Reese Elizabeth

We welcomed Reese Elizabeth to our family on July 14, 2016. She was 8 lb, 10 oz, 20.5 inches. My whole pregnancy I joked that I was hoping for a good eater and a good sleeper, and I was lucky enough to get just that! She is 3 weeks today and has been a dream. I don't want to talk about it to much in fear that I might jinx it! We love our little girl so much (especially big brother, who is an expert little helper!) and are so thankful for her health and sweet demeanor.

3 years old

Look at that handsome face. I just want to squeeze it all day long. Here's some things I want to remember about Kyle at 3 years, 3 months old:

• You talk NON-STOP. Words that end in "T" you pronounce with a "K" so you say "giank" for "giant," "righk" for "right," "presenk" for "present," etc. And some words that start with "S" you use "G" like "Gop!" for "Stop!" Words that start with "L" are "Y" like "Yoyo" for cousin "Lolo."
• You also like to say "that's funny huh?" or "that's silly huh?" "oopsie daisies!" and "aye yay captain!" 
• When we do thumbs up, you use your pointer finger shaped like a hook. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.
• You can write your name like a champ!
• You are about to finish your first year of parent participation pre-school, and you've grown up so much. You follow the rules, sit on the mat, do story time by yourself, etc. So proud of how far we've come since we started!
• You love to color and your pictures are no longer scribble. You stay in the lines and use all different colors. You're an amazing artist!
• You also love to paint and do such a good job on your crafts at school. You take them very seriously.
• Your favorite shows right now is Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Paw Patrol.
• You finally gave up your pacis last month. We were so scared to do it because you were OBSESSED your whole life, but after one night of torture we got through it and survived. The paci fairy brought you some Paw Patrol guys and their vehicles and I think you were satisfied with the trade.
• You started swim lessons last week and aren't sure if you love it yet.
• You sometimes sing a song to baby sister in my tummy that you made up. "Go to sleep, baby sisterrrr."
• You were a super potty trainer. Once you were ready, it was like you never even wore diapers! For us, the key was really just waiting until you were ready.
• You love the Step Into Reading books about Batman and the super heroes. But you also really love the Dr. Seuss books. We read a ton of books every night and you always ask for just one more.
• We like to go to the library and you help me pick out books now. 
• Last time we went to Knott's, you went on the log ride with Mimi! But now you say you don't want to do that again because you didn't like it. But you tried!
• After you get out of the bath, you and your dad like to trick me. You get in your jammies and then put your towel over them and make me think you just got out of the bath. You call it "jammie burrito" and think it's hilarious to do it EVERY NIGHT! You always say "I tricked you huh!!"
• You are a super friendly neighbor and say hi to everyone when we are on a walk or go to the park. The Fed Ex delivery guy came yesterday and you told him "I'm Kyle and I'm 3 years old!"
• We've been working on writing letters and you are doing really well! You can identify all of them and most of their sounds, and you can write A, C, E, H, I, K, L, M, O, Q, T, U, V, W, X by yourself (capital letters).
• You like to do puzzles and we play games a lot, like Candy Land, Memory, Chutes and Ladders, Sequence for Kids and Go Fish.

You are so stinkin sweet with your baby cousin and I can't wait for you to meet your baby sis. Only 5 more weeks!!

Baby #2 Coming Soon!

pictures by my good friend Morgan

It's been 100 years since I posted on this blog and I was actually going to delete it, but then I went to fill in Kyle's baby book and noticed that I had NOTHING written down for his 12 month update. So I came back and read my 12 month post and was able to fill in all the info I needed! Then I started browsing through all the old posts and realize how much I miss it. True, I don't have tons of time to spend on it, but whenever I have a few minutes to spare (like I do today) I want to post some updates to help me remember this time in our lives.

Only 5 or so weeks until we meet our baby girl and I'm feeling READY. Not ready, like I can conquer the world with 2 kids (I actually don't know how the heck I'm going to do it!), but ready, like I can't sleep very well and I'm uncomfortable and my feet are swollen from running around with Kyle all day so let's do this.

I also can't wait to see her sweet little face and introduce her to her big brother, who is excited beyond belief.

strawberry picking // 25 months

It was almost 90 degrees in the OC yesterday, but that didn't stop us from lathering on the sunscreen and spending some time at Tanaka Farms. During the spring they do strawberry tours, where you climb aboard a tractor, take a tour of the farm and then pick your own fresh berries to take home with you. (In the summer they have watermelon tours, the fall a pumpkin patch and winter Christmas trees.)

The entire tour is about an hour, and Kyle did great! I was actually surprised at how much he enjoyed it. He loved climbing aboard the tractor and sat nicely the entire time, pointing out cool things he saw, like a scarecrow and a hawk. On our way to the strawberry field we made a few pit stops to try some of their home grown veggies - we got to try carrots, cilantro, onion, celery, bok choy and sugar snap peas. And would you believe that my little picky eater took a bite of every single one?! (except the onion - I spared him from that experience). I couldn't believe it! I guess he got caught up in the moment :) He liked the carrots and peas the best, which is no surprise since those are his favorites at home too.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at how much Kyle loved the tractor ride since that's totally up his alley, but what really made me smile was how into the strawberry picking he was. He wanted it to do it all by himself and looked hard to find the good ones that were perfect for his little basket. And he was so, so proud of himself when his basket was full and he carried it back to the tractor. He climbed back in with his basket, opened it up and grubbed! Shoved strawberries in his mouth for the whole ride back.

We bought some sugar snap peas from their market and headed home, where Kyle was really excited to show his dad his basket of berries and eat a few more before dinner. We can't wait to go back this summer for some watermelon fun!

Santa Ana Zoo

I love taking Kyle on "field trips" when we have a free day. Sometimes we invite friends along, but other times it's fun to do things just the two of us. Last week, we checked out the Santa Ana Zoo. I had heard that it was a smaller zoo, so we knew going into it that there wouldn't be a huge variety of animals, but it turned out to be the perfect size for a 2 year old.

One of my favorite things about my schedule is that my "free day" is usually a Tuesday or Thursday, so when we go on these types of field trips we usually don't have to fight the crowds. This particular day was a Thursday, and aside from the bus of middle schoolers enjoying their actual field trip, there weren't too many people around. We saw tons of monkeys swinging around, which made Kyle laugh, an anteater, camels and an ostrich. But the highlight of Kyle's day was probably discovering that there is a CHOO CHOO at the ZOO! He was in heaven.

We took a lunch break and then I let Kyle play around on the playground for a while (by the way, he asks that I stay down now so that he can play by himself - what the heck!) and climb in the jeep, which was probably his second favorite part since he loves playing in daddy's real Jeep at home.

When Brian comes home from work in the evening, Kyle and I love to tell him about our day. When I asked him to tell daddy what we did that day, I expected him to say "ride choo choo," but the first thing he said was "see monkeys!" So cute.

Overall, we had a great day and I'm sure we'll be back again. Parking is easy and free and the zoo is right off the 5 freeway. Kids under 3 are free and adults are only $10, so it's a pretty affordable and fun outing for mommies with young kids.