Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband John! This seems like the perfect opportunity to write about something that happened this week. On Wednesday, I took Nila to Hackensack for her platelets instead of John. Since John does it so often (usually 3 times per week), I know it's a bit of a chore for him ... but since I rarely do it, I actually enjoy it. It's a nice break for me to get out of the house and I really enjoy meeting and talking with the nurses that take care of Nila. On Wednesday, I was happy that I got to meet Sari, the research nurse that is working directly with Dr. Goldberg on the study that Nila is a part of. As soon as she saw me walking in with Nila, she knew exactly who I was and she acted like we were old friends. She immediately started talking about John, telling me what an amazing man he is. I know he's an incredible person, but it was so nice to hear a complete stranger go on and on about the man I married. I was in heaven, listening to her gush about what a wonderful son he is to his mother, about what a proud father he is to his daughters, and about what a loving husband he is to me. She said he comes in with his mother, showing complete patience with her, taking his time to get her settled each morning, as if he has all the time in the world. He never acts rushed or like he'd rather be doing something else. He's there to make sure his mother receives the best possible care. She told me about her 3 sons and how she doubts any of them will some day take such amazing care of her. It was so nice to hear how much they love seeing John each week. John is the type of guy who has so much character, wit, and personality. He is always fun to be around, has an amazing sense of humor, and a great deal of patience. I guess he has to, now that he lives with 4 women! I often get wrapped up in the stresses of life; taking care of the needs of the girls, his mother, the dogs, and all the things that need to be done around the house. Sometimes John ends up taking the back seat and for that I feel horrible. I love my husband dearly and I need to show it more. I am so lucky to have married him and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him. I love you honey!

For John's birthday, he wanted to spend it with his girls.

We started off with a big family breakfast. I made eggs, bacon and french toast

We got our first big snow storm yesterday (Friday), so Reagan was anxious to go play in the snow with her Papa! They got all bundled up and Reagan was so excited!

Reagan and John making snow angels in the front yard

Admiring their snow angels

Didn't Reagan's turn out nicely?


Here's some video of Reagan teaching Papa how to make a snow angel!

Here's some funny video of Reagan walking around in the snow. She just went through a growth spurt, so her snow boots no longer fit her ... we put her in rain boots instead! Hopefully Santa will bring her some snow boots for Christmas! John and I love the part in this video where she falls and says "I'm okay" ... she's so darn cute!

After playing in the snow, I took Avery over to Nicole's for her afternoon nap (THANKS NICOLE!!) and John and I took Reagan to her FIRST MOVIE!!! We went to the 2:30 showing of The Tale of Despereaux. Reagan was such a good girl throughout the movie. I liked it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite movie. It was just fun to take Reagan to her first movie! Luckily, Avery was great and took a 2 hour nap at Nicole's.

After the movie, we picked up Avery, then picked up dinner. John wanted to try a new place in Westwood called Jim Dandy's, a place for RIBS! We ordered take out, then came home to eat dinner. Reagan and I then made John a birthday cake ... he opted for something different, strawberry!

I tried to let the cake cool before frosting it, but as you can see, it was still too warm and the frosting just melted right off of it! Definitely not my best work, but I knew John wouldn't care how it looked! And Reagan was helping me frost it, so it was more about having fun. I also let Reagan take control with the candles ... she chose how many to put on it and where to place them.

Regardless of how ugly his birthday cake was, John was just happy to be surrounded by his girls on his birthday!

After the kids went to bed, John and I watched a movie together, something we rarely do but really enjoy. We watched the new Coen brothers DVD called Burn After Reading. John absolutely loves the Coen brothers and their wacky, clever films. This was definitely a good one, very entertaining, so I recommend it :)

All in all, I think it was a great day! Happy birthday to my fabulous hubby!!!!

It's official - Avery's Walking

I meant to post about this 2 days ago, but I've been SO busy, I simply haven't had a second to sit down and do it. To be honest, I feel like a big slacker that I'm posting about "walking" without an accompanying video, but something is better than nothing, right?

So, Avery's been taking steps for over a month now, but she wasn't exactly interested in walking. We would stand her up, she'd take a few steps, then fall down. Once she was down, she would crawl everywhere. She knew how to stand up on her own and she would often stand up in the middle of the room, but only take a few steps, then give up.

