Reggie at 9 Months

Yes this is long overdue but I'm going to try to get caught up.

Reggie's 9 Month Stats:

Height: 27 inches ~ 25%

Weight: 17.15 pounds ~ 25%

Head: 17.5 inches ~ 60%

Diaper Size:3

Clothing Size: 6-9 Month clothing mostly and a few 12 M items

Number of Teeth: 2! More info later in post.

Favorite Foods: Chicken & Mixed Veggies, Beef & Mixed Veggies, Squash & Zucchini, Sweet Corn & Rice, Cinnamon Raisin Granola.

Favorite Snacks: yogurt bites, Gerber Garden Tomato & Veggie Garden cheetos

Bath time: Reggie puts her head down when water is being poured on her head to keep it from getting in her eyes. She's so smart!

Favorite Books: Her favorite is "Farm Animal Sounds" because it's a flapbook and she likes turning the flaps back and forth. She seems to really enjoy her books.

Latest Tricks:

Roaring: We have a book about a lion that learns how to roar and Reggie has picked up on the sound effect. She'll roar back at us and sometimes roar at people in the store. SO funny!

Reggie's definitely gotten more mobile and crawling faster and faster. She can climb up the entire flight of stairs, no problem.

Reggie got 2 teeth this month!
~On April 20th, her bottom left front tooth broke through and the next day on the 21st, the right front followed. You could see the little suckers trying to come through for a long time. She had two little swollen bumps on her gums for what seemed like forever. She was getting up more often at night, between 2 to 3 times. It was a little difficult for me/us since she's spoiled us and been a really good sleeper from the beginning. If she did get up, it'd be a little later in the night, which was a bit easier for me to handle.

The Little Details
~ She is such a happy and calm baby. She smiles so much now. People are just amazed at how laid-back she is.
~ She's been getting into the cupboards and pulling things out. I'm waiting for her to climb into the cupboard and peek out from inside. I have a picture from when I did this as a baby so it'd be funny to catch that on camera. Like mother, like daughter. :)
~ She uses stuff to step up onto to make it easier for her to either grab something or play peek-a-boo.
~ She started raising her arm up like in the picture below. I don't know what exactly she could mean by it but it sure is funny.

~ 

Our sweet girl is just getting so big and smart! She's so much fun! We just love her!

Reggie at 8 Months

Wow! To say time is flying is an understatement! Our Reggie girl is growing and learning so fast! I have so many little things I need to write down so that I can hopefully remember these fun moments of her.

I thought I'd start something like this to document her stats - Thanks Kaleena M. :)

Age: 8 1/2 Months
Diaper Size: 3. She's been in these for awhile because we were having lots of blow outs in the 2s.
Clothing Size: 6-9  M. mostly, she can wear a few 3-6 things [sweats, jackets] and also a few 12 M. things
Number of Teeth: 0. She's contantly chewing on everything
Favorite Foods: Ham, Pineapple and Rice Combo; Squash; Sweet Potato
Favorite Non-Food items: Paper, cardboard, and napkins. If she's fussy, all we have to do is hand her a piece of paper or napkin. She loves to put these things in her mouth. Hey, whatever works sometimes. :)
Favorite Toys: Dad's Ninja Turtles from when he was a kid. If the turtles are in a pile for her to choose from, she'll pick up a turtle.
Favorite Books: Any that we read to her. She likes to pull out the books in her little "library bin" to look and knaw on them. She is starting to figure out how to turn the pages. When she plays with her books, she tries to open them and usually succeeds.
Favorite Snacks: Her ultimate favorite is the Gerber Graduates Veggie Dip "Cheetos!" She absolutely loves 'em! She also likes: Sweet Potato, Peach, and Cherry Puffs. We recently bought Waffle Wheels in Banana Cream flavor which has been a good buy as well.
Favorite Drink: 50-50 juice and water. We usually use white grape.
Bathtime: She loves to play in the water. She is an excellant kicker/swimmer. It really looks like we have a future swimmer! When she gets out of the tub and I lay her down to get her ready for bed, she cries. She does NOT like to lay down to let me put on her diaper or her clothes. She doesn't like to put on clothes. She's also figured out how to roll over in the tub and keep her head up and out of the water. She's just really not liking laying down. I think she knows laying down is usually for sleep.

