Parenting Challenges

So when I found out I was pregnant in Sept. 2008 I freaked because I've always had this plan to be THE PERFECT parent and I thought I would need to read every 'how to' book on how to properly raise children prior to having one. So the first thing I started doing was reading, I had my mom send all her pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding 'how to' books to me and when I was done reading those I went to the library. I became a regular at the library reading every book I could get my hands on, I even rented books on cd so I could listen to them while I was driving. I watched all the pregancy and baby stories on TLC. I went to La Leche League meetings. I read baby magazines and parenting blogs. I learned a lot, but nothing I read could've ever prepared me for the day (middle of the night) I gave birth to Raegan.

I've managed to find some time to read since Raegan has been born. I've read a couple of books like Baby Wise I and II and Grace Based Parenting along with lots of magazine articles and parenting blogs. I am such a planner, I've asked Philip what he thinks about different disciplining ideas and even what age we're going to let Raegan start dating! I want to have all the answers before the questions arise. Anyways, as part of our bedtime routine I always give Raegan her baths. This week she decided to challenge me. She decided she wanted to stand up in the tub. Which as a well informed parent I know is very dangerous as she could slip and fall, but how should I make her sit down? The solution just came to me, it wasn't something I'd ever read or anything anyone had told me, I just figured it out on my own. Everytime she stood up I just turned the water off and said "sit down Raegan" in a calm but serious voice and she would sit back down. I was so proud of myself for figuring this out without having to fight with her, forcing her to sit down, and without any crying. I hope that this happens with all future parenting challenges I face! = )

She loves bath time so much! This is her kissing the bottom of her tub goodbye after I drained the water.

Great Long Weekend!

Last week I decided to make Friday my flex day and then Monday my flex day for next week making for a four day weekend! I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Raegan. I think I'm wearing off on her, lol! She is already starting to copy things I do. She pulls out everything from my bathroom drawers, including these cotton pads that I use to clean my face, when she pulls them out she wipes her face with them. She still loves to pull kleenexs out of the box, but now she'll pull one out and come wipe your nose with it and then go get another one and repeat, until the box is empty! She's also become very interested in clothes. Possibly because everyday that I'm off I take her shopping! She'll find clothes in our closet or the laundry room and give them a hug and carry them around or lay down with them like they are a blanket, she does this with her own clothes sometimes too.

Philip recently posted two videos, but didn't provide any commentary... I guess they are pretty self explanatory, one just shows how excited Raegan was about going outside. She loves being outside but hates the grass! We did get her to sit in her chair in the grass but then she toppled over and went head first in the grass. She got a little scratch on her face and then started breaking out in a rash on that side of her face, but we gave her some Zyrtec and she was quickly all better!

Philip and I are both picky eaters, but try to change our meals up every once in awhile to keep things interesting. Tonight we made Sweet & Savory Apricot Chicken from a recipe I found in Health magazine. It was easy and pretty good, but not as sweet as I expected. For dessert I found a blueberry granola cereal at Target today that we mixed in our vanilla frozen yogurt! YUM!

Here are a couple of recent pics... sorry all our pics are just of Raegan, Philip is very camera shy :)

Miss social, this is a pic of Raegan playing with an 18 month old little boy at the mall playground. Soon after this he gave her a big kiss and she looked at me in shock!

Loving some spaghetti!

Showing off her purse and lipstick she got from her friend Preston for her birthday! Look at that belly- she's been eating everything in sight!

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz

We are getting some great ZZZzzzZZZzzz's lately! Well except for when Philip stays up super late to watch the Thunder in the NBA playoffs. We have stuck with the pediatrician's plan and a solid bedtime routine and its working fabulously! Raegan now lays down in her crib with no complaints or crying and sleeps through the entire night!!! Below is a picture I took of her when I went in her room this morning to wake her up. Did you hear that? I woke her up instead of the other way around, nice.

In other news, on Wednesday we went to the Arts Festival in downtown OKC. We got to watch a children's talent show -- super cute! Raegan enjoyed flirting with people while we strolled around. Then we ate dinner in Bricktown at Coach's and Raegan had her first kid's meal from a restaurant. Kinda a waste as she only ate a couple of bites.

So the Thunder play again tonight, Philip tried to convince me to go by telling me that we'd get free Thunder t-shirts if we went. It didn't work.

Oh, twice in the last 2 weeks Raegan has gotten bitten by another baby at school. Both times on her forearm. I asked her morning teacher about this and if it was just a phase that the babies were going though or what? She said that she has two babies that bite others just to bite, not because toys were taken from them or anything like that. She said Raegan is good about not taking toys from others, that she doesn't bite other children, but that she does like to pull hair. Geez, daycare violence starts early! LOL!

