Reagan, the Author

Reagan loves to draw pictures and write stories. She started making these pictures and stories into books.

Here is the book she has written about Carter titled, "Little Brother on the Go."

My Pretty Daisy

Reagan is a Daisy Girl Scout and last night was the investiture ceremony where she "officially" became a Daisy. There are 7 girls in her troop and I volunteered to be the troop leader.

Reagan helped make the Daisy wreaths the girls wore on their heads.

We did a presentation using felt Daisy petals to explain to the parents what the girls will be learning about in Daisies.

I made cupcakes topped with "daisies" for dessert. It was a lot of fun. Reagan loves going to Daisies and asks me all the time if today is a Daisy meeting day.

Carter is doing well and getting big. His crawling has improved greatly and he is able to get up on his hands and knees and move himself around the house.

Same old, same old

Updated to add 2 photos:

Reagan is a great skier!

See that fuzzy guy in the background carrying something? That something is Carter in his carseat!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but we haven't really done anything blog-worthy. Reagan still has tinges of pink in her hair and Carter is still trying to get his top teeth and trying to crawl.

We did spend this past weekend up in Laconia, NH with Jeff's parents at their condo. The condo, is Reagan's favorite place in the whole world. I figure it's because they have an indoor pool with waterslides and a waterfall. It is a lot of fun and nice to be able to swim when it's negative degrees outside.

On Saturday, we went skiing at Gunstock. Carter stayed behind with Nana, who doesn't ski. Reagan had a half-day of lessons and then we skiied with her in the afternoon. She did really, really well. We even went up on the quad chair-lift, not on a bunny slope and she did great and had fun. In the end, she did get really cold, it was 8 degrees outside and took 2 bad spills that were caused by people who should've known better. But she got up and kept going.

I hadn't been skiing in 7 years, but managed to do ok. The only major wipeout I had was in line for the ski lift. Reagan's boot came out of her ski, causing her to fall, which caused me to fall and Jeff to fall. There we were all splayed out, right in front and blocking the lift. Can you say yardsale?

I didn't take my camera with me, so I need to get photos from Jon of Reagan. Carter did manage to take a quasi-ski trip. Judy and Carter met us for lunch. To get back to the car, Jeff strapped Carter in his carseat, strapped on his skiis and skiied him down to the parking lot.

Dirty Birdie Boy

Yep, The Boy managed to find dirt in the frozen tundra of New Hampshire. Ok, well it was inside our house in a pot with a dead plant, but he still managed to eat dirt. I turned my back for 2 seconds on him and he was happily digging in the pot and was so not happy that he was taken away from the fun. I think I'll have a very helpful little gardener come spring.

Day 5 and Reagan still has noticeably pink hair. Yesterday, she spent the morning sledding with Jeff and they took a long walk in the snowy woods. She loves playing in the snow.

Tonight, I was watching some of the inauguration recap with Reagan. They showed a picture of the Empire State Building lit up in red, white and blue lights. Reagan was convinced it was called the "Vampire State Building."

More Snow and Equality

We got a lot more snow last night. The forecasters were saying somewhere in the 6-inch range, but I think we got more. I took some pictures of Ella in playing in the snow on our deck. Looks like more than 6 inches right?



Reagan came up to me this afternoon and told me she needed "tape, heavy string, cans and a paper towel roll." I found the required items and she set to work building her project.

Apparently, she was discussing Martin Luther King, Jr. with Jeff. They were talking how he wanted everyone to be treated equally. Reagan then had an idea for a project she could make that related to him and equality.

She build a weighing scale to measure things. When we asked her how she got the idea to build it she said from "Martin Luther King and that he wanted equality." Then she said, "Oh, I guess we were talking about a different kind of equal."

It's so cute to see an almost 6-year old mind at work.

Oh yeah, her hair is still pink in front. Hopefully it will go away before school on Tuesday.

Carter is teething; he's getting 4 teeth on top and maybe 2 on bottom. He has been in a lot of pain and his nose is running. The cold weather isn't helping and he now has a big sore on his nose. We're trying to keep him happy and his nose medicated, but it may take a while to heal. Those darn teeth just need to pop through.

My Gym Boy

On Friday morning I took Carter to his first My Gym class. He loved every minute of it. At first he was somewhat overwhelmed with all the colors and activity. We were also at the wrong class. All of the other kids were at least 14 months old, so they were all walking. (I forgot my camera, so the pictures were taken with my iphone.)