Two days ago, on Tuesday November 25th, it was as if she woke up that day and decided she was ready to walk. As soon as she would fall down, she'd stand right back up and start walking. It was very exciting to watch her walk all over the house!

I'm sure I'll get some video of it one of these days ...

Firsts ... for Reagan!

Usually, posts about "firsts" on this blog are dedicated to Avery. But today I have a few FIRSTS to post about my big girl who is almost 3 years old! I'd love to say today was the first day she decided to go without a diaper, but NO, Reagan's still not interested in the whole potty-training thing. I'm not pushing it, since everyone I've ever talked to about this subject says to wait until she's ready and not to force her. I even consulted her preschool teacher, Ms. Lisa and she advised me to wait ... she encourages Reagan to use the potty at preschool and she says she's very stubborn about it. Everything always has to be on Reagan's terms, so I figure I'll save myself the grief and just keep waiting. I'd rather wait and have it be a smooth transition than force it and have it be a horrible experience for everyone.

Anyway, this morning I got in the shower and left Reagan to play with the toys in the bathroom. Reagan has always hated taking showers, so we stick with the bathtub for her. I always ask if she'd like to join me in the shower, just to get her used to it. For some reason, she's not a fan of the water coming down on her ~ I guess it scares her a little. She especially hates standing under the water when her head gets wet and the water runs onto her face and into her eyes ... which makes it really hard to wash her hair and rinse the shampoo out! Whenever she's gotten in the shower with me, she's always started crying when I've tried to rinse her hair ~ it's never been a fun situation! BUT ... When I was almost finished showering, she asked if she could join me, so I let her come in. She was a great sport about washing her hair and she tilted her head back and let me rinse it without crying at all! In fact, at the end, she kept saying, "I love taking showers! I'm a big girl, just like Mama and Papa!" And then I had a hard time getting her out :)

After the shower, I put her diaper on, then went about my routine of putting lotion on, brushing my teeth, and combing my hair. She wanted to put on some lotion too, so I let her have some. Then I left the bathroom to get dressed. When I came back in, she was COVERED in lotion!
This picture (taken with my iPhone), doesn't do her justice ~ there was SO much lotion on her body!

Once I got her cleaned off, I finished getting ready by blow-drying my hair. This is another thing that Reagan hates: the HAIR-DRYER. She hates the sound of it and she hates the hot air. She has NEVER let me blow-dry her hair. Everytime she gets out of the bathtub, I have to towel dry her hair and then let it air dry ... she also hates having it towel-dried, so I always give her the choice of the towel, or the hair-dryer, but she always chooses the towel.

As I was drying my hair, she actually asked if I'd dry hers! I couldn't believe it! I figured she'd let me do it for a few seconds and then change her mind, but to my surprise, she allowed me to finish it. I took the opportunity to give her a slightly different look by straightening it ... I used my round brush, so it straightened it, but the ends couldn't help but curl up. Here's how it turned out:

I thought it looked really pretty and I was so proud of her for facing 2 of her fears today (the shower and the hair-dryer)!

Of course, by bed-time, many of her curls had come back, so the straight locks didn't last long. That's okay, since I absolutely adore her curly hair!

Funny Videos of Avery

I took some really funny videos of Avery today ... this first one starts with her pointing at the television, "talking" to Elmo. She makes some pretty funny expressions while she talks to the TV. Then she walks toward the TV and it's the best one I've captured of her walking. You'll hear Reagan screaming in the background, excited about Avery's new skill! Oh, and the outfit was a birthday gift from my parents, so thanks Nana and Grandpa!

In this second video, Avery walks behind the toy ... Reagan pretty much learned to walk with this thing, so it's fun to see that Avery likes it just as much. Avery just can't figure out what to do when she runs it into the wall. As you'll see at the end, she smashes her finger into the wall and starts to cry :(

This last video is hilarious. Reagan asked for an orange Gatorade out of the fridge tonight, so I gave it to her as "dessert" since she finally ate her dinner. We were about to go upstairs for a bath, so I had just stripped off Avery's clothes and put them in the washing machine, since they were filthy (we had turkey chili for dinner and Avery devoured it - it was all over her clothes, despite the bib!). As usual, Avery was very curious about what Reagan had and she was dying to try it too. So, I gave Avery a taste of the Gatorade. She went crazy for it! As soon as I took it away, she started crying. Then I asked if she wanted more and she was practically shaking with excitement. This happened a few times, then I finally grabbed my camera. By the time I shot this footage, she wasn't even reacting as excitedly as she was at first. But it's still pretty funny.

