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!

TPG, Hair-do's, & MNO!

As I've mentioned before, a group of us get together for TPG (Toddler Play Group) every Friday morning. Meredith hosted yesterday and the theme was Pirates because she has a pirate pool. The kids really didn't use the pool very much and the moms enjoyed the shade.

Julie & Taylor, Maribel, Avery, Corin & Jonathan

After Timmy ate a fudgesicle, he really looked like a pirate!

Joaquin and Reagan had fun playing in the sand box

I don't know why I never thought to do this before, but I French-braided Reagan's hair! I used to do this to my sister Camille's hair all the time when we were younger. I love playing with and styling Reagan's hair, so I really don't understand why it didn't occur to me sooner that I could French-braid it! I'll just chalk it up to "mommy-brain."

Doesn't it look cute?
Avery started to sweat and her wet hair, combined with the humidity caused it to go curly ... looks like she's going to have curly hair just like her big sister! If only her hair would grow faster so the curls didn't look like silly wings above her ears!

* * * TPG MNO * * *

Each week at TPG, we keep saying we all need to get together for a Mom's Night Out (MNO). We finally planned one for last night and it was so much fun! We were looking for someplace casual where we could maybe sit outside, so Maribel suggested an Irish Pub in Hackensack call Lazy Lanigan's. When we got there, everyone sitting outside on the back deck was smoking (YUCK!), so we opted to sit inside where it was smoke-free. It was so nice to get out with a big group of wonderful women. We all love our kids dearly, but sometimes we just need a break! At the last minute, I invited my friend Diane to come too ... her son JP went to preschool last year with Reagan and they'll be in Ms. Lisa's class again in the fall! Diane is such a sweetheart and I feel lucky to have met her. She's the one who invited us to the Circus back in April. She also helped us a TON with the Garage Sale back in June. I'm so glad she joined us for a fun night out :)

Amanda and Diane

Sandy and Julie

Julie, Amanda and Maribel

So, Nicole always gives me a hard time about the pictures I post of her ... she's very critical of pictures of herself. So, when I downloaded these two pics of Maribel and Nicole, I had a dilemna. The first one was great of Nicole, but Maribel looks kind of Chinese with her eyes squinted. They were obviously laughing at me and my obsession with taking pictures, so by the time I took the second shot, Nicole's face was all red, yet it's a better one of Maribel. So, too bad to both of you - I decided to post them both! I'm sure most of you are thinking, "you put way too much thought into this blog!" ... yes, I tend to over-analyze everything.

Meredith almost didn't make it, since her husband Kevin had to stay late at work, but we were so happy she finally came! There ended up being 7 of us and we all had a wonderful time. We're already trying to plan our next TPG MNO ...