Iced in

Iced in. Snowed in. Living daily in pj's. I should have cabin fever. With four days contained in my snug Plano house with my 2 year old baby girl, I had lots of laughs as I saw her spunky and joyful personality exploding with new ideas from her little 2 year old mind. I hope I can remember all the moments that made me laugh this week!

Making Papa's Chili for Snow Week

So Kevin requested a pot of Chili Monday night, papa's recipe of course. This may or may not be great for my diet, but I went along with it, knowing it could feed us for days!!! And I probably wouldn't get a chance to leave the house again. Reese was mommy's big helper at the grocery store, but an even bigger helper at home! She absolutely will not "pretend cook" with "pretend food". Her little chubby 2 year old hand kept sneaking my chopped onions as she added to her skillet over her own pink retro kitchen stove. I drew the line at the raw beef!!! She also took off with my favorite purple teaspoon set to add some spices to her chili for daddy. 

RedecoratingPart of why I enjoyed this week at home was all the in-door list of projects I was able to at least start. One of Reese's favorite things to say lately is "Mommy, come work in my room". She loves to have her room reorganized or cleaned-up. After days of in-house projects, Reese must have felt the vibe to refresh and redo her room. She was moving around one of the three pieces of an animal print 3 part table in our living room. After scraping the floor and shuffling it around from corner to corner in our living room, she started making a beeline for her room with mommy's mini animal print side table. I called out to her... teasing her about moving mommy's furniture around. And she explained how it would be "so cute in her room". With a sassy turn, she looks me right in the eye, and says "I am a decorator. Like G-mommy." I suppose I shouldn't squelch her creativity and I should let her have my table for a while! 

Valentines

An overzealous mom bought the 3 year old Valentine kit for her 2 year old girl. What does this mean? It means we struggled through making 4 Valentines plus 1 Reese insisted on making for HERSELF. Now she refuses to create any more Valentines. So I suppose she is only mailing out 4 Valentines. How am I going to get her to make her 6 classmates their Valentine's by next Monday??? She was certainly cute as she placed the floating letters at the top of each Valentine saying, "put it in the kye!" (put it in the sky)

Time to Play in the Snow

Daddy came home early on Friday surviving driving in the 6 inches of snow on top of ice. He comes in the door throwing snowballs at Reese and mommy. He invites us to come and play in the snow. Reese says, "no- it's too dirty". She was very emphatic. Then, as daddy tromped through the entryway, snow falling off his hiking pants that he wore over his work slacks, Reese yelled a louder "NO!" As he tossed a mini snowball at her, Reese says, "KEVIN, you need to clean this mess up!" with her little pointer in action. Daddy was really in trouble if Reese is calling him Kevin. Ha!

Where is Baby's Valentine?

On day 3 of being snowed in, mommy had a delayed light-bulb flash and realized, what a perfect week to potty train - and I have squandered that time. So I spent Thursday morning taking Reese to the potty every 15 minutes. Each trip, we read Karen Katz's "Where is Baby's Valentine" in between reading her Abby potty book. Everytime we passed the page with the pink heart cookies, Reese would give me a slow shy smile and whisper, "I want a pink heart cookie and some choc-a yet." By noon, I soon realized that I hadn't necessarily squandered precious potty training time as Reese was clearly not ready yet. And we could certainly redeem the morning time spent with crying over potty time and hello kitty big girl pants by of course...making something yummy and pink and very Valentine-ish. So Reesie put her cooking skills to the test and made a batch of perfect vanilla pink frosted cupcakes. It was also in celebration of 2 and a half. Kevin and my own special holiday we made up at our 2 1/2 anniversary. We realized we could celebrate February 4th instead of Valentines day as it is our half anniversary. So at 9 1/2 years we still call it our 2 1/2. Thanks Reese and Kevin for the memories and for two-stepping in the kitchen with mommy. XOXOXO

Snow Day in Dallas!

Hooray! It is snowing in Dallas. We drove home from the Village Church in tiny ice hitting dada's truck. By the time we got home, ice turned to snow! We opened the kitchen blinds and as Reese peered at the window, Kevin cooked some yummy chili.

I dug out Reese's snow pants that are technically for a 1 year old. We just improvised and slipped them over her tights and held them up with her winter coat. She even kept her mittens on.

At first Reese was really hesitant about going out in the snow. "I am playing toys right now mommy." But after some persuasion, she ventured out into the snow. She was a princess at first, "Dada, it is snowing in my eyes." "No, I don't wanna do a snow ball fight"

After mommy made a really tiny snowman, she got into the snow and Daddy and Reesie had their first snowball fight. Lots of giggles! After our toes started to feel a little numb, we ran inside to heat up by the fireplace with yummy warm chili of course. What a perfect Sunday!