When you watch, notice Reagan giving Avery a big kiss on the head at first, then she says to John, "I love you, I love you Papa!" completely out of the blue. So sweet. Then I ask Avery if she wants more and she "signs" more by clapping her hands together (you're supposed to put your fingertips together to sign 'more', but clapping is good enough for us!).

First Steps!!!

I can't believe this is happening, but Avery's been taking a few steps! It's all been happening so quickly, that I can hardly believe it. She's been standing on her own for long periods of time for a couple weeks now. Half the time, she doesn't even realize she's doing it; she'll be cruising the furniture, then she'll let go and stand all by herself without holding on, sometimes for minutes at a time. In the last few days, she's been venturing forward with a step here and a step there. Today, I watched her take 3 little steps! Of course, I can't seem to get any good video footage of it, so I'm settling with this clip:

John filmed this last night, just before she went to bed. She was very tired (binkie in her mouth), and I look pretty disheveled myself. And please excuse my butt shot and my greasy hair in this video ~ it's pretty embarrassing!

Avery is 11 months old, which means she very well could be "walking" by the time she turns 1 (November 2nd). I guess that's pretty average. Reagan didn't start crawling until she was 11 months old and she walked around 14 months. Of course, she didn't have a big sister to chase around, so it's not exactly fair to compare :)

Avery Standing at TPG

Last Friday morning, Nicole hosted TPG (Toddler Play Group) at her house and the theme was APPLES! She put together an adorable craft where we used an apple as a stamp with some red paint. I dropped off Reagan at preschool, then headed over to Nicole's ... on my way, Avery fell asleep in the car, so I transferred her to Bennett's crib. It was nice and relaxing to hang out with my friends on this very rainy morning.

Nicole helping Jack ~ Maribel and Joaquin

Once Avery woke up, I helped her do her very first craft!

She was more concerned with Champ, Nicole's dog :)

Avery has been getting pretty good at standing on her own, in the middle of the room. Of course, by the time I turned on my camera to shoot this video, she had already reached the peak of her performance, so she was starting to get tired. She stood for a very long time before I decided to capture some video. Oh well, you get the picture!

Reagan's First Day of Preschool!

Here she is, my BIG GIRL, looking as cute as can be on her first day of preschool!!! She's still 2 years old, yet it's her second year of preschool ... isn't she still my baby? Oh, how quickly time passes! Of course, I took LOTS of pictures and couldn't decide on just a few favorites, so I've posted many of them ... I'll add my commentary in between pictures, just to break it up :)

So, last year in preschool, a favorite color emerged ... RED! Ms. Lisa was the one who recognized that she always seemed to choose red whenever they sat down at the craft table. I can honestly say she's stayed true to her favorite color and she's never wavered.

There are days when I pull something out of Reagan's closet and put it on her without giving her an opportunity to agree or protest (simply because this is the easiest method for me!), and then there are days when I open the closet and let her choose. As most moms can agree, this can be a time-consuming event! A few weeks ago, she said she wanted to wear red. She kept pointing to a red dress that she wore at Christmas time, which I informed her was now too small and too dressy for everyday wear. She was determined to wear RED, and I realized I had nothing else that was red in her closet. The next day, I asked her what she wanted to wear for her first day of preschool and she told me she needed a RED SHIRT! How could I deny her?

So, yesterday I took Reagan and Avery to Paramus Park Mall, in search of a red shirt for her first day. After looking through many stores and shirts of every other color, I finally came across this shirt at the Gap. And who could resist the matching red shoes??? I couldn't help myself :) I mean, a child's first day of school only comes around once a year, right? While we were at the mall, I kept telling her we were going to Michael's later to find some matching ribbon so I could make clippies for her hair. Once we were in the car, she said, "when we get there, I'm going to say hi to Michael." I couldn't help but chuckle at her confusion, then I tried to explain, "No, Michael's is the name of the store we're going to ... there's no one there named Michael." She thought about it for a minute then said, "When we get to the store, I'll say hello to Michael." I accidentally fell asleep last night as I was laying down with Reagan and didn't wake up again until 2:30 AM. It occurred to me that I hadn't yet washed her new red shirt so she could wear it for school at 9:00 AM! So I rushed downstairs and did a load of laundry. Then I realized I still needed to make her matching hair clippie, so I sat down and made hair accessories. I'm sure it sounds silly, but I was so excited for Reagan's first day of school, that I didn't feel like going back to sleep (guess I had a surge of adrenaline!). So, I stayed up the rest of the morning, making hair bows, doing laundry, updating my blog, etc.