Her and her baby doll almost matched this morning. She was playing with her doll and I got the camera out and then she sat her doll facing outwards like this and looked at the camera like we're ready for our pic now mom. : )

Magic!

Philip took Raegan to her one year old checkup this past Monday. She's 28 1/2'' tall (31st percentile), weighs 18 lbs. 4 ounces (9th percentile), and has a head circumference of 44 cm (97th percentile). She's kinda like Bobby from the Bobby's World cartoon, she has a little body and a big head, hehe. The doctor also convinced Philip that Raegan should be sleeping by herself in her own room through the night and that if we followed her instructions it would only take 3 nights and she would be sleeping through the night. I wasn't a believer and wasn't for the idea of even trying it at first, but then Monday night she was a horrible bed-sharer and woke me up nearly every hour. So we started the 3 night plan Thursday night. After her bath, I nurse her, then Philip reads a story to her, we tell her goodnight, and lay her in her crib. Thursday night we laid her down at 8:30pm, she cried for about 45 minutes and we went in and checked on her every 15 minutes and told her it was night-night time, but didn't pick her up or make her lay back down. She didn't wake up again until 1:30am. This time I went in and nursed her and then laid her back down in her crib. She cried for about another 45 minutes and every 15 minutes we went in and checked on her. She went to sleep and didn't wake up again until 5:40am, which was okay because I needed to get up anyways as Philip was going to work early.

So we stuck with the plan Friday night was very similar to Thursday night, with a little less crying. Then magically Saturday night she slept through the entire night in her own crib all by herself. I was shocked, I hate to admit it but the pediatrician was right, how crazy is that, lol! Of course I didn't sleep through the whole night, because I was so worried about her and if she was breathing or ok, because she wasn't crying. But it was still a very glorious experience to sleep in my own bed with just me and Philip for the first time in a very long time; there was so much space that I had forgotten was there!

So our little girl is growing up... other things she's been doing lately include waddling much faster than before (she doesn't really walk, she waddles), eating with utensils, giving high fives, and jibber-jabbering ALOT.

Where does the time go?

Goodnight from the Smith household... hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Trip to Texas!

Some things I love about Texas: bluebonnets, Rosa's, HEB, cowboy hats, country music, & warm weather!

This past weekend we flew to Austin to spend some time in Killeen and Waco, TX. Raegan did well on the plane and we let her ride facing forwards in the rental car for this trip. Friday when we got to Killeen we had lunch with the Chick-fil-A Operator in Harker Heights and Raegan got to play in the playground. She was so excited that she could climb up the slide and play with the other children. We had to stop by the HEB Plus to pick up some things we forgot to pack, HEB Plus is an great store, I wish we had HEBs in Oklahoma! Then our hotel room wasn't quite ready so we went outside to put our feet in the pool, but Raegan decided to jump right in! She was kicking and splashing and wanted us to let her go. After cleaning up we went to the Killeen mall and then to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse, we love these places! Here's a pic of Raegan puckering up after tasting a lemon. She is teething but the water all over her shirt isn't slobber its water from her sippy cup.

Saturday morning we got up and drove to Waco. We spent the morning visiting the Bears and playing at the Mayborn Museum.

Raegan is a good climber and loves walking around giving kisses and making kissing noises. Super cute!

We then had lunch with Brad at Rosa's (best mexican combination nachos!!!) and went to Chick-fil-A in Waco to visit some of Philip's old co-workers. Apparently Philip is a legend there ;) We had family pictures scheduled for 5:30 back at campus so we headed to our hotel downtown to catch a nap. Raegan was well rested and fed and looked so cute for the pictures, but when we met the photographer I thought we had forgot her bow/headband so Philip went back to the car to find it, when I realized it was around my wrist the whole time I ran over to holler at Philip and let him know (bad mistake) Raegan thought I was leaving her with the photographer and started screaming! From then on she wouldn't give this man the time of day, not even a grin, just the evil eye. So we spent an hour and a half trying to get a couple of good pics, they aren't posted yet, but once they are I'll be sure to share the link. After our photo shoot we went to the Baylor vs. A&M baseball game. Raegan was tired from throwing a fit for so long during our photo shoot and fell asleep soon after we got to the game. Baylor won 13-1 so we had lots of opportunities to do the Happy dance! After the game we stopped by Common Grounds for old times sake.

Sunday morning we visited our old church Highland before heading home. Here are a couple pics from our plane trips.