Latest Tricks:
Crawling: Yes; all over and getting into everything! It's funny!
Walking: Sort of; she leans against walls, couches, chairs, cupboards, etc. and uses them to get around. If she can use a something to help her walk around, she will do that over crawling.
Getting herself off the couch: If she's laying down, usually when I'm changing her, she'll roll over and inch herself off the couch. She's getting pretty good at it so that she doesn't fall backwards.

*She's a pro at using a sippy cup! She loves her juice but we refer to it as a "drink."
* She can blow raspberries and she does it constantly.
* She likes to take her clothes off. When we are getting her ready for her bath, we leave her tops/onesies on top of her head and she pulls them the rest of the way off. Now she's gotten to a point where she can almost take them off when they are at her neck.

Words/Babbles:

• "Mama"- first word! :) It's starting to sound more like she's actually saying Mom.
• "Nine-nine-nine"-just babbles, she's not actually meaning the number 9. Since she's almost 9 months old, we ask her, "Is that how old you are? 9 ? 9 Months?" I'm starting to think it means "Night-night" more than anything. :)
• "Dada": she JUST started saying it this week so I was pretty excited. I kept calling Rocky when she was saying it so he could hear it. It never worked on the phone because she'd stop and smile as soon as she heard the ringing.

Cute little things and details:
* I love it when she raises her eyebrows! SO CUTE!
* She has a "gummer" smile-it's like a straight line/square/goofy smile sometimes her mouth is closed, sometimes her gums are showing. It's the funniest thing!
* Her rolls! Oh they're so cute!! I'm sure I've said this already but I never understood the expression of people saying kids were so cute they just wanted to eat 'em! I totally get it now! :)
* She sucks on her upper lip by using her tongue to cover it. It's so funny!
* When she's tired, she plays with her ears. When she first started doing this, I thought the worst - ear infection. Since she doesn't cry or play with her ears constantly, I've figured it's just another one of her tired cues.

Nicknames:

• Reggie girl
• Baby
• Reg-zilla
• Reg
• Boog
• Booger/Goober
• Monster
• Sweetheart
• Pretty Baby
• Reggie-meister
• Destructor
• Kando [Grandpa Neal's Nickname for her]

Songs we (I) sing to her

• "Reggie" to the tune "Sherry" by Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons
• "Rockin' Reggie" to the tune "Rockin' Robin" [I'm sure that was obvious :) ]
• "Pretty Little Reggie" made up by me to my own tune. :)

We are also moving onto 3rd Foods and going to start giving her more opportunities to feed herself her meals instead of just her snacks so things are about to get real messy! I'm sure it will be just as entertaining! :)

I got the pin out of the door hinge!

April's Visit 2011: Out of the draft-box

My wonderful sister April helped me at 6 months pregnant drive out my little grey car in April last year [2011]. It was an adventure! One of the windshield wipers stopped working while it was raining on Donner's Pass and at a rest stop, April threw away the Taco Time bag that still had my unfinished food in it. It's just wrong to throw away stuffed mexi-fries!! :) I called Rocky to complain about it! I would have seriously picked the bag out of the garbage if there hadn't been other people there! Yeah, my crazy pregnant body would have!

We attempted to celebrate her 21st birthday. We went mini-golfing and enjoyed Alonzo's Pizza Stop and Ghiradelli's Chocolate Factory! So yummy! Thanks April for being a good sport and helping me drive Gracie out. You're the best! :)

 

 

So Behind... Our Life during 2011

I am so far behind and completely overwhelmed with all that I need to catch up on! The last month has been crazy! I can't believe it's 2012 already! The year 2011 seriously flew by! I guess this post will be about our past year since I don't know where to start with everything else...
January: Rocky started his new job. We were so very blessed to get this opportunity and it worked out perfectly, transitioning from one job to the next without any major space in between. Rocky trained in SLC for this month as well as February.

We also had to fit in trying to find a place to live out in California where Rocky's job was based.

