July 24th, 2011 - 28 months old

28 months old: When other parents used to tell me about their toddlers getting into EVERYTHING and them having to put locks on doors/drawers, I was like wow we must be lucky because Raegan really just plays with her own toys, UNTIL now, you've had a growth spurt and can now if you stand on your tippy toes see cool grown up things on counters and if you try really hard can sometimes even reach them, now you are into EVERYTHING.  We've tried drawer locks, but you've already figured them out.  You love my makeup, daddy's deodorant, markers, and post-it flags.  You're last two baby teeth are coming in this month and you'll tell us that your teeth hurt, I'm glad they are the last ones, but I think they must hurt you the most because lately you've been drooling more than ever.  You got your first freckle (dot) on the lower left side of your neck.  (just in case you ever want to know which freckle was your first :)You understand so much and can interpret conversations just by the tones/inflictions in people's voice.   You had your first dance class and told daddy "I dance like my momma" :) You even showed me your plie. Your best friends at school are Dutch and Caleb. You love ribbits (frogs), and daddy even caught you one the other night when he was mowing and brought it in to show you.  You test our patience everyday, but bring us joy in so many ways! We love you!

New phrases:
I want momma's choo choo (aka car) wet
your back!
dadda see me
I want daddy back now!
come to my room
get out of my room
leave me alone
I want you hold me
where's other two papa
I told dada to stop
I write on couch, you understand momma
I'm all done with nite nite
I want two coats (referring to nail polish on her toes)
where is my reese's bubba
I flush
I dance like my momma
I wear blue like my dadda
walk with me
they're nice bugs?
two bugs get me!
I've got two boo boos
I want to go home and eat
honey, no no

Our lil wild thing at work writing on my bathtub with a green crayon!

Big Wheels

Friday evening we met our friends to cheer on their daughter, Ashley, in the Big Wheels Competition.  Here's a video I took of the 5 year old heat of the race Ashley was in. She did great and was the first girl across the finish line!



After the race we went inside to cool off and stood in line for at least an hour (seriously) to get Raegan's face painted.  In the car she told me she wanted to write on her face, I figured face painting was a good alternative.  However, once we finally got up to the front and it was her turn, she wouldn't let the face painter touch her face at all.  She covered her face with her hands and turned her head away.  At one point we thought it might work when she told him "no white, I want that blue," I thought ok, so as long as she's in control of the color scheme we can get this done, but after the nice face painter switched his brush to blue, she had a change of mind.  So I guess we can say we tried.  Too bad too the face painter was actually really really good.  I should've got mine done, I mean who doesn't want a big butterfly painted on their face.

Anyways, it was a great atmosphere filled with boon bounces, free food, sno-cones, and hyper kiddos.  Raegan had a good time and held Marisol's hand while we walked back to the car (a first as these two, who are a year apart in age, usually won't even hug goodbye). 

Lake Trip 2011

Due to the thought of having to pay an additional $400 for a plane ticket for our two year old, we decided that instead of visiting Lake Bruin this year we would rent a lake house on Lake Lewisville.  We found a place online that slept 8, planned some dates and booked it right away.  It was so nice to have a get away not far from home.  We got there early on Thursday, after visiting a new daycare that morning (but that's another story in itself), Philip was in a 'I don't care' mood as far as food went so I decided we'd go to La Hacienda Ranch, mainly because everytime I'm in Texas I have to have mexican food! I miss it so much!  And it was AMAZING! Philip thought it was probably the most expensvie lunch he's ever had though - hey we're on vacation ; )

Philip's mom met us at the lake and brought more food in her SUV than is normally in my kitchen!  Our friends Kasey and Rob and their two little ones who live near by joined us for Chicken Spaghetti and swimming later that evening. 

This mat can be found at http://www.thewatermat.com/ they are expensive, but super fun and you don't have to blow them up or even take it out of the water when you are done playing.  One night my mom, Raegan and I were sitting out on it when I slapped the water with my hand and hundreds of minows came flipping up on the mat.  We scurried to splash them back into the water, screaming and laughing the whole time! If we ever have a lake house i think on of these would be a must as I love to layout on the water.