Avery and her loving sister Reagan

They are always so sweet together :)

The morning went very smoothly, until we got in the car and pulled out of the garage. Reagan has developed a strong dislike of the bright sun in her eyes when she goes outside. I finally bought her some sunglasses and this has helped immensely! So whenever you see pictures of her with sunglasses on, it's not because I'm trying to make her look like a little diva, it's because she loves to wear them for functionality! The only problem is that she gets very upset if we happen to forget the sunglasses and leave the house without them. What a morning to forget them! We were already to River Vale Road when she realized we didn't have them and figured we'd be late if we went back to retrieve them. She was pretty upset and cried, but luckily, it stopped before we arrived at Ms. Lisa's. She went right in and started playing with the tea set. I was worried she might cry when we left, since she did this last year, but she didn't cry at all! John and I were so proud of her!!! After we left Ms. Lisa's, we took Avery with us to Lowe's because we needed to buy paint (we are going to move John's mother's bedroom from upstairs down to the office, so we need to paint it first and fix it up).

Here's Reagan after school with her craft (yep, it's painted RED, of course!). When I picked her up, Ms. Lisa told me a funny story that I have to share:

Ms. Lisa asked the students to tell her why they were each special, so she started with her daughter Nicole (since she's 4 1/2):

Ms. Lisa: Nicole, why are you special?

Nicole: I'm special because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Elly, why are you special?

Elly: because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Juliana, why are you special?

Juliana: because I'm a princess

Ms. Lisa: Reagan, why are you special?

Reagan: (in a strong, opinionated voice) I'm NOT special!

Ms. Lisa: Of course you're special!

Reagan: No, I'm NOT special!

Ms. Lisa: Okay, what are you then?

Reagan: (in a sweet voice) I'm a ballerina!

One thing's for sure, my little Reagan is independent and knows what she wants! I love that Ms. Lisa shares these little stories with me so I can write them down and remember them.

I know I posted these pictures back when I did a whole post about Ms. Lisa's Preschool Prep, but I thought it would be fun to do the comparison photos like my sister Camille did of Makenna on her blog.

First day of preschool, age 22 months old 9-25-07

First day of preschool - 2 years, 10 months old 9-19-08

It's amazing how much she's grown up in a year, right? And she's only had 1 haircut, which was only a short little trim.

Cute Videos of Avery

I've taken some pretty cute videos of Avery over the last few weeks, so it's time I share them.

8-16-08 ~ Avery was standing up at my full length mirror in my bathroom and started to slip into the splitz (you'll hear the sound machine in the background, coming from Reagan's room because she was still sleeping)

8-16-08 ~ Avery was loving the little baby in the mirror, so much so that she decided to give her some kisses!

8-12-08 ~ We were at Nicole's for a playdate last week and I put Avery down on the grass. When she tried to crawl, she didn't like the feeling of the grass on her knees, so she altered her crawl ... what a good little problem solver! Before I took this video, she did this funny standing crawl with her butt straight in the air and her legs straight ... by the time I got my camera, she wasn't doing it the same way, but you get the picture.

8-15-08 ~ It's official: Avery's first word is DOG! You may not believe it from this video, but since I took it, she has said it MANY, MANY times! Everytime we walk down the stairs and see the dogs waiting for us at the bottom, she gets excited and says "gog" ... in this video, you'll hear me say it about a hundred times, but she says it right around the 10 second mark, so pay attention!

First Dentist Appointment

Today was Reagan's FIRST dentist appointment! I wish I could say that it went smoothly and all went well, but unfortunately, it wasn't the best experience. I thought I did all the right things to prepare her ... I told her all about the dentist the last couple weeks and then over the weekend, I kept reminding her she'd be meeting Dr. Galitsis on Monday. She was so excited! One of the times I brought up meeting him, she even said, "I'll need to shake his hand!" Before bed last night, I mentioned it one more time (I usually tell her our plans for the following morning, something for which to look forward) ...

