R...E...I...L...L...Y

I don't know about other parents out there, but when I thought about having a baby...I thought about having a BABY. Not a kid, who would learn all these new things and amaze me every day! But that is just what my girls do! Lately Reilly has been very into learning how to write all the letters. She can now write her name...and will ask me to spell our names so she can write them as well. She will sit at her art table for hours just writing letters, it is so fun to watch her soak it all up! Here is her name that she wrote this week.

Oh Crap!

Reilly loves to take showers, so she will often hop in with me whether she needs one or not. She plays with one of her dolls in there, cleans the doll, pretends she is taking her doll to the pool...you get the point.

Well on Friday night she hopped in with me. Reilly had just gone to the doctor that afternoon, so she decided she would play doctor with her doll. I was the doctor, Reilly was the mommy, and the doll was the kid. The conversation went something like this:

Reilly: Doctor, can you please look at my kid

Me: Sure, lets take a look. Hmm...her ears look good, so do her eyes... Oh no! Her tummy isn't good (takes a look at the tummy). I think she swallowed a FROG!!

Reilly: okay, I'll take her to the pond and make her spit it out.

She then "walks" her baby to the pond and pats on her back and says, "Spit it out kid!" Then she walks back to me and says:

"Oh crap!! Now she swallowed a duck!!"

I wanted to laugh so hard, but I didn't want to draw attention to the use of the oh crap phrase, so instead I kept playing. I think I need to watch my use of the word crap ;-)

Reilly and Mason

Reilly and Mason have been friends since they were babies. In fact, Mason was Reilly's first friend. They used to have "playdates" before they were old enough to have playdates. Here they are at 7 months old and 5 months old - the first picture I have have them together.

Anyways...that was the set up to my real story. Over the last 4 years it has been fun to watch Reilly grow up, but I have especially enjoyed watching her friendship with Mason develop since they have been friends for so long. I remember when Reilly first could say Jaime and Tayler (Mason's parents names), and then when she would get so excited to see Mason walk into school, and how she would come home telling us stories about what her and Mason did today.

Well I think we have hit a new milestone. Reilly and Mason now share stories at school. Reilly came home the other day and said "GUESS what Mommy!!??" "Mason's dog ALSO pooped in the house" I asked her how she knew that, and she said because we were talking about our dogs today...

"I told Mason about Buzz pooping in the house...and you know what? Mason was with his Pop and their dog also pooped in the garage. Gross, right"

HILARIOUS!!! I love that they share these stories about dog poop!

Reilly's Dance Recital

Potty Training?

Last night Brooke pooped on the potty...literally!

ON the potty.

She was in the bathtub and said "Out...poop." So I took her out..and she walked to her kid potty, opened it up and tried to sit on it. She has a hard time getting on the seat. As she was struggling to get on it, she pooped. So you see, she pooped on it - not in it. But the concept was there, and we haven't been working with her. So that is good!

But once she saw the poop she started to cry -- oh well! It is a good step!

Mother's Day!

I remember Mother's Day as a child. I don't have any one specific memory, but I remember what many kids probably do -- making cards at school...making breakfast...all those good things. After my Mother's Day today, I need to go back and talk to my mom about what her Mother's Day was really like....because mine was a challenge!!

Reilly is at a great age, almost 4, loving, cuddly - just great! Brooke on the other hand is 18 months and FULL-FORCE into the Terrible Twos. She bites, scratches, screams and throws a temper tantrum to top all temper tantrums!

In the morning, Mike and the girls gave me my present and I was so excited!! We got new bikes and one of those carts for the kids to go in. I've been wanting this for months and was exicted to try it out! We got dressed to go for a long ride...and 4 minutes in, I had to put the breaks on because Reilly was screaming in the cart as Brooke was biting her and pulling her hair. We tried to go on, but Brooke kept it up. We finally turned around and dropped Mike and Brooke back at home while Reilly and I continued on.

Then there was lunch...Mike had reservations at a nice place, and I convinced him that our kids couldn't handle it - so we went to Chili's. While we were there Brooke threw food all over the ground and upset the other people...so we left and took our food to go. We then cancelled our dinner reservations....and opted to have dinner at home.

Dinner was much the same, Brooke threw her entire plate on the floor....twice. So early to bed for that one!

Mike tried so hard to plan such a fun day, but there was just nothing that could happen without a lot of stress. I'm wondering if Mother's Day changes as the kids get older...or if it is always a struggle? Oh well...I sit here and eat chocolate to de-stress!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! (and some pictures from our day today...)

Cousin Ben

Just a cute picture of Ben and Reilly watching a movie!

Summer is here!

To celebrate the start of the warm weather, we went to the water park with our friends. Brooke is...how shall we put it...a handful these days, so I didn't get too many pictures. But here are two of Brooke...and one that the Disney people took of Reilly and her friends Carson and Charlotte!

Girlfriends

Reilly's class had a performance last weekend....I got some video, but it was not so exciting ;-)....but afterwards we did snap a cute picture of Reilly and Charlotte:

Reilly and Logan

Here are a couple more pictures from California - these are both of Reilly and cousin Logan. They had a great time together. In the first one they are just posing for a cute cousin picture, in the second one they were laying outside with Aunt Michelle counting stars!