Reese's Pumpkin Patch Parade

Princess Sofia was so excited for her parade last week.  She takes her performances very seriously (she's already walking around the house practicing her shuffles for her Christmas dance recital next month!).

She cracks me up because she has the next 5 Halloween costumes planned.  She was Tinkerbell last year, and next year she wants to be Cinderella - and she wants the exact same costume one of her friends wore this year.

 Reese and Emma are BFF's.  "Emma" is basically every other word out of Reese's mouth.  Every day she gets in the car after school and I ask what she did that day and she says, "Mom!  What do you think I did?  I played super heroes with Emma and Griffin!"

 We went back to her class for a few minutes during her party.  Hudson didn't mind - he got some party food and didn't want to leave!

We still haven't settled 100% on where she will be going to kindergarten next year. Wyatt stayed at the preschool for K, but we've kind of fallen in love with the public school. Also - swinging another year of 5 day tuition seems insane.  BUT!  If she doesn't go back to preschool I could end up dropping Reese and Wyatt off at 7:35, dropping Hudson off at 8:30, picking Reese up at 10:50, picking Hudson up at 11:40, and picking Wyatt up at 2:20 (that sounds insane, and I wish Kindergarten was a full day...so we'll see). This could be her last parade!  They get so big, so fast!  

First Day of School!

On Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to get this little guy off to his first day of First Grade!

 And when I say bright and early, I mean bright and early.  Seriously.  We have to leave the house at 7:30 to get him to school on time!  It's not a problem for this guy who is up with the sun everyday, but it's not that easy for his mommy and daddy who were sleeping in a bit over the summer.  Fortunately for me, Brian's been dropping him off in the mornings while I get the other two ready for school.

He was very excited to start the new year, and I'm pretty sure that he ended up with the first grade teacher that was meant for him.  I think he is going to learn so much and have a blast in the first grade!!!  I asked him what he thought about his first week last night and he said that it was great!  I was worried about sending him off to a new school, but he already knows so many kids from his old school and our neighborhood and baseball and soccer, so he's actually listing off who he saw at school every day when he gets in the car.

This little miss was off to her year of Pre-Kindergarten!  She is going to school 5 days a week this year for half the day.  I know that she will learn so much, and she is already having the best time!

 She kind of insisted on having a "hand on  the hip" pose after she put her chalkboard down.

So there's that.

 And this little guy started school for the first time ever on Tuesday!  I can't believe that he's old enough for school!  He's in the same 2 day 3 year old program that Wyatt and Reese were in, but they actually let November babies in. He'll stay with the same group of kids until they separate for Pre-K and Kindergarten.  He won't meet the age cut off for Kindergarten, so he'll head off to Pre-K, just like Reese!

 He was so, so excited to go to school.  He wanted to get his picture taken with everybody, he wanted to leave the house with Wyatt, and he wanted to make sure that under no circumstances was he left at home. 

I was worried that there might be nerves of even some crying, but there was none.  He walked into his classroom, and only looked back once.  Then he moved on to washing his hands (yes, he likes to wash his hands!).

 I think the fact that his amazing big sister was there helped him some.  He loves knowing that she's just down the hall if he needs her - and she definitely didn't stop reminding him that she was only a few steps away!

The first week of school was a little crazy for us all (one new school, 3 new schedules, 2 different drop offs and pick ups, soccer starting, baseball games, and on and on and on), but we had a lot of fun.  I'm so excited to see where the new school year takes them!

Happy 5th Birthday, Reesie Piecey!

This little princess is 5 years old.  Unbelievable.  (I know, I said the same thing when Wyatt turned 5.  But the time passes so quickly).

She had a "perfect birthday."

First of all, she got two things that she has been begging us to buy her for months.  A Princess Sofia dress and an amulet.  And even better, she wants this to be her Halloween costume, too.

We decided to let her open her presents from us when she woke up in the morning.  We also had her party that day, so we thought it was best to space things out a bit!

 When a big brother spends his time choosing exactly what he wants to get you and keeps it a secret for weeks, he earns the right to hover while you open it.  Even if he is ready for safari!

 She was so sweet while she opened her presents.  Every time she opened something she shouted out, "Awesome!"  In case you can't tell, this girl was very excited to get her amulet!

 Another favorite was a Brave archery set.  Don't worry, it's just suction cups.  But she takes her archery very seriously.

She planned out her birthday meals in advance so that I could shop for everything.  No, I'm not kidding.  She requested blueberry muffins and eggs for breakfast, chicken nuggets and strawberries for lunch, and Red Robin for dinner.

She got what she wanted. :)

We had her birthday party that afternoon (separate post to follow), and she had such a great time with all of her friends!

After her party we came home to open her presents, and followed it up with dinner at Red Robin.  She was adamant that we tell  them that it was her birthday because she really wanted them to sing happy birthday and bring her ice cream!

This made. her day.

I can't believe that it's been 5 years since this beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, artistic and hilarious little girl entered our lives, and stole our hearts.  She is such a bright light to everyone, but she brings an immeasurable amount of love and happiness into our lives.

Happy 5th Birthday Reesie Piecey!  We love you!

Reese's Two Week Well Baby Check Up

Today Reese had her two week check up with the Pediatrician. We actually got all 4 of us out of the house on time (okay, one minute late)! We dropped Wyatt off with my mom so that we could have a peaceful trip...and it really is surprising how relaxing the Pediatrician's office is when you don't have to keep up with a 16 month old and a rolly chair.

Unfortunately the Pediatrician was running about 45 minutes late. He later apologized and only said that if he could have changed his whole morning he would have. Anyway, Reese hasn't gotten any taller, she's still 20 inches. Her head still hasn't gotten any bigger, it's 13 and 3/4 inches. But she did put on some weight! On Thursday before she was released she was 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces. On Friday at the Pediatrician she was down an ounce to 7 pounds, 5.5 ounces. Today she was 7 pounds, 12 ounces! Not only did she gain weight like a champ, she gained her birth weight back plus 2 ounces! We were thrilled! We were both worried about her weight gain because she's not a hefty eater. She's a bit of a grazer, eating every 1 or 2 hours during the day and only 3 times between 10pm and 8am and she only eats for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. We were totally relieved when we found out how much weight she'd gained.

Along with the weight gain she's doing well overall! Our doctor had to pull up her discharge papers, he didn't know about her hospitalization because the NICU has it's own doctors. He told us that if he'd just examined her and not read her discharge papers he wouldn't have known that there was anything wrong with her at birth, but he was glad she was doing well. That was so great to hear!

Her 2 month appointment and Wyatt's 18 month appointment fall within two weeks of each other, so we scheduled them back to back for November...the day after the election. That should be fun! But the doctor said that he was game so Brian and I will take our chances!