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!

FORE!!!

In other words, look out mommy, daddy's teaching me how to golf and you're in the path of this shot! Sometimes we think she'd rather use her new clubs as a hockey stick, or her pull bag around like a stroller but eventually she'll get the idea! Occasionally she'll get a real good shot and everyone better look out or the ball is likely to wind up hitting you!

Daycare Holiday Spectacular 2007 (in 2008)

Our daycare holiday party was post-poned until tonight but it was well worth the wait! Here's a few shots of the evening; the whole crew is sitting on the stairs with Alyson; our little elf in green; and everyone singing Rudolph with their red noses! Regan really got into the dancing and singing this year and even put on her own little show with her green hat pulled down over her eyes during an entire song. She lifted it up at the very end when she, along with everyone else, yelled "Sleigh Ride"-it was so cute!

Sledding!

When mommy heard it was over 30F outside, she headed straight outside to take Regan sledding. Unfortunately, no one mentioned the wind so sledding didn't last real long. We run down the street pulling the sled and stop quickly so that the sled turns real fast (think "crack the whip") and Regan has a blast! We had the camera all set up to take a few pictures as soon as she whipped around, and here is the result!

Why?

Ohhhh!!!, here we go! Regan has recently started in with the "why?" questions. At this point, it's still cute and funny, but we know it's going to lose it's excitement quickly! We can definately feel that we are approaching the "two's"-from the attitude to the tantrums, to the ability to express herself better to the questions, it's all so much fun! We continue to work on potty training and she's got a good handle on it at home and today we started working on it at daycare too. She did quite well and I think she has amazed the provider! She still has her moments when she gets caught up in playing and forgets (but we often forget to ask her so we're to blame as well). Last night she actually woke up from a complete slumber and started crying because she had potty in her diaper and wasn't calm until mommy changed her diaper.....there could be some long nights ahead if this keeps up!

Penquins in the snow!

This one is for Uncle Ben out in DC; hope you like them! He bought Regan snow decorations for Christmas and wanted some pics of the sculptures. Lucky for him, we went sledding (the winter version of going for a walk these days) and Regan spotted a snowman and wanted one in her yard too. Now, I have absolutely no clue how anyone built a snowman with snow that doesn't stick together, but putting together these guys was a piece of cake!

A new kitchen!

Grandma and Grandpa Friederich bought Regan a new kitchen for Christmas and it's definately one of her favorite new toys. We made a wise decision and ended up assembling the huge toy in our living room and it's staying right there for now. Given it's the most played with toy right now, it didn't make sense to hide it in the basement. We love watching as she cooks up eggplant, asparagus and a DQ ice cream cake all in one pot! Her imagination is really at work lately!

Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa's

We spent Christmas eve at Nana and Papa's in New Ulm. It was a wonderful evening and not your traditional Christmas eve meal...sauerkraut and dumplings!!! We were in heaven :) Regan was exceptionally well-behaved in church, I think the bribe to open presents worked well, we might have to use it more often!

I'm cute!

Regan might have been sick, but she sure looked cute posing for the camera Sunday evening!

Merry Christmas!

It was another rough start to the weekend as Regan unfortunately picked up a stomach bug from daycare (?or maybe she's getting her molars?). Whatever the case, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were not the best days for any of us. We did manage to open presents from Santa on Saturday morning and drive to New Ulm without much trouble at all. She adores her new art table/easel from Santa and was so excited that she refused to open the rest of her presents!! In fact, it took her over 24 hours to open her last present and that darn toy made it all the way to New Ulm with us before she actually decided she'd open it. The pics above are with her and her new art table.

Rachael Ray!

Tonight while daddy went to the Vikings game, mommy and Regan made a quick stop at the Mall of America to see Rachael Ray! She was having a book signing event and the crowd was unbelieveable. It was fun to see her, but there was no way Regan was waiting in that line to get her autograph so we took some pictures and headed home.

Swimming!

Regan's been talking about a pool for a long time; constantly wanting to go in a pool. Today she got her chance! We didn't have time go swimming last night at the hotel, so this morning after breakfast, we promised her we would go swimming. She held us to our promise and she had so much fun! The last few times we've taken her swimming, she's been incredibly apprehensive of the water and pretty fearful of going in. This time, she even got brave enough to try jumping into mommy's arms!