Sweet Baby Faces

 Oh, hi Mama!  What are you doin?

I'm taking some pictures of my girls!

 Don't you think you have enough pictures of us, Mama?

Well, that's a very good question.  And the answer is no.  No, I do not.

 Mama, you are silly.  And my sister Reilly is so silly too.

 Yes, Reagan Kate, she is very silly.  And she loves you so much!

Reagan, today you were sleeping in your bouncy chair, and Reilly covered you with a blanket and told you over and over, "You are the best sister in the whole wide world."  She said is quietly, just to you.  That's how much she loves you.

But I have to tell you, she likes it better when you are quiet.  She's not so sure about you when you are crying...

 

Um, Mama?  

Yes, Reilly?

I think Reagan's done takin' pictures now. 

Spring 2012 Fashion Preview

Reilly, here.


I've come to give you my favorite trend for the upcoming season!

Are you ready?

NEON!

Here is me modeling neon, I was going for "classic adorable".

The best thing about these bright colors, are that you can pair them with almost anything!  Here you'll see my striped pink shirt with my zebra printed pants.  And it works!

Well, Mommy and I think it works.  And that's all that matters.

 Here I am being "excited".

 

 And here, I'm being "casual".  Like my shoes?  My Aunt Mimi got them for me.  She keeps me and Mama up to date on the latest styles.  This outfit is great, because it's comfy enough for a trip to the park, yet stylish enough for a lunch with the girls.

My girls are Reagan and Mama, in case you were wondering.

Here I am being "thoughtful".  I think I nailed this one, don't you?

Well there's my tip for Spring and Summer - wear bright colors, wear them proudly, mix and match them.  It's all about pulling it off with confidence, that's what Mommy tells me and Rae Rae.

And cute chubby cheeks don't hurt either.

Byoo-full Baby

 Hi Reagan Kate!  What's the matter?

Oh, hi Mommy! I'm just wondering what this thing is on my head...

 OH, it's a flower!  Isn't is beautiful??

 A flower?!  Don't flowers belong outside?

 Well, it's just pretend babygirl.  It's makes us look pretty!  You still look unsure...do you not like headbands?

No, I like headbands Mommy!  I just like to know that I have...options.

Options, Rae Rae?

Yes, Mommy. 

How's that, girlfriend?

Thanks, Mommy!  That's better.  I feel more well-rounded already.

Hilarious Easter Photoshoot

 Here was a speedy attempt at getting an Easter photo.

FYI:  The best pictures will be taken at 5:00 pm on the living room floor after dinner when everyone needs a bath.  When you are least expecting to get nice faces.  Never will they happen on Easter when everyone's pretty.  Just clarifying that, for new mommies. :)

That being said, check out the progression of these pictures.  I didn't even realize how funny they were as I was taking them.

Check out Reagan's face. She is not happy about being posed.

 

Reilly is engaged, Reagan is getting increasingly pissed that Reilly is touching her.

 Reilly, being the sweet sister she is, decided a kiss would be appropriate.  Reagan, as you may recall, wants nothing to do with physical interaction of any kind.  So she squealed.

Reilly became quite upset, and did not want the camera catching such a moment on film.

I just love how they interact.  :)  At least we have record of there cutie little outfits!

Spring Break

 Here is little pieces of Daddy's spring break, in pictures!

We gave Reagan a bathy.

 We spent some time by the creek.

 We had lots of giggles.

 We played outside.

 We got dressed up for Easter (love Reagan's face).

 We had many egg hunts.

 We visited with family.

 Reagan had her first bottle of breastmilk!

 We caught up on some sleep.

We had some fun in town, getting ice cream and some lunch!

We had lots of fun, lots of relaxing time, and got lots accomplished!  Mostly, we like waking up everyday and having Daddy there with us for coffee (and juice).  Summer time is coming near, this was a fun preview!

23 Months

She is 23 months old.  And she is our hilarious little angel.  Soon, we have to start saying "2".  Her age won't be in months anymore.  It's crazy that she is going to be two...and even crazier that I have only known her for two years.  She is amazing.

I love this age.

Twos are not terrible.

Two year olds are people, they get angry, they get upset, they are silly, they are learning.  They are learning EVERYTHING.  They need to be taught everything.  They are excitable and passionate and yearn for independence, seemingly overnight.

But one thing they are not, is terrible.

It breaks my heart when I see a toddler have a tantrum and someone inevitably mentions the "terrible twos".  In my opinion, twos aren't terrible.  Can they be trying?  Of course.  Exhausting?  Absolutely.  But to classify an entire year of a child's life as terrible, is just sad.  And not fair.  I'm 25, and I get upset, angry, defiant, stubborn.  Am I terrible?  I don't like to think so.  I'm human.

Things Reilly has said to me recently:
Mommy, I love you too.
Thank you SO MUCH Mommy.
Good job making dinner, Mommy!
It's okay, don't cry, baby Reagan.
Mommy, you so funny.

Don't ever let anyone tell you you're terrible, babygirl.  Not at two, not at twenty two, not at forty two.  You are wonderful.

Snuggly!

 We had such a fun and accomplishing vacation with Daddy!  We had relaxing days, family days, and working days where we got things done around the house that have been on our lists for oh...about six weeks. ;)

The only thing we didn't do was catch up on sleep, because Reagan is still a little peanut and needs nourishment quite often.  Sometimes she'll be scutching like she's hungry, and then we pick her up and she just quiets down and stares at you with her big eyes.  She loves being snuggled!  But that's okay by us, because she is just so snuggly.  Take the other day, when she moseyed over to this pillow to take a nap.

