I'm sure it won't be our last visit to the doctor for xrays, she's a little gymnast these days.

Dress Up!

Regan got some dress up clothes for her birthday and she gave us a little fashion show the other morning. She loves to dress up like a princess and walk around in her heels with all of her jewlery!

Brittney Spears

No explanation necessary

It's my party!

With the help of lots of family, we celebrated Regan's 2nd birthday on Saturday. She has more toys than we know what to do with and more clothes than her closet can hold! Elmo was everywhere, from the cake to the balloons to the t-shirt she got from mom and dad! By 9pm, she was completely exhausted and practically begging me to go to bed!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Regan spent her 2nd birthday at state danceline with mom and dad bouncing around in her chair as she watched the girls dance. She loved every minute of it, and the popcorn and pop too! Everytime a team left the floor she'd ask for more and waited paitently for the next team. We headed up for a bathroom break at one point and she was showing me some new moves she had picked up...she's working on her splitz which is a little scary to watch!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We brought cupcakes to daycare this week to celebrate Regan's upcoming birthday. Of course, she had to test one out just after it came out of the oven to make sure it tasted right :) Messy, but cute! We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's day, we plan to get take out and avoid the rush of people.

Be my Valentine!

Sure is an interesting way of giving a Valentine! Regan plopped the window clings on her head one after another this evening. She was having a blast running around with them attached to her head. I think it sort of felt like sunglasses to her!

Say cheese!

Regan loves to take photos with her digital camera and we exchanged pictures the other day :) Unfortunately, she generally is taking a picture of the floor, or possibly my foot! She's getting better.

What a difference a year makes

We visited the doctor for Regan's 2 year check up today and all is well; other than two ear infections. She's well ahead of schedule on the developmental scale, who would've thought being able to "name your friends" would be part of that scale! She has no problems telling me her daycare friends names and went on and on while we were there. Here's a comparison from one year ago:

1 year appointment
Height: 30.5 inches
Weight: 21 lbs 12 oz

2 year appointment
Height: 34. 75 inches
Weight: 27 lbs 3 oz

She is slimming down in terms of other children her age, but is definately taller than most children her age, she is taller than 80% of the children her age! The doctor even asked me how tall I was! The best part of the appointment, no shots! Just a finger prick which seemed to be more traumatizing than shots, she's still protecting her finger and refuses to pick anything up with that hand.

Ash Wednesday-Little Miss Chatterbox

We went to church last night for Ash Wednesday and Regan had so much to tell us about her day it was hard to keep her quiet! We should've known it was going to be that way when after the very first song, she said "all done, time to go home now". The lady in front of us was shaking she was laughing so hard! There is now a very large cross hanging down in the front of church and Regan said "look at that big guy", we later explained it was Jesus and she replaced "guy" with Jesus. She continued to make {loud} comments throughout mass and after we received our ashes, she kept pointing at everyone and asking "what's that?" I guess it does look pretty strange to have a big black mark on your forehead. The joys of having a toddler!

Happy Birthday to Regan!

We celebrated Regan's birthday while out in DC and Regan really lit up when we told her to blow out her candles! She was pretty shy while we sung happy birthday to her but got all excited at the end! She loved eating her cake too, although had to hold herself back from feeding the puppy some chocolate cake. What a good share-er :)

Fish and puppies and beautiful weather!

While out in DC we were blessed with gorgeous weather-temps nearly reaching 60 when we left on Sunday.....back to reality as we're expected to get 3-5 inches of snow today. Regan enjoyed playing with the "puppy" and watching the fish swim around in Ben's gigantic aquarium. Ben even fed the bigger fish some smaller fish explaining the "chain" to us as we watched them be gobbled up for dinner. Ick.

Another trip out to DC

We spent this weekend in Alexandria, VA and the DC area visiting Uncle Ben and Jon and seeing the sights. We had a wonderful time and Regan did great on the plane rides and during all the tours. The highlight for all of us was being able to tour the White House. Words can't describe what it feels like to be inside the White House! The President was even there, although obviously not anywhere near the tour. We also had a chance to go up the Washington Monument and see the city from above which is always the best way to see a city. Regan's highlight of the trip was playing with Ben's dog, Parker. In fact, she was pretty sad when we landed in Minneapolis and she wasn't going home to see Parker-so precious!

Unfortunately the low-light of the trip was a visit to the ER for an infection in Regan's palm. We're not sure what it is exactly, but the experience of having her wrapped tightly in a sheet so they could lance her finger is definately not one we want again. She's feeling fine and on some antibiotics so all should be better shortly.

