Emotions are running high

I've heard the new thing is that it's called the Terrific Two's and Terrible Three's. This terrified me to no end because, well, the two's have been rough. So I did what any normal parent would do, I went into denial and figured we were the exception to the rule.

Surely for Bria the two's were terrible and the three's were going to be fantastic. Well, here we are, about 3 weeks from Bria's third birthday and I am so scared to admit that the three's are looking even harder than the two's.

Bria and her BFF: Mackenzie (My friend Tiffanie's daughter)

Don't get me wrong, Bria is a very good little girl. I can trust her to stay by my side while we are in a grocery store, which makes going out with two little ones so much easier. She gives us tons of cuddles and loves and makes sure to thank God for family time in her prayers. She loves to help and tells us dozens of times a day that she loves us to the moon and back.

It's just that, well, she is emotional. And slightly bipolar at times. Let's be clear, when I say emotional I mean EMOTIONAL. Picture a woman on her period, all cranky and pms'ing and multiply it by 100. Bria will cry if you say anything remotely to what she doesn't want to hear, if you misunderstand her, if you make a move she doesn't want you too. It's crazy. And exhausting. And sometimes funny but not at night when she's been doing it all day long.

Fortunately, the past two nights she's been in such good spirits and so pleasant to be around. She's giving us a little break, making us think, "Hey, maybe the 3's won't be so bad after all!" And then wham! She's going to throw us a huge curve ball, I'm just sure of it.

So I'm hanging on to this little one as tight as I can and telling her she is not allowed to be a terrible toddler. She can only be sweet as pie, like she is now.

Her jumperoo provides so much joy!

Her 4 month check up was today and the doctor informed me many times how strong Reese was. She looked at me with sympathy and told me that she is going to be quite the mover. She was in shock and how strong she was and couldn't believe she was rolling so much, it made it hard to do the check up ;) She can stand up just holding onto your fingers, Bria was 6 months old before she could do that. So funny to me how different these two girls are. Bria was talking really early but took awhile to crawl and walk, I have a feeling Reese is going to be just the opposite.

A little update on the girls

We got a little bit of snow last week, so we made a little snowman with our little snow :)

Reese was not as thrilled with the camera as I was ;)

It feels like Bria has been sick for a month. Probably because she has. It all started with a stuffy nose, it wasn't bad at first, only lasted a week and never seemed to bother her too much. Then she woke up one night and vomited all over her bed, she continued to wake up 3 more times that same night, heaving and vomiting. I felt awful for her, she was shaking and just wanted to cuddle. I laid in her bed with her for awhile (she prefers her bed over ours, I'm trying not to be offended) and eventually she got some relief and was able to sleep. For the next couple days she had no appetite but I couldn't blame her. I'm really not sure what made her sick, we ate the same food the day before, went the same places, so it's kind of a mystery. Anyway, I thought her appetite was coming back and then she had this horrible cough. I figured it was the end of her sickness but learned it was just the beginning. The poor girl has been coughing for over a week, and when I say coughing I mean congested, hacking. It sounds AWFUL. I was convinced it was pneumonia because it was so deep. We took her to the doctor and fortunately her lungs sounded all clear so we were instructed to give her Delsym at night and Mucinex during the day. Her doctor also told us to give her honey throughout the day to help. I think she is finally starting to get better, but she still has a pretty nasty cough. Poor girl, she deserves some relief! This time of year is always filled with sickness I guess.

Reese has been doing really well and is rolling over nonstop. She seriously zips across the room in no time, how is this possible?! I fear this child will be crawling and walking if I blink too long. She has also found her voice and loves to challenge her sister in a loud shreaking contest. Yeah, that's fun ;)

We were all on the couch the other night and Brian was holding Reese. She was staring at me like she always does and he said, "Do you just love the way she looks at you?" I told him that Yes, I loved it. She seems to find me wherever I am and just looks at me with such fondness. I look at her and give her a big open mouth smile and she just giggles and squirms with delight. It truly is one of the best feelings in the entire world. I love that I can light up her world, I pray that never ends.

4 months

Reese at 1 month

Reese at 4 months

Reese is 4 months old today! Let's see what she's doing now that she's been in this world for 4 months:

• Rolls back to tummy and tummy to back, we seriously have to be careful where we set her down because in a matter of seconds she will be all the way across the room. Sheesh, it seems way too early to have a mover!
• Wears size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes
• Is so easy to get to smile and has the cutest laugh on the planet
• Loves her mama :)
• Nurses about 6 times a day, wakes up once in the night to eat
• Sleeps on her tummy
• Takes 3 naps a day, sometimes 4 if they are short naps

• Cuddles, she will just lay on your shoulder and look around, I love how content she is
• Burps very easily after she eats (Bria was the opposite so this is so much fun!)
• Squawks very loudly (I think to compete with her sister, what a fun game ;)
• Tries to imitate you when you blow raspberries
• Is a complete and utter joy

Goes to bed around 7 and wakes up around 7

Is finally starting to be okay in her car seat, that was a LONG 4 months in the car

Is so easy going and loves watching Bria

Sucks on her hands all the time

Loves her bath and being naked

Her doctor's appointment was suppose to be next Monday but it just got pushed back to the 30th, grrr. So I will try and remember to update her stats then. I think she's around 14 pounds but I'm not sure.

I truly love this age. She is smiling, laughing, and talking, but hasn't figured out how to have an attitude yet ;) Reese is such a