Valleyfair!!!

Our shy little girl broke out of her shell today and explored

Valleyfair to its fullest! By the end of the day, she was

jumping on and off rides like a pro. Considering she decided

to forego her nap this afternoon, we're hoping she sleeps well

tonight! Thanks to Ryan's family for coming up and spending the

day with us, Regan had so much fun going on rides with her cousin, Hunter!

We spent this weekend with some friends in Mahtowa (near Duluth) and headed down to Canal Park on Saturday night. It was freezing so we didn't spend much time outside. It was hard to get a decent picture of Regan because she was so busy pointing out the big rocks, the seagulls overhead and the lake. Mommy and daddy were busy making sure the seagulls didn't poop on our heads!

Cheese!!

Her curls really come out when it's humid!

Feeding baby

Mommy snatched this picture quickly on Friday as Regan fed her baby breakfast. It was adorable to listen to her chat with her baby, asking her if she wanted more, running back to her kitchen to fill up baby's dish with more breakfast before hurrying back to tend to her baby! What a great mommy!

Today as we prepared to put Regan's patch on her eye, she said her baby also needed a patch. Of course we had to let her put a patch on the baby too so she went to the box, picked out a patch, took off the backing and placed it right over the baby's eye! She was pretty proud and put her own patch on without so much as a whine! We may end up going through a lot of patches, but it will save everyone an argument!

In this picture, she is sitting in her big girl bed crafted just for Regan by Nana and Papa. She loves her bed and has already told everyone that the baby is going to sleep in her crib next to her in the room. I'm so proud of her for sharing instead of getting jealous that baby is going in the crib.

Daddy had a wonderful idea from our WI Dells trip and insisted Regan needed a slide (a BIG one) for her swimming pool! She absolutely loves it and is thrilled he bought the longest/tallest slide we could find!

I want to soft the buffalo!

We took Regan to the Como Zoo this morning and she so badly wanted to "soft" the buffalo (aka: pet him)! She just couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her pet him; some day she'll thank us for being so strict!

Sparklers under close supervision

Amazed at the noise she created with a "snapper"!

Watching the parade and having a Mr. Freeze!

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! Regan went to a parade in the morning, swimming and a BBQ in the afternoon and ended the night with fireworks (both at home and in Edina). Her favorite part of the day was probably swimming :) Much to our surprise, she wasn't real interested in the big fireworks at night and lost interest after about 2 minutes. She thought the sparklers at home were pretty cool and her face after throwing down a few of her own snappers was priceless!

Nana and me!

Meeting baby Hudson! Regan met the newest member of the family (Ash and Jamie's baby boy) on Saturday and she was thrilled to get to hold him. We were thrilled to see her reaction of mommy holding him, which wasn't what we expected. Instead of crying for mom's attention, she was mad that she wasn't holding him :) Hopefully she'll be the same way when her sibling arrives!

Just a quick update, I'll add a picture later. We had a wonderful weekend going to softball games in Rosemount and enjoying the sunshine! We got out Regan's pool and she had a blast splashing around :)

Last week, we made an appointment to visit Regan's pediatrician to check on her eyes. Her vision seems fine, but her eye was having a tendancy to wander outward (not cross, but go the other way). He referred us to a pediatric opthamologist and we were able to get in to see him this morning. Well, her eyes are both wandering outwards but he isn't super concerned, so we're not going to be either. Apparently 10% of the population has this and since the rest of her vision is "normal", we're confident she'll be fine. It basically happens when she's 'zoning out' or occassionaly when she gets upset. We're going to attempt to have her wear a patch for a couple hours/day so if anyone has creative ideas about this, let me know! She has a good chance of it getting better or staying the same with no treatment but if it does happen to get worse, they can give her glasses or even do surgery. For now I envision her in college going "hey guys, look what I can do" and proceed to get her eye to wander out :)

WI Dells!

Despite the recent flooding, we kept our plans to spend some time in WI Dells and we are all very happy that we did! The weather was beautiful and our hotel was amazing; well, despite that when we walked into our room, there was water leaking from the ceiling all over the bathroom! A quick visit to the front desk, and we landed ourselves in a full suite with a hot tub and full kitchen; well worth the hassle.

Regan had an absolute blast playing in all of the pools and going down water slides (indoor and outdoor). It took some time, but she finally got the courage to go down a few slides on her own. We gave her a taste of "forced fun" (for any of you that know what that means) and Ryan took her down some big slides too!

A well needed break from the water, we took some time to see Deer Park and feed the deer. Regan thought this was great!! Personally, the best part for me was watching Ryan get attacked by the deer as they wanted him to feed them more and more food!

We headed to Rochester and Chatfield over the weekend where Regan had the opportunity to play with one of her buddies, Nathan (mommy's college friend's son) who is only 7 days older than she. She had a great time running through the house exploring with her new friend! Watching the two play 'beauty shop' was so cute and the picture of the two of them eating their suckers is hilarious! Regan looks like she's up to no good.

We leave Regan home with Nana for the day and this is what she feeds her-chocolate chip cookies!! Just kidding Nana, but it's a cute picture! Apparently Regan and Nana were having a cookie for dessert after lunch yesterday and Regan picked out all the chocolate chips from her cookie and made a complete mess out of her hands and face :) Thank goodness Nana put a black shirt on versus the white one!