So, when she woke up, I reminded her it was time to go meet Dr. Galitsis. She casually said, "I don't want to go to the dentist." Nervous, I started talking it up like it was going to be the best, most wonderful experience of her life! Maybe this was my big mistake because the more I talked it up, the more disinterested she became. Then she started getting nervous and upset. Soon, it turned into adamant shouts, "I'm NOT going to the dentist!"

I'll admit, I was starting to panic. Reagan had an appointment and we simply had to show up ... the week before, I had to cancel MY dentist appointment at the last minute because John ended up having an unexpected meeting and I had no babysitter. I felt bad about my last-minute cancellation, so I knew I couldn't do it again. I also didn't want to give Reagan the "power" to decide whether or not we went. On the flip side, I was so terrified of scaring her to death or traumatizing her of the dentist ... I NEVER enjoyed my dentist visits when I was a kid and the thought of them gave me a great deal of anxiety. I clearly remember a time when I was young that I was SO tense in the dental chair while getting a filling that I gave myself a horrific tension headache, which turned into a migraine when I left. I was trying SO hard to start Reagan off the right way.

So, my question is this: Why did she suddenly not want to go? I realize that most people refer to "going to the dentist" with a fairly negative attitude ... yet, I honestly don't believe Reagan has ever been exposed to this. Is it something inherent in each of us? Were we all tortured by evil dentists in a previous life? You know, like Steve Martin in the movie Little Shop of Horrors? If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on this YouTube Link for the funny "I'll Be A Dentist" song. I haven't seen that movie in years, but watching this video made me laugh ~ I remember it so well :)

Okay, back to my story about Reagan. By the time we were supposed to leave, she was screaming. When I say screaming, I mean screaming a high-pitched scream that I'm certain was a few decibels away from shattering the windows. When I say I dragged her to the car "kicking and screaming," I'm not using this as a figure of speech. It was awful. One of my worst parenting moments thus far. All the while, I kept questioning my judgement. As we drove the quick 5 minute drive (if that) to his office in Westwood, she calmed down a little bit and I used the opportunity to do what any good parent would do in my situation: Negotiate. It went something like this: "Reagan, if you're a good girl at the dentist, I'll take you to the store after and buy you anything you want!" Pathetic, right? Like I said, I was desperate.

When we finally entered the office, she was crying softly. I figured once we got there, she'd loosen up, since everyone at this office is super nice. Sure enough, the staff was determined to make it a good experience. While I filled out the paperwork for her, Carol (the dental hygienist who always cleans my teeth) came out to the waiting room with a big stuffed animal and toothbrush. She asked Reagan to brush his teeth for her while I filled out the paperwork. This worked like a charm and Reagan was all smiles. I was able to talk to her about seeing Dr. Galitsis and I told her all he was going to do was look at her teeth and count them. I told her I'd let him count my teeth first to show her it wasn't scary. She loved this idea. Then she said, "how about if he counts your teeth instead of mine." I said, "Okay, I'll go first and you can go after me." Her response was the same response she's been giving for just about every request the last week, "I don't think so."

Carol walked us into the room and Reagan insisted that I sit on the chair. Carol was wonderful with Reagan. She showed Reagan all the cool tools and gadgets she works with (the chair, the big overhead light, the mirror, the scraper tools, the polishing tool, the latex gloves, the mask she wears on her face, etc.). She let Reagan use the polishing tool on the teeth of the stuffed animal so she'd see exactly what it did. Then she put together a goody bag full of random things like latex gloves, doctors masks, toothbrushes, etc. Despite how accommodating and great Carol was, Reagan still wouldn't open her mouth and show her teeth. Carol even tried to coax her by saying she wanted a picture of her teeth, but that didn't work either.

Carol took this of Reagan and me ... I only had the camera on my iPhone ~ I had every intention of grabbing my camera before I left the house, but Reagan's temper-tantrum had me too frazzled and I left in a frenzy without it.

Here's Reagan picking out a toothbrush with Carol ... she ended up giving her 2 Pink Piglet brushes

NOT a good picture, but I snapped it quickly with my iPhone at a horrible angle with no flash. That's Dr. Galitsis in the background. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. When I told him I was pregnant with Reagan, I couldn't believe how genuinely excited he was for John and me. He has 2 children, a boy and a girl, and it is obvious that they mean the world to him. When Reagan was born, we sent him an announcement and he sent us a big gift basket. Who receives a gift basket from their dentist?! Anyway, he was great with Reagan ... he kind of kept his distance and didn't put any pressure on her, just got to know her a little. Reagan was pretty warmed up by then, so the first thing she said when he walked in was, "My name's Reagan!"