Reilly just couldn't help but snuggle her!

My little snuggle muffins!  In the mornings now, if Reilly wakes up before 7 am, I bring her in my bed and say, "You want to snuggle in Mommy bed?" and she says "Yeah. Snuggle. Cozy, cozy." (Cozy cozy means covering her with blankets).

Love these faces.

Breastfeeding...Rest-feeding?

 I love breastfeeding.  Always have, always will.  Okay, maybe I haven't always loved breastfeeding - I mean, I don't think I cared very much about it as a teenager.  But definitely since my first pregnancy.  And now it is engrained in my being - for the rest of my life, some of my greatest memories will be those spent nursing my babies.  I am so thankful and so blessed that I am able to breastfeed my girls.  I especially have thanked God this time around - after having such a successful run with Reilly, I have prayed and prayed to be allowed the same experience with Reagan.

Things have been going great- feeding constantly, no sleeping, growing baby, nice and chubby.  Hubby has been encouraging me to pump so he could help me and give a bottle at night - giving me a little stretch of sleep longer than the 2 hours that I have been getting recently.  So 2 weeks ago, I decided to pump, as I had done every day for about 10 months in 2010/2011.

And without going into too much detail - I became very sore after I pumped.  It wasn't anything I did differently or wrong, but my body had changed since Reilly and I needed to be using a different kind of pump.  I only found this out afterwards when speaking to a lactatian consultant.  So for the last few weeks, I have been in immense pain every time I feed babygirl.  Which is every 2 hours around the clock.  I didn't know how I would ever get better, or ever heal, if my body was not given the chance.  But not breastfeeding was never an option for me - I just kept on going and prayed to get better.

(Rae's face after eating - she's quite content!)

After my mom mentioned something about changing Reagan's position while feeding to see if that helped, I began watching her latch.  I paid special attention to how she was latching on, and realized she was getting lazy.  Her latch had become incorrect, therefore causing me much more pain.  It happened to slowly, I hadn't realized - taking for granted that she knew the correct way initially.  I say she got "lazy" because the way she began feeding is "easier" for her, but essentially not as efficient and also extremely painful for me. 

The only way to fix her latch, is to continually remove her while feeding, and put her back on, helping her do it the correct way.  I realized that when I fixed her latch for her, it didn't hurt near as much.  This became motivation for me.  I felt myself slowly healing, as I was actually re-teaching her how to breastfeed.  I have been taking her off the breast six to ten times a feeding.  I sometimes forget that just because sucking is an instinct for babies, breastfeeding is not - it needs to be taught.

So we've been having a little hiccup in the breastfeeding, but are on the up and up now!  I am very happy to not be in too much pain anymore, obviously, and am excited to get back to painless feeding - no matter how much sleep I'm losing! 

Bursting

 This little chick is just BURSTING.  With personality, with love, with kindness, with energy, with affection.

She makes me laugh literally every second.  When we are in the car she says, "Mama, dance?" and she will sit in the back and practice her dance moves and faces in the mirror.

 This is her newest face.  If I tell her that we're having chicken for dinner, she'll turn her face like this, look at me out of the corner of her eye and say, "Chicken aaaandddd PASTA?!"  She wants pasta with every meal, and knows that this face is her best bet of accomplishing her goal of 24/7 pasta with grated Pecorino.

 When we go food shopping, she talks about every item she sees.  She points to people and yells, "MAMA, WHO'S-AT?",  which makes for some awkward moments.  Then she'll see something she likes, and yell "Oh, number 8, YAY!" (Don't ask me why she would get excited by the number 8, but it happened.) Or she'll yell "New special balloons, YAY!"

Yesterday, I was holding Reagan when she was crying, and Reilly came over and hugged her and said "Reagan Kate, wassa matter??"  She is just hands down hilarious these days. (These moments allow me to put past me the moments that she throws her fork in order to let us know she's done with her meal.)  I truly love this age, it is so fun and exciting.

And it makes me so curious as to what personality is waiting inside this little girl...

This Face.

 We tell Reagan she's beautiful so much, that Reilly came up to her yesterday morning and got really close to her face and said "Rea-din, you byoofull!"  I cracked up.  But her face is more than beautiful, it's just so full of personality already.  She looks at you with these giant curious eyes, or will lay silently content on your shoulder wide awake and you will swear she is pondering something important.  When she is so still and quiet on your chest, you will bet anything that she is asleep.  Then you will look down at these huge dark eyes and chubby little cheeks just resting peacefully. 

Anyone would just fall in love with this face...

 

But she has especially captured the heart of this guy.

 

They snuggle.  They nap.  She sleeps on his chest, like her sister did.  They have their special rocking time in between feedings in the middle of the night.  And if you were to hold the little angel bean, it'd be hard not to fall in love with the dark eyes and droopy cheeks that make up her beautiful face :)

Little Sisters

 Sisters, at just about 1 month old.

Reilly, June 2010

 

 Reagan, April 2012

(Reilly's mouth still looks like that every night. I sneak in and look at her because her little sleeping face makes me melt.)

 Reilly with Mama's favorite paintbrush, 2010

 Reagan with (still) Mama's favorite paintbrush, 2012

I knew that I wanted to take the paintbrush picture with Reagan, as I did with Reilly.  But what I didn't know, is that they were exactly the same age in the picture.  And what I also didn't know, is that I also took identical pictures of their smushy sleeping cheeks during the same photo session.  My little beauties. <3