FLO-RIDA!

Ahhh, we just recently returned from a much needed vaca in Florida! We were so fortunate to get to spend almost a week in Boca Raton visiting Jimmy's parents, his sister Janine, our nephew Ty, old friends and extended family. We flew down and yes, we were 'that' family on the plane for a short while. But hey, an hour and a half on an airplane beats 11 hours in a car anyday in my book (note, my husband would STRONGLY disagree with me on that one). Here were some of the highlights from the trip:

• We had a nice visit with Reid's long distance cheering section (i.e. the ladies that Carol works with)...it was so wonderful to finally show off my babies :-)

• We also had a wonderful time at Jimmy's cousin's wedding...congrats again to Heather and Manny!

• Spending time with Kevin, Jenn & KJ was very fun...KJ is Kevin and Jenn's baby boy. He is about 7 months old (3 mo. younger that Reid) and outweighs Reid by about 5 pounds! He is a BIG boy...what a cutie!

Now we are gearing up to do it all again...six weeks before Michelle and Steve get married in NY! I apologize ahead of time to the passengers who will be on our flight up north :-) On one last note, today (5/29) is mine and Jimmy's 5 year anniversary! Happy anniversary honey! I looked it up and apparantly, the fifth anniversary is gifted with wood???? I'll hold out for the diamonds!

Updates

I just realized that I haven't done an update on the kids growth/accomplishments in quite a while! Here are a few little things to catch you up... REID:

• Reid was 10 months old this past Sunday (5/10).
• He weighs about 17 pounds, 6 oz -- I know how many ounces b/c we had to have a baby scale at our house, obviously for when he first came home. I still weigh him every other day!
• He (FINALLY!) has fat rolls on his chubby little thighs :-)
• He has two teeth, both on the bottom.
• His hair is starting to curl and is really getting quite long.
• He is somewhat mobile...still hasn't quite figured out the crawling mode of transportation, but he can roll, scoot and rock with the best of 'em!
• He sits very well on his own now...no more tripod!
• He says mamamamama and dadadadada pretty regularly, although I still don't think he really associates the sounds to me and Jimmy.
• He LOVES LOVES LOVES his big sister - no one can make him belly laugh harder!
• He is starting to wave to people.
• He's still eating stage 2 baby food - his favs are squash, sweet potatoes and bananas. Least favs are green beans, peas, and surprisingly applesauce and peaches.
• He sleeps pretty consistently from about 8pm - 7am...I know, I am SOOO lucky!

CAMERYN:

• Cameryn will be 3 years old on June 1st! My how the time flies!!! Hard to imagine that she will be starting Pre-K in the fall of 2010!
• She weighs roughly 30 pounds.
• She is SOOOOO smart - and no, I'm not just saying that b/c I'm her mother! I am constantly running into people who are truly amazed that she is only 3.
• Her favorite color is pink.
• She would choose to wear a dress every single day if I let her.
• She doesn't like being dirty.
• She has a bit of an obsession with shoes (as blogged about before) and insists that they, along with her panties and hairbows match her outfit.
• Her favorite 'toy' of the moment is Barbie. She does still watch Dora every evening though.
• She spontaneously likes to give me and Jimmy hugs and kisses and tell us she loves us, which we used to have to prompt her for. I can't tell you how much I LOVE this!
• She has been completely potty trained since Christmas of last year.
• She absolutely LOVES her 'baby Reid' and has never once shown any signs of jealousy. I think we feel pretty certain that she will never try to give him away to the exterminator (Janine) :-)
• She goes to bed around 8:30 and gets up around 7:00 -- again, I know I'm lucky!

All Tuckered Out

After a super fun filled weekend, which included our nephew Owen's 3rd birthday and of course, Mother's Day celebrations, we were all in need of a nap! Reid was so tired he opted to catch some zzzz's in his jumperoo. Check out the cool long johns my mom bought for him :-)

Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma

Reid is officially babbling non-stop - or as I like to think, he's conversing with me in 'baby talk'...I just can't understand him! At the very beginning of the first clip you can hear him say 'ma ma ma ma ma'. The logical part of me understands that he is just putting sounds together, but the emotional part of me says he's saying mama! Cameryn's first 'sounds' were da da da da, so I couldn't be happier that I got ma ma first this time. After all, Reid is a bit of a mama's boy ;-)

The second clip is just cute...nothing really to show other than his 'tummy time.' You hear me ask him if he can crawl to me - he is not crawling yet, but he's getting close!

Pool Time!

Cameryn has been very excited about the weather getting warmer for one sole reason...she wants so badly to go to the swimming pool! We were invited to a friends house who has a HUGE blow up pool with an awesome slide. We got her into her new bathing suit (which, by the way, she pronounces 'baby soup' -- too cute, I know) and headed on over to the pool. She had a blast and even went down the big slide all by herself! The first time down the slide scared her and I think she got water in her eyes and nose. We convinced her to try again by assuring her that I would catch her before she hit the water. Check out the video clip below...gotta love the face! And yes, I did go down the slide too - sorry no video :-)

Earth Day

As you may or may not know, today is Earth Day. Honestly, I only know this because Cameryn's daycare is celebrating. I knew they would be doing all sorts of projects today, so I thought I'd try to explain Earth Day to her this morning. Turns out it's a REALLY hard concept to explain to a two year old. I finally settled on telling her that Earth Day is a special day where we talk about how much we love everything outside...like the sky and the trees. She looked at me like I had three heads, so I didn't have much faith that my "teaching moment" had taken root. Boy was I wrong! As soon as we got to daycare, Cameryn ran up to Ms. Sue Anne and exclaimed (in a VERY loud voice) "I LOVE GRASS!" I have to admit, I did snicker like a teenager again :-) Happy Earth Day.

I've Created a Fashionable Monster!

I will absolutely take full responsibility for the fact that my 2 year old has a SERIOUS shoe fetish! Not only does she love, love, love shoes, she also has a bit of a complex about making sure her shoes match her outfits. I'm actually embarrassed to admit this, but the girl currently owns 19 pair - and they all fit. In my defense, most of them were purchased on e-bay or at consignment, but still... Jimmy has put his foot down and said NO MORE SHOES! He also says I will have to deal with the problems this shoe fascination will cause in the future. She has also started insisting that her hair bows and panties match her outfits...I'm in SO much trouble! Here is a scanned copy of her daily report that came home from daycare yesterday...as you can see she would rather be uncomfortable than DARE wear shoes that don't match her dress (read what her teacher wrote in the right hand section)... In case you can't read it, it says "Cameryn said her toes hurt her in her flip flops, but changed her mind when she was offered shoes that did not match." :-)