Friday evening my parents and Ron got in town and we had mexican stackups (aka fancy nachos) and took another dip in the lake - check out this sunset God gave us, gorgeous! We stayed up and played Quelf - a silly game we like, but I'm pretty sure our parents thought we were nuts!

 We got up early Saturday morning (I don't know why its necessary to say "early" we always get up early, Philip's parents, mine, and of course Miss Raegan).  Jerry the owner of the lakehouse we rented took us out on a tour of the lake (an history/educational lesson) Saturday morning.  Jerry, 50ish year old grandpa, was set on taking us to the cool hang outs including Party Cove and Sneaky Petes... We stopped and swam in paarty cove and Raegan even got to take over the boat when we were coasting through no wake zones.  She loved being on the boat!

 We ate lunch and took a long nap after the boat ride and then played golf toss, dominoes and cooked out that evening.  Raegan really enjoyed spending time with her "two papas!"  After check out on Sunday, we took Raegan to a park to play for a short while before heading to see my aunt Earlene and her husband Jack.  I hadn't seen them since my grandpa's funeral in 2007.  We all went for the Sunday brunch at Sneaky Pete's, which by the way is a pretty neat place I'd like to visit again next time we are down that way.  Luckily our drive home wasn't too long, but Philip and I still split it up since we were both pretty tired, aren't vacations weird in that way you go away to rest and relax but somehow always manage to come back tired.  Speaking of which its about time for our Sunday afternoon nap, so I better get going.  This afternoon we are taking Raegan to her visit movie in a theatre, Winnie the Pooh! 

Short video taken on the way to the zoo

27 months old!

This past Friday, June 24th, Raegan turned 27 months old.  She is out of the terrible two age and we communicate pretty well with each other.  She has done an amazing job with potty training and I don't even pack extra clothes with us anymore because we haven't needed them.  The only kinda strange thi!ng is that she's kinda compulsive about her panties and often wants to wear more than one pair of them. I don't fight her about it, I just try to compromise on two pairs instead of 5, lol!  She also sleeps in her own room in a twin bed with the bedroom door open all night.  I'm pretty impressed and glad. Life is pretty easy now-a-days! 

Fun things Raegan says:
I love you more
Don’t you touch my boo boo dada, you understand dada
Dada kiss momma
Baby kiss my booboo
I told my baby to stop
Its hot momma
Oh, oh, e oh oh, oh, oh e oh, oh oh e oh oh the right stuff (her mom grew up a  New Kids on the Block fan : )
Good job
Thumbs up dude
Hooray me!

Day Dates

Married life with a child is much different than it was before she was born.  There are TONS of great things about being a family of three, but it often makes dating more challenging.  Since we pay a set price for Raegan's daycare whether she is there everyday or not, Philip and I have taken advantage and gone on what we call 'day dates.'  Sometimes we will meet up for lunch at McAllisters or for a sweet afternoon sno-cone, recently we went to a Big XII baseball tournament game to cheer on our Baylor bears, and more recently we went on an early morning kayaking adventure.  Here are some pictures from our 5th kayaking date.

These dates/time as a couple are so important to our relationship and making sure we always feel like this:

and not this:

OKC Zoo

 On June 3rd, Philip and I took Raegan to her third Dream Night at the Zoo, which is an event for families with a child that has a disability that we have got to attend because the Chick-fil-A's in the OKC area donate dinner for all the families every year. So while Philip is serving food, Raegan and I use this time to explore the zoo.  This was actually Raegan's 4th trip to the OKC zoo as she went with her daycare earlier this Spring.  She has also visited the Fort Worth Zoo with Philip (Summer 2010) and the San Antonio Zoo with her GiGi (February 2011).  

The two OKC female elephants, Asha and Chandra, are sisters who were sent to the Tulsa Zoo for two years and Asha came back pregnant and had 304 lb. baby, who was named Malee based on a win of the most online votes.  Raegan loves the baby elephant so we spent quite a bit of time at their new exhibit.