Pruned Fingers

I wondered when it would happen and tonight it finally did. Reagan, now 25 months old, got out of the bathtub and stared at her wrinkled little fingers. She looked from one hand to the other, not saying a word, just studying something she'd never seen or noticed before. I was the quiet observer, wishing I could tap into her little brain to know what she was thinking. After giving her some time to contemplate the changed appearance of her fingers, I did my best to explain that all fingers look like prunes after being in the water. I tried to reassure her that it happens to everyone, even Mama. As I finished the rest of the bedtime routine, she continued to look at her fingers and repeat what I had told her, saying over and over "it happens." She was satisfied with an explanation as simple as that: it just happens.

The Evolution of Amanda's Quest for Organization!

John totally surprised me on Christmas morning with the coolest product on the market today: an iPhone! To be honest, I had absolutely no idea how awesome this thing was until I started using it ... now I'm completely addicted to it and John's regretting the purchase. I've been spending all my free time (which isn't a whole lot when you have a 2 year old and an 8 week old!) on the computer. You see, this new toy of mine is much more than just a cool phone. It's an opportunity for me to finally be ORGANIZED! I think back to all the attempts I've made to be organized in the past ... it started out with the big Franklin Day Planner:

I wrote down all my contact information on the paper address book, along with the paper calendar and I carried this around like a wallet/purse. It was about the size of a dictionary and was about as conveniet as carrying around a brick. So I decided to downsize to a smaller Franklin planner ... I had to rewrite my address book onto smaller pages and I carried this one inside my purse. My purse soon became cluttered and quite heavy with a wallet, my dayplanner, my make-up bag, and my cell phone. So, the next obvious step was to convert to an electronic organzier, hence the Palm Pilot:

Once again, I entered all the information of friends and family members into the address book, as well as everyone's birthdays into the calendar. This was a convenient place to store all of this important information, until of course, I forgot to charge it and I lost everything.

So, the last couple of years, I haven't had a very good way of keeping all of the important information about all the people in my life together in one place. I've had mailing addresses kept in an Excel spreadsheet, phone numbers kept in my cell phone, and email addresses in my Hotmail address book.

Now, I finally have the PERFECT solution to my 15 year quest for organization! I've spent the last few days inputing all my contact information into Outlook. Being the freak that I am, I've searched through all my pictures, trying to find the most flattering picture of everyone I know, so I can add it to their profile. iPhone lets you sync to Outlook so that my phonebook has all the information that I've entered. When I pull up somone in my address book, it shows me their picture, mailing address, all phone numbers, email addresses, and websites. I can tap on their phone number to call them, or I can tap on their email address to send a quick email. I can even tap on their address and pull up a map! It's all integrated and very easy to use. The idea of being completely organized is so exciting, especially because it's been made possible by state of the art technology. Not only does the iPhone keep me organized, but it allows me complete access to the internet and all the luxuries it has to offer: instant weather, stock quotes, and email, right in the palm of my hand. It has a camera feature and it's also an iPod ... it's so much better than the iPod John gave me 3 Christmases ago, since I can download music directly to it and create playlists, without even using the computer.

In case you're wondering, NO, I do not work for Apple and I'm not getting paid to promote this product. I'm just a very satisfied customer! In fact, my satisfaction rating would probably be right up there with my other favorite product, TIVO ... and that's saying a lot!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

How is it already the end of December? Where did 2007 go? I look back at the year with fond memories of Reagan growing up, my enjoyable pregnancy, and an incredible 8 weeks of getting to know our second daughter Avery. Having 2 precious little girls is such a joy and I'm excited to get this blog going again to share them with all my friends and family. With such a gap in posts, I'd love to go back and post pictures and events from the last 6 months, but I have to be realistic: I just don't have time! So I'm going to start with Christmas and be really good about posting often from here on out.

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year with our 2 little girls! We spent Christmas Eve at his aunt's house, celebrating the holiday with all his family. John's mother Nila stayed with us and got to watch Reagan open her presents on Christmas day. I missed my family terribly, but we didn't want to travel to Utah this year with a 7 week old baby.

Mendez Family of 4 - Christmas Eve

Avery and her aunt Debbie

Reagan and her cousin Gabby

Avery's big grin!

Avery, happy on Abuela's lap on Christmas morning

Reagan on Christmas morning with Elmo - a gift from Nana and Grandpa

Reagan helped me make a chocolate cake on Christmas night ... I have such fond memories of watching my mother make cakes from scratch when I was a little girl because she always let my sisters and me lick the beaters. I offered a beater to Reagan and she went running out of the kitchen because she hates the sound of the mixer. I made her watch me take the beaters off the mixer and then put the mixer in the cupboard, assuring her that I wasn't going to turn it on again. Once the mixer was put away, she gladly took the beater and proceeded to get chocolate everywhere!

Turtle on our front porch

A few nights ago, we came home and discovered a turtle at the base of our front steps. It was fun to show Reagan and hear her say "Turtle!"

Reagan Meets Elmo at Sesame Place

My parents accompanied us to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania over Memorial Day Weekend. We had breakfast with Elmo and enjoyed the rest of the day riding rides, getting wet, and meeting the other characters from Sesame Street.

Reagan had so much fun in the toddler play zone!

This was her first time swimming since last summer when she was a baby, so she was a little timid at first ... but once she warmed up, she loved every minute of it!

Reagan Puckers Up!

Reagan recently learned how to "pucker-up" to give kisses ... it's the cutest thing I've ever seen! She's getting tired of our constant requests for kisses, but she'd better get used to it :)

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year ... John spoiled me with many thoughtful gifts and I got to spend the day with Reagan (the most amazing daughter in the whole world)!

Reagan Meets the Easter Bunny

It's a good thing she loves stuffed animals because she wasn't afraid of the Easter Bunny! She was so excited to see such a big stuffed animal.