February: This was quite the month! Rocky continued to train in SLC and also traveled to Minnesota for more training. I spent time hanging out at home during this time. We celebrated Rocky's 25th birthday and Valentine's Day at Ruth's Chris steakhouse in Park City! It was a nice little getaway for a few hours. We also found out that we were having a GIRL this month! The very same day, we got in a car accident in our new car, that we'd had less than six months, on our way out of town in the middle of a blizzard basically. The car ended up getting totaled and we learned a lesson in insurance... you definitely get what you pay for and make sure you have an actual agent. We moved out to Cali.

March-June: Rocky worked quite a bit and did very well whatever tasks he was doing. He worked on getting to know his team and doing what he could while he learned the ropes and got all his equipment/tools. My 24th birthday was in April and I continued to get bigger throughout my pregnancy. I was called to be a Primary Teacher. We were blessed to have two baby showers thrown for us in May. At the end of June, I became property manager over the complex we moved to.

July: The 4th was spent out at our Bishop's house bbq-ing, our jalapeno poppers we brought disappearing too quickly and soaking my pregnant body in the pool! Thank you Norman family! :)This month our whole world changed when we were blessed with our wonderful baby girl Reggie Brooke! We had an appointment on the 8th. I figured if I was far enough along to move forward, I would have the rest of the day to pack and get my things and we'd go to the hospital in the morning, which I didn't think would happen at all. Well I was far enough along that my doctor wanted me to go for a walk and then come back to check-in to the hospital! Surprise! It was a crazy day! We had to go back home to pack our things and we also ran a few errands before heading back which included: getting a new phone for myself, eating at Togo's [my favorite sandwich shop out here], and walking in the mall so I wouldn't die of heat! We kept getting pushed back since my induction wasn't a medical emergency. We checked in to the hospital around 10 p.m. on the 8th and had Reggie at 10:11 a.m. the next day, July 9th, 2012. I had an epidural which was the best thing ever! Reggie was sunny-side-up for a while but she eventually rolled over and it was shortly after that, things were in full swing to get her here. Pushed for about 30 minutes and here was our beautiful baby! I think I might've  been able to get her here sooner if I hadn't been dead asleep and was pushing within 5 minutes of them waking me up. We didn't choose her name until the next day by lunchtime. We think we made the right choice! :)  Rocky's parents and my family both made trips out to see us and helped us with adjusting to a new addition.

August-September: August was a whirlwind of getting up a few times a night and moving Reggie to her crib. She was in her crib by the time she was a month and a half old. She didn't like the bassinet very well at all and slept so much better in her crib. As soon as we got her days and nights figured out, she started sleeping through the night pretty well, getting up maybe once a night. So lucky I know! We blessed her on September 11th at my home ward. Rocky did an amazing job and even gave a talk as well! These are the times when everyone sees what a truly great man I have as my husband! We had several family members and friends come and it was so wonderful to see them.

October: We went to the ward trunk-or-treat and Reggie won Best Costume Award: Infant Class. She was Snow White and oh-so-cute! We're not biased at all! :) For treats, we handed out Capri Suns to help the kids wash down all that candy. We also got Reggie a little pumpkin to paint. We mostly kept her from putting the paint-dipped brush in her mouth.

November: We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Bishop and his wife's family. We had a wonderful meal and played a very long game of Monopoly. We went down to Monterey Bay and spent some time with my cousin and his wife.

December: We were able to go home early in the month and celebrated Christmas early. Reggie received so many gifts and we barely had enough room to bring everything home. We rode the train into Salt Lakt, ate at Iggy's [one of our favorite restaurants] and saw the lights at Temple Square. It got pretty cold, especially for little miss Reggie but we were glad we were able to go. We were so happy to be able to spend part of Reggie's first Holiday season with family!

Rocky was called as a Young Men's leader sometime during the year but I can't remember exactly when.

Overall 2011 was great! This is the longest we've been at one place so that's been marvelous, not keeping our move-every-6-months trend. Reggie is growing up so fast and it's hard to keep up with all her accomplishments and constant changing. She is the most wonderful blessing! It's so surreal to be a parent and to have this amazing little spirit with us. We love her so much and she has immensely enriched our lives. Here's to a fantastic 2012!

Reggie Brooke - July 9, 2011

Monterey Bay

Temple Square

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas!