Sunday, May 31, 2009

Reilly's New Bike

Ever since hanging out with Amanda and Patricia in California last month, Reilly has wanted a Disney Princess bike.

Mike went and picked it up last weekend, put it together, hid it successfully in our closet. But, we did discover that at 3 years old, kids start to out-smart you. You see, the box to the bike was in the garage. We had it covered with other things, but that didn't keep it from Reilly.

On Wednesday, she stopped in her tracks and said, "Mommy, what is THAT??" I quickly came up with, "Uh, we found that box in the road, somebody left their garbage so we picked it up." She looked at me like I was crazy, but appeared to have bought it. Phew!!

On Thursday, we were again walking through the garage and she says to me, "I'll be in in a minute Mommy, I want to get my princess bike out of this box first." She said it so casually - ha! So I again told her about somebody leaving the box outside. This time I got a look like, "Am I really THAT dumb?!?" But she appeased me and came inside.

So this morning, Mike said to her, "Reilly, did you get everything you wanted for your birthday?" And she said, "Yes." Then paused and said "Except my bike." So you can imagine how happy she was to walk into the living room and see the bike! She hopped right on and road it like a pro!

Reilly's Birthday Party - Three Years Old

Here is the video from Reilly's chocolate party. It was a great time and she had so much fun! She has such an awesome group of friends!!

3 Years Old

Reilly will be 3 tomorrow - wow! As a parent, you always hear how fast the time will go...but as with many things...you don't truly understand this until you one day sit back and go - WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!? That is where Mike and I are this weekend as we watch Reilly turn 3 and turn into a kid. The first three years of her life have been great - we are really blessed! It hasn't always been easy, but it sure has been fun. To celebrate, Mike put together this video of her first three years. We played it at her birthday party yesterday (pictures of that to come). Click on the box below and it will start to play.



A little reflection on where Reilly is right now.... At 3 years old, Reilly is very independent. She likes to try things before getting help, which means we often hear the phrase, "No Mommy and Daddy, I'll do it myself." She is very outgoing, she very rarely gets shy in new groups or in social situations. She isn't a big sleeper - we struggle to get her in bed by 9, and she is almost always up by 6. And when she wakes up, she likes to watch a "show." She loves playing with her friends and family - and often talks about her Nana, Grandpa and Grandma in California (and when she says California, it kinda sounds like Gov. Arnold is saying it ;-) ) She is thoughtful and always likes to play with Brooke and make her laugh. She is a good kid.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Pre-Birthday

Reilly's birthday party was today and there was A LOT of anticipation from her leading up to the big event. We tried to keep her busy in the morning to get her mind of presents, friends, cake and fun. Here she is having a fun morning with Brooke and explaining that she is turning THREE!






Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Brooke and her dog

Brooke loves her dog. She follows him around the room with her eyes and laughs every time he comes into the room! Tonight I had her in the playroom and she was just loving and talking to him. Of course, I pulled out the camera after all the conversations had ended, but I still got a little video.

Brooke also cut two new teeth this last week - her two top middle teeth. She wouldn't let me get a picture of them though!




Building Forts

When I was a kid, one of the best things to do was build a fort. My sister, Wendy, and I shared a room. She used to boss me around and tell me what to do. I was four years younger and pretty much put up with it. One of the things she used to tell me to do was to go round up some blankets...when I would come back she would build a really cool fort. We had a table and chairs in our room and we would use that to bridge the blankets. When it was all built we would hang out inside.

This weekend Reilly asked me to build her a fort. Her and Daddy do this all the time and she thinks it is the coolest. This weekend after I built it, her and Brooke sat in there playing with toys. It was really adorable and reminded me of my childhood.

I couldn't get a good picture, they all turned out blurry. But, I felt it was a memory worth blogging about anyways!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Helping Mommy

Brooke loves to be part of the action. Don't get me wrong, she loves to sit around and play with toys by herself...but if we move rooms, she better move too!

This weekend I was attempting to hang a new curtain rod...and Brooke was right there in the middle of it. When I turned around she was playing with all the packaging!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

ichat

When I was two, I never talked to my friends on the phone. Wait...did I have friends at 2? Probably not. So, when I was like 8, I talked to my friends on the phone. But my phone was attached to the wall. I remember, it was green and hung in the kitchen and it was really high on the wall, so I had to climb on a chair to get to it. It did have a really long cord though, so I could sit down in the corner of the kitchen or under the kitchen table to talk. Oh yeah, and I had like a 5 minute limit since we didn't have call waiting.

But now, times have changed. Reilly talks to her grandparents on my iphone, its really slick, fits in my pocket, comes with me wherever I go. Not only does it have call waiting (I can just hear Reilly in 20 years, "what is call waiting?!?"), but it has speaker phone - and Reilly loves to talk on speaker phone.