Photo shoot!

Regan will turn two in just a couple of weeks! In preparation for her birthday, we had her pictures taken last weekend. She did great and we love how they turned out :)

Today we will head to Washington DC to visit Uncles Ben and Jon again. We're looking forward to a little warmer weather (Ben thinks I'm nuts to say 50's is warm...how quickly he forgot what -5 feels like!). We've received security clearance to tour the White House on Friday and everyone is really excited! Unfortuantely we aren't allowed to take pictures so I won't have any postings for everyone. We also plan to go up the Washington Monument and visit the DC Aquarium. I've been to DC at least 5 times now and this will be my first trip up the Washington Monument so I'm looking forward to that the most! Hopefully the flight will be uneventful and the Barney DVD's will keep Regan occupied!

Evil Eyes!

Thankfully this face isn't as common as it used to be! Now that she can do it when asked, it's pretty funny! Instead of giving us these eyes, Regan now stomps her feet, throws her head back and whines when she's asked to do something she isn't happy about.....I think I prefer the face.

She's Miss Independent these days, "Regan do it" or "my turn" is heard hundreds of times a day. She's also picking up on everything said by mom and dad, including sighs or groans! Oh and does she repeat things: the other day an airplane flew REALLY low over the house and Ryan commented "what the hell was that?". Well, wouldn't you know it, Regan asked me "what the hell was that?".

Lesson learned.

Sesame Street Live!

Tickets-$41 each

Nacho, 2 pops and popcorn-$18

Elmo balloon-$8

Seeing Regan's face as Elmo and Cookie Monster shook her hand-Priceless!

Tonight we went to see Sesame Street Live-Elmo Grows Up! It was such a great show!! Our seats were only 5 rows from the stage and the characters spent a lot of the time running up and down the aisle next to us, stopping to give a high-5 or shake a hand. Regan got a little scared at first when Cookie Monster came by (see the picture of her/dad saying hi), but she didn't have time to get scared when Elmo surprised us from the other side! All she kept talking about was that Elmo touched her hand; she was so excited! I'll admit it, I cried more than once watching her face light up, or trying to sing along, or dancing to the music...I'm such an emotional mom!

Approaching two

Regan decided this week that her baby needed a "time-out" and here's a shot of it. It was hilarious to watch her take her baby to time out and tell her baby it was time to come out and say she was sorry! At least she's understanding it, I hope!

We've had many successful days with potty training and I'm going to knock on wood when I type this, but at this point, I think it's safe to say we're officially potty trained! We are so proud of her and she's definately showing us her independence, especially when she announces it's her turn to use the potty and to please get out of the bathroom!

This week, we really learned how much she loves daycare. It's been obvious lately considering she has been telling mom to go back to work at 5pm pick up. But recently we arrived at daycare and she's run off to play with another little girl as soon as her boots are off! They love to dance, learn numbers and letters and play in the kitchen together. And yesterday when we were leaving, Jillian asked for a hug and wouldn't let Regan go! How cute!!

I'm this big!

As we approach Regan's 2nd birthday, we bought a growth chart to track her height. She's roughly 32.5 inches right now (hard to get her to stand still next to it). We'll let the doctor make the official mark next month.

Daddy dressed me today

Regan hung out with daddy on Saturday while mommy judged a competition and this is what she looked like; can't say it's my favorite shirt. We owe a big Thank You to Uncle Shane for this shirt :)

In this picture, she's showing us her muscles and making her 'tough-guy' face!

Building a snowman

Last weekend proved to be great weather (and snow) for building a snowman! Daddy commented that it was a pretty pathetic snowman (his words exactly "I didn't think you were making one that was Regan's height"), but he wasn't helping so he didn't get to comment much more! Regan still struggles with standing in the snow and prefers to be held so I couldn't really make a gigantic snowman. She did enjoy picking out the rocks for his eyes and smile (notice the rock for a smile is even slanted like a smile!). Unfortunately, less than 5 hours after we built him, he tumbled over due to the warm weather! Thankfully she wasn't upset...this time!

That face...

....is so precious! Regan is really into pretend play these days; the other day I caught her using her toothbrush on the rubber duck, telling him she needs to clean his teeth! Sometimes we'll come upon her and she's saying things we've told her like "sit down" to her baby in the high chair, or "play blocks?" to her dolls. Lately her favorite nightly event is to play Guitar Hero with dad, what a sight that is!