Yummy cookies!

Regan helped mommy bake chocolate chip cookies on Friday and we all know the best part of baking is tasting the results! She loved her cookies and was so proud of what she had made :)

In a matter of hours our beautiful day turned dark, cold and wet. Here are some pictures of before and after. Immediately after it was over, we headed outside to assess the damage, and for Regan, it meant playing in the piles of hail. Aside from some minor damage to the exterior of the house and the perinnial plants, all is well. Unfortunately, the rain continued into the night and poor Regan was so scared of the thunder that she couldn't fall asleep. Despite our efforts to tell her the thunder was just an airplane flying over, she wasn't buying it. She eventually gave in while mommy rocked her and we put her in our bed to avoid a major upset in another 15 minutes.

Regan's new trampoline!

Grandma Sheri (and Grandpa Arnie!) bought Regan a kid-sized trampoline this weekend! She loves it...and we love that she's no longer begging to jump around in her crib every afternoon. We had some friends over for daddy's upcoming birthday and the trampoline was a big hit with all of them.

More baby pictures!

Here is our 4D ultrasound picture from today's appointment! Baby was pretty active moving all over and "showing off" as the tech put it.

Regan actually mentioned she wanted a sister tonight, but quickly changed it back to brother again. I asked her if the baby could come home with us someday and stay with us; she didn't exactly respond. Then I asked her how we would get the baby home and she said "in a carseat!" There solves that birds and the bees question, a baby just comes home in a carseat. Duh! Let's hope she never asks how baby actually gets out of mommy's belly!

Minihaha Falls

We spent this morning walking around Minihaha Falls enjoying the beautiful weather. Regan was pretty impressed with the waterfall, birds and nature. Her little legs climbed from the top, down the stairs, through the woods and almost back to the top of the stairs again before she asked for some help. Needless to say, she was exhausted when we got home.

Is that a monkey in the tree?

I told Regan I wanted her to be like a monkey in the tree, little did she know it was my way of getting a nice picture of her with the flowers on the tree! She wasn't real sure about sitting up in the tree but it worked, I got my photos!

Regan enjoyed cutting the grass tonight with daddy :) It was adorable to see her walk around with her lawn mower and then try to fix it whenever daddy turned his off to empty the bag of clippings.

A Mother's Love

Tonight as I rocked Regan before bed, she looked up at me and said "I love you mommy" in the sweetest 2 year old voice of hers. It reminded me of all the love she has brought to our home in the last 2 years. I wanted to share her gift to me on this Mother's Day; she brought it home from daycare at the end of the week and was the most precious thing I could have received. All of the kids made their mommy's dish towels with their little hand prints on them. Attached to the towels, was a card with the following poem (and remember how pregnant I am so you can imagine the tears that came rolling down my cheeks!):

Sometimes I might upset you
Just because I am small
By leaving fingerprints of mine
On a table, chair or wall.
But everyday I grow a bit
And I'll be big one day
When all my fingerprints
Have long been cleaned away.
So keep these prints of my two hands
To help you to recall
Just how big my fingers were
That time when I was small.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a busy start to Mother's Day! We made it to most of church, left early for a doctor's appointment (on Sunday?, yep) and then out for lunch. We brought Regan in to check for an ear infection, turns out she has some fluid but it's not infected, along with a sore throat and swollen glands. Motrin and TLC is the plan for today! She's napping now but we hope to get to the park this afternoon to enjoy the weather! Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!

A morning in the park

Mommy and Regan headed out early this morning to the park and had the whole place to ourselves! And for those of you that have ever been to a park with Regan know, she actually plays with the equipment when there are no other kids around (versus just standing and watching the other kids). She's working her way up to knowing how to use a "big kid" swing all by herself! She must have wore herself out because she's about to set a record-long nap!

With the beautiful weather today, we completely forgot about the camera while we spent the day playing in the yard with the neighbors. Regan had a blast with all of her toys and getting messy in the sandbox so we scrubbed extra hard in the bathtub tonight! She's so excited for the nice weather and even commented at one point "I don't need my jacket anymore". Mommy would like to hang them up for good, but we'll keep them close because we've lived in MN long enough to know better.

Those eyes!

The wonderful winter weather we are having at the end of April, forced an indoor picnic yesterday. Regan didn't seem to mind, she was having a great time! This morning the snow started to wear on her though when she realized I wasn't budging at her requests to stop at the park to play.

Baby brother...

...or sister. Regan seems to think she's getting a baby brother, but only two people know right now: the ultrasound tech and God. Here's our first photo of the baby! We get to go back for another ultrasound next month so we look forward to more pictures. For now, all is well :)

Busted!

Regan decided to take a break from a hard morning of playing outside yesterday and steal a drink of daddy's coffee! He was busy doing yardwork, but she had no idea I was keeping track of her and taking pictures! By the looks of the second picture, she did manage to get some coffee out of his mug, despite the lid being closed. Not to worry, it was cold by the time she found it and there wasn't much left (for the grandparents who are worried we just stunted the growth of our child).

It was a gorgeous day and we managed to spend all of it outside, minus a 2 hour nap. We also picked out a helmet for her to wear while biking, this after she showed us how fast she can get on her bike and managed to get up onto 2 wheels taking a fast turn! Thankfully she thinks her helmet is pretty cool :)