To start off, I put him in the ball pit and he just looked around, taking everything in. After about 10 minutes, it was circle time. Carter started bouncing and laughing and just couldn't get enough of the class. His favorite part was moving his arms back-and-forth while singing "see and saw". It still makes him laugh at home.

He also enjoyed swinging and was pretty worn out by the end of the hour.

I know he'll love going to My Gym as much as Reagan.



Speaking of Reagan, she went to school yesterday with pink hair. Her swimming lesson also had no real effect on the pinkness of her hair. I hope it goes away soon, but right now, she looks like a little punk rocker or as someone with hippie parents.

Puppy Love and More Crazy Hair

Look at that tongue!

Carter is now on the move! He gets around the room through a combination of backwards crawling, rolling over and scooting on his back. He's not so good at going forward yet.

This afternoon I caught him kissing himself in his mirror. He turned around as soon as he heard the snap of the camera, but I managed to get a shot of him anyway.

Carter and Ella have a mutual love for each other. Carter is fascinated with everything about Ella, her fur, collar, wagging tail, while Ella is fascinated with Carter's food and his castoffs to her. He loves to hang his hand over the side of his highchair for Ella to lick as he's eating. He hasn't quite figured out that she would love anything he

would throw her way, but I fear that day is coming soon.

Reagan enjoys it when I do her hair cute. I've been looking for some sparkly spray hair glitter and today I thought I found some at Claire's. I bought a purple and a pink. It's a good thing I tried it out on her tonight. It turned her hair bright pink and bright purple!!! She still has a hot-pink scalp tonight even after washing her hair and playing in the bathtub for an hour.

I can't figure out how to turn this picture. It's uploading sideways on Blogger. Sorry.

Wacky Wednesday

Today was Wacky Wednesday in Reagan's Kindergarten class. She has so much fun planning and putting her outfit together for today. I had fun helping her get ready this morning.

I put wire in her hair to make her pigtail braids stand out.

We went to Target after I picked her up from school and so many people smiled and laughed when they saw her.

5 year olds are so much fun!

Must start somewhere...

Yep, I've finally gotten around to blogging. I've been wanting to blog for about a year, but I have always been stumped in trying to come up with a fun-yet-original name for my blog. After realizing that this would never happen, I decided to just get on with blogging. The kids weren't getting any younger, time is going by faster and if I did not get my act in gear, blogging before my kids are in college would never happen.


So here goes:
The players:
Reagan: 5, almost 6, aka, The Girl, string bean, doodle, sweet pea












Carter: 8 months, aka, The Boy, Carter-rino,
Destroying Angel


Me: Lisa, Mom, former prosecutor, turned stay-at-home mom in August 2008
Jeff: Dad, software development manager, likely to be in a meeting or on a conference call
Ella: 5 year old black lab, aka smella, partner-in-crime with The Girl and The Boy

Scene:
Frozen Tundra of Southern New Hampshire

Currently it's 20 degrees outside and there is a fair amount of snow on the ground, so we spend most of the day avoiding the cold. Which means my house usually looks like a tornado hit it or at least a Destroying Angel was at work.

Carter is a very busy 8 month old. He is just starting to be on the move and can crawl backwards and roll over and manages to get himself wherever it is he wants to go. He has a walker (scooter) he uses to get around that aids him in his destruction. Carter has no fear. Telling him "no" sends him into laughter and he only does whatever it is he's not supposed to do even more. Pulling on cords, opening cabinets and tearing up his sister's artwork are his favorite pastimes.

Reagan is also very busy. She'll be 6 next month, which means we are in the middle of planning her 6th birthday party. It's going to be a Hannah Montana glow-blowing birthday party. She just started Kindergarten this fall and LOVES it. It's a half-day program, which means she goes to school from 8-10:40 am. Yep, that's it. So, 2 days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays she goes to a Kindergarten Enrichment("KE") program at a local preschool until 3 for just a little more school and socialization. She loves KE even more than Kindergarten, if that is at all possible. She also takes dance lessons, jazz, tap and ballet, is a Daisy scout, takes ice skating and swim lessons. She also played soccer this fall and baseball last spring.

My days are spent keeping up with the kids and the house. So far, the kids and the house are winning.