Reese's First Day of School

I know. I know. I am WAY behind on blogging, considering all the fun stuff we have been busy with lately. Reese got to meet her teacher, Mrs. Bronson, a week before school started at St. Andrew in Plano. Daddy surprised Reesie AND Mommy by coming to meet the teacher. 

Reese overheard Mrs. Bronson say, "We will be learning shapes," and for a full week all we heard was "Mrs. Bronson - learn shapes!" Every time we would drive by the beautiful steeple, a little voice in the back seat exclaimed "Reesie's school" (sounds like Reesie's cool!) 

Learn shapes! Reesie go to school! 

Mama woke Reesie up and we celebrated the first day of school with waffles. It was a torrential downpour in Plano, so our only good first day of school pic is in the house. 

Theme - We're Wild about What's Ahead! 

Reese Help

When mommy picks Reese up from school, she says, "make pens". I finally realized she is saying "make friends". She also wants to be a big girl and every day she carries her own nap mat. She is learning all her friends names, and will tell me about them throughout the week. She adores school, and mama and daddy adore Reese! 

"I Love Ballet Shoes"

Mommy searched high and low to find a dance class with ballet and tap for my sweet 2 year old. At the Motion Center for Dance open house, Reese toured the studio and smiled while she yelled "baby running" as she ran circles in her future class room. It was an easy decision to sign up! 

Her first day of ballet was a huge success! All I heard about was "ballet shoes". I wasn't sure how much Reesie was absorbing, but at home she showed me her heel toes and sashes. 

2nd class - more sashes. And she came home singing "itsy bitsy spider" the song of the day in dance class. She also asked me if Ms. Susan could come over, her dance teacher. 

Now Reese says, "Tomorrow, Ballet Shoes!". Translation - Reese wants to go to ballet tomorrow! 

3rd class - now Reese repeats over and over, "I LOVE ballet shoes". Those are sweet words to my ears. I love seeing the joy on Reese's face as she grabs her special dance bag, singing all the way to the studio and running to play and dance with her new friends, in complete adoration of her new dance teacher. My little ballerina. 

Elmo Part 2:

Who is at the door?!

Elmo, Can you believe I am two?

Waiting on Elmo

Aunt T with Elmo!

2 years old! 2 parties! G-mommy spoiled Reese with a surprise visit from Elmo. From Elmo decor including the sesame street sign mommy spent one too many hours on, the goldfish and Elmo's favorite food  - pizza to lots of good friends and family. The anticipation built for the grown ups as we waited for the arrival of the furry friendly preschool monster. Elmo dancing with Reese and just playing and hanging out with her took Reesie by total surprise. It was truly an Elmo and Reesie's world!

Hooray! Reesie is 2 years old!

Our precious Reese just turned 2 years old. She adores Elmo so we created an Elmo's World at home to celebrate with her. Kevin and I feel like we created very precious memories this week. Reese enjoyed an amazing birthday party with her closest friends, she finally got a play kitchen, 
and
we had amazing family quality time this week. 

G-mommy is back from Bursinel, and rushed to celebrate with her g-baby. Despite jet-lag, an extremely long house to-do list, and MMLJ starting school Monday, G-mommy worked incredibly hard to make Reese's Elmo Party a true celebration of Reesie's World!!! 

Daddy stayed up until 2 in the morning so Reese could wake up to a birthday surprise of a "retro-pink" kitchen set. A gift to both baby and mommy, as mommy needs for Reese to have SOMETHING to do in the kitchen so mom can keep providing healthy meals for the family. 

And as mommy sat down to sign the sparkling birthday card from mommy and daddy, the emotions hit. Reese really IS a SPARKLE in our lives.  Where did year 2 go? The memories of little toes walking, then running and now dancing. Flight to Switzerland with an 18 month old. Coloring, learning ABC's. A sweet sadness in how fast the days disappear, and then a joyful realization of the new adventures for Reese starting this fall. Tap! Ballet! School!!! Making new friends. 

We have a lot to look foraward to, but does that mean I am days away from saying, where did year 3 go? So here I am at my baby's 2nd birthday, deciding, I need to try this blogging thing even though, as a part-time working mom, full-time stay at home mom, I honestly don't have time. Gonna try this out!!!! Both Kevin and I are better at enjoying special moments, and not so much taking pics, video, journaling. One of us has to be the documenter of some of our favorite memories! So let's start with Elmo.