But lets take this another step further! Reilly loves to ichat! When I was a kid, I couldn't have imagined ichat, but to Reilly it is no big deal to sit in front of her computer and talk to Mason. Here is a picture of her doing just that - as if the technology has been around forever!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

7 month old Brooke

Our baby is 7 months old. As most parents will probably be able to relate to, it feels like she was just born yesterday, but also feels like she has been part of our family forever. How is that possible?

At seven months old, she really has a ton of personality. She loves to be tickled, and to be kissed on her neck. Both make her laugh. She sits up well, but shows no interest in crawling. In fact, she doesn't like being on her tummy at all.

Here she is:


And here she is with Reilly ;-)

Monday, May 11, 2009

Reilly Feeding Brooke

The love between Reilly and Brooke is one I could never have anticipated. They each light up when the other walks in the room, they make each other laugh, Reilly helps Brooke when she can and tries to help when she can't. I caught a glimpse of that relationship in this short video.

Comparing Kids

I know, I know - you aren't supposed to compare your kids. I've been hearing that since I got pregnant with Brooke. But as I snapped a few pictures of Brooke eating...she reminded me of when Reilly started eating, so I pulled these pictures. They are so different, but so similar....and SO GREAT!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

California...knows how to party

We just got back from almost two weeks in California. It was the first trip we have taken as a family of four - and wooooweeee! We were busy! We flew into Sacramento, saw some of my family - then dropped the kids off. Reilly stayed with my dad and his family, and Brooke stayed with Aunt B.

Both girls had a great time bonding with their California family. While they were there, Mike and I went to our San Francisco office to work for a few days. Afterwards, we spent time in both Sacramento and San Francisco with the girls. Reilly learned the song "California...knows how to party" (hence the title of this post!), and learned a little about geography and the fact that we live in Florida and some of her family lives in California. She and Brooke both did awesome on the flights!

Here are some pictures of our adventures.

When we went to the Bay Area, we stayed with Jenique, Brad and "Baby" Liam.

Brooke and Liam first met in December when she was 6 weeks old and he was 4.5 months old. Here they are meeting again at almost 7 and almost 10 months old!


This is a great picture! I met Jenique while in our freshman year at Saint Mary's. At some point that year, I also met Alison - though we didn't actually become friends until after we graduated. In any case - these are all our kids - FUN! Reilly was a little out of sorts being the big kid in the crowd with nobody her size. The little one sitting up is Liam (Jenique and Brad's son) and the newborn laying down is 6 week old Andrew (Alison and Brandyn's son)


Jennifer, Mike, Reilly and Beeper (Jennifer and Dave's cute new dog!)


Aunt Abby and Brooke



Reilly and Maera had a playroom full of toys - but chose to play in the bathroom - hahah!



Dennis was working on his rental house, so we stopped to see him. He was showing us around the backyard and stopped and put his foot up like this, and Reilly followed-suit without prompting. I think she really liked him ;-)



Brooke was exhausted after a day of traveling!



Reilly riding BART, the subway in San Francisco. She loved being on the train!


After getting off BART, we walked to the office to let the staff see Reilly and meet Brooke. It was really raining, so we took a look at our itinerary and decided to cut some things short (like playgrounds!) So we hopped in a cab and headed down to the Pier. Here is Reilly checking out the sea lions at Pier 39 - we felt like such tourists in a city we lived in for years!


After a fun time at the Pier, we walked up Telegraph Hill to North Beach - where Mike and I lived before moving to Florida. It is only a few short blocks, but they are straight up hill! Oh, and it was still raining! We are at the bottom of our block in this picture. Just over my right shoulder is the building we used to live in.


While on a walk of our old neighborhood, we stopped at Washington Square - and actually ran into our old neighbor! For a big city, it really is a small place!! Anyways, while we were talking to Rob, Reilly broke out her animal crackers to feed the birds. Mike dubbed her the "Bird Lady of Washington Square."


During our long walk through the city, we walked through this nice park where Mike and I used to go for lunch. Reilly loved the water fountain and stopped for a picture with her daddy!


Brookie was there too!!


SACRAMENTO

Auntie Patricia loved to hold Brooke, in fact her and Amanda liked to "share time" holding her. I can't believe I didn't get ANY pictures of Amanda with her!!


Grandpa Sweeney and Brooke





Brooke and Nana



While we were in Sacramento, Patricia had her first communion. Reilly said she was a beautiful princess, and she was! Here is a picture of Reilly with Amanda and Patricia.


Aunt Di playing with Brooke


After the first communion, we had a margarita party for Bridget. Aunt Di decided Brooke should give the glasses a whirl while hanging out in the drink tub ;-)

Here is Patricia with Reilly on these fun bikes!


Mike tried too!


I think he should leave it to the kids!