So ... I guess it wasn't all that bad, since she left the office happy. But she never opened her mouth, so we've got to work on that for next time. As we were leaving, Carol asked Reagan if she'd take home the other stuffed animal (a big purple bug with teeth like the yellow dog in the above picture) and babysit it. She gave her one of the giant toothbrushes and told Reagan to brush its teeth everyday ... she also asked her to come up with a name for the creature. So, I've got to figure out when to take Reagan back. Should I do it soon, within the next couple weeks? Or should I wait a while? Maybe I'll wait until after Preschool starts in the fall and see if Ms. Lisa will do a theme on Dentists one day!

Avery is officially crawling!

Well, Avery has been scouching, rolling, wriggling like a worm, etc. in efforts to move around the room for a while now. She's been crawling a few steps here and there, but today seemed to be the first day when she really figured out she could move a good distance on her hands and knees. So I walked into the playroom with a nectarine and she knew it looked so good that she just had to have some. I then took the following video:

Please excuse the naked baby ... I had just changed her messy diaper which had gotten on her clothes and I knew I was taking her upstairs to get her pajamas on.



As I was typing this post, just after I took the video, Avery pulled herself up into the standing position all by herself on the back of my chair!!! I turned around and was shocked to see her STANDING UP! Wow, two milestones in one day - now that's an over-achiever! All just 3 days shy of turning 9 months old :)

Avery's First Tooth!

With any baby, there are so many FIRSTS, but the first tooth is one of the biggest. I often feel Avery's gums to see if any teeth are trying to poke through. This afternoon, I was surprised to feel a tiny little tooth coming out on the bottom. I never would have known she was teething, given that she's been just as happy as she usually is. I figured this would be the case, since Reagan was the same way. Maybe that won't always be the case with Avery, but Reagan never complained about cutting any teeth. I consider myself very lucky to have such easy going children :) Anyway, I took this picture shortly after I felt the tooth. If I'd tried to take a picture of the tooth, you'd only see gums, since there is nothing visible to the naked eye ... I only know it's there by touch.
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Since I didn't 'blog' back when Reagan got her first tooth, I figured I'd post the picture of Reagan and her first one. I remember vividly the date: July 1st, 2006. Reagan was 7 months old and it was her cousin Makenna's 2nd birthday. It was also the day that her other cousin Blake broke his leg. We had just come home from being in Salt Lake for our annual Moon Lake trip. Here's a picture of Reagan two weeks later when you could actually see the tooth:

It's funny to compare the pictures of Reagan and Avery around the same age ... looks like they had about the same amount of hair, but Avery definitely has a few more rolls than Reagan ever did! The one thing that is definitely the same is the bitter/sweet feeling of the first tooth: I'm happy for her to be growing up and getting teeth, yet I'm sad to see the end of those precious gummy smiles! There's just something so sweet about a big gummy grin ... I'll miss it :(

Firsts for Avery at the Park

Today was such a great day ... John and I took the girls to the park for a picnic and a leisurely afternoon in the sun and shade. It was 80 degrees today, so we broke out the summer clothes, even though our white skin was a bit scary! We started the picnic by giving Avery her first taste of solid food: Rice Cereal. She wasn't sure if she liked it or not, so we'll try it again tomorrow.

I had so much fun taking pictures of my girls that when I downloaded them, I had 128 to sort through! Here are some of my favorites from the day:

Reagan and I went exploring on a walk and she was fascinated by this rock. She also loved watching the geese, ducks, birds, fish, and turtles!
Maribel and Joaquin met us there and they brought a soccer ball ... Reagan and Joaquin had so much fun kicking the ball and chasing after it! Joaquin is walking cautiously now, taking a few steps at a time on his own.

This was Avery's first time on a swing and she loved it! Here are my girls swinging together:



I thought the above picture was kind of funny looking: Avery looks like she's standing on the ground and she's a giant ... maybe it's just late and I'm really tired. You be the judge :)

Forgive the hat hair in these pictures of Avery - it's not her fault I didn't bring a comb to the park with us!



Joaquin was cracking up when John was giving him 'high five'! Too cute!

John and Reagan on a nature walk