half a year already?!

Its all happening too fast! Little lady has two tiny teeth poking through that bottom gum and is a growly, slobbery to prove it. She can roll out of tummy time as soon as I set her up to play and she's always happy about that little trick. I did finally catch her rolling from her back to her belly this evening in an attempt to grab one of the Hot Wheel cars! We're making a more conscious effort to work with her on sitting up as we realized she's supposed to be a little better at sitting by this point than she is (poor third kid!) and just in the few times we've sat with her, she's done really well!



She loves to blow raspberries and growl away at the boys or me throughout the day. No high-pitched voice for her yet!

^^figuring out grass and dandelions for the first time!

After a few weeks of sleep training (after I had the realization that she was rarely napping for longer than 45 minutes and that *had* to stop, duh), she's thankfully way more consistent throughout the day and napping much longer. She's 75/25 on putting herself to sleep but is slowly getting better at it! She loves her morning nap and is out like a light within an hour and a half of waking up. I'm always so jealous when I put her down for that nap-- such a hard life. ;)

^^ happy girl waking up from her nap on Easter!

When Reagan's tired, all I have to do is put her pacifier in and she'll immediately draw her hands up behind her head-- even when she's up straight in my arms! Its so funny and also helpful to have a confirmation that she's ready to sleep.

She thinks its funny to lean back in my arms and let me catch her, which seems like kind of a risky game to enjoy at this age! But she's caught on to the game and will lean backwards without warning. Thankfully I've got quick reflexes. ;) She loves when the boys interact with her, especially Jake. He'll read books to her and try to make her laugh and she eats it up.

Reagan has tried bananas, sweet potatoes and avocados so far. Its taken her a few weeks to actually start eating any food instead of spitting it all back out and surprisingly, avocado was the first food that she swallowed consistently. She does not love sweet potato so I've been mixing it with milk for her. She's mostly eaten bananas because I haven't had much time to make sweet potato for her but its time to pull out the baby food maker and get this girl eating!

Reagan's blue eyes look like they're here to stay and her hair is slowly getting more fuzzy! I can't wait to see what color and texture hair she has. Here's to lots of fun changes coming up-- but can time also somehow slow down?!

five months old!

Reagan is just the happiest little thing! She's usually either squeaking away or she sounds like a baby dinosaur--as the boys say-- with this little roar she's got. Its a happy roar, though! She loves to see everything that's happening around her and will only be held facing out so she can see everyone. She loves to try standing on my lap and will arch her back when I'm holding her until I prop her up so she's standing. She is definitely not a cuddler right now-- too many other things going on!-- but once or twice lately she's been tired enough to lean in on me and I cherish it. Its few and far between with her right now so I take what I can get!

^^ a rare nap in my arms at Bible study!

Reagan is so close to rolling both from back to belly and belly to back, but she's just got to figure out how to get her arms out of her way! Once she's got that, she'll be rolling everywhere. It'll happen any day now.

We're in the Bumbo stage! She really likes the Bumbo when she's in the middle of what's going on and she can keep an eye on everyone.

Thankfully her naps are getting a bit more predictable. She still prefers to be rocked to sleep in her bassinet. When she's tired, she'll put her fists up by her ears and rock her head side to side until she drops off.

Its unbelievable that we're a month away from baby food, high chairs and the beginning of so many fun milestones! 

what winter looks like

Lots of reading! The Mercy Watson series has been a major hit for all of us. Reading during lunch is our favorite time to read together.

Plenty of basement playing. the boys play hockey, ride bikes and scooters and do whatever they think up for hours on end...seriously!

Playing on their Nugget, aka the world's best Christmas present. it can be anything they imagine but they mostly like to make "obstacle courses" which translates to the boys running full steam at the Nugget and jumping on it, over and over and over. ;)

A few good snow days! Jake has asked a few times when we'll get more snow because we haven't had much good snow that they can play in. thankfully we did get one good sledding day in! This was Reid's first time sledding on a major hill and of course, he was all about it. Jake surprised me and loved trying to spin around on the sled as he went down the hill! He also tried to wreck into the snow every time too. :)

The next afternoon there was still enough snow for Deric to come up with this very creative snow fort! You know that was a huge hit for the boys!

Moving Reid into a toddler bed in Jake's bed! He did so well with that transition. The boys talk to each other at night but they haven't kept each other up too late. Its fun to listen to their conversations over the monitor.

A donut date with each of my boys! sprinkles are the favorite for both of them.

Lots of games from the library! We've always got at least one game on hand and we all love to play them. Blokus is a favorite for me and Jake; Sequence for Kids is a great one for the whole family to play together. Deric and I had a Qwirkle tournament a few weekends ago and played best out of three. I managed to win one night and that's the best I've ever done in a game against Deric. Good thing I'm not competitive. ;)


Bouncing and running 'til they drop at Flip Zone (a gymnastics gym) and Sky Zone (a trampoline park) over a long weekend in February.

Finding fun activities (thanks to Pinterest & Instagram) to do together! I love gathering the boys around the table with something new and interesting they can discover together. We're just beginning to teach Reid his letters and Jake does a lot of number activities since his reading is so solid right now. The boys obviously love activities like these and I also like finding ones that will teach them new skills and be entertaining at the same time!

Puzzles are one of Reid's favorite things right now! Lots of puzzles happen while Jake is at preschool and Reagan is napping...or not napping and watching the fun from my lap or her playmat.

And then there's this, just because... :)

Reagan @ 4 months

First things first: there is rarely any sort of predictable routine for this little girl anymore! She throws me for a loop almost every day-- she'll decide to nurse only half the normal amount of time at a feeding, then go five or so hours until she's hungry again. She'll want to nap when I think she's hungry, she'll catnap and then be up for hours...she's everywhere! The one predictable part of her routine is a *very* early morning feeding...and I'd rather that not be a predictable routine. ;)

Reagan is sadly not a cuddler anymore! Except when she nurses in the middle of the night, she will not let me cradle her. She prefers to be facing out where she can watch all the activity. She's getting stronger and wants to either be sitting up straight or held so she can stand on my lap. Her playmat has been my saving grace when she's gotten off her routine and is fussing and I can't decipher if she's hungry or tired or just a little fussy. She usually perks up when she sees her toys-- although there are times that she definitely wants to be held and not put on her mat. So instead we get things done together!

Happy girl with her toys!

A rare morning that she fell asleep in my lap! I would gladly hold her the entire time but on these rare occasions, she's squirming after just a minute or two and is much more content in her bassinet.

From a particularly rough Sunday morning at church when she was *so* off any type of routine that I spent the entire service trying to feed her, giving up, trying to get her to sleep in the nursery (because if its hard for me to get her to sleep, I don't want the poor nursery workers to have to figure it out!) and then eventually giving up and going home because why sit at church when we take her home and nurse and nap in her own room?? She fell asleep in almost a completely straight position on me after crying for ages. Poor girl was just so exhausted! 

I can't help kissing her all the time! Those cheeks are too much.

And her little four month photo shoot...

...photobombed by those cute brothers of hers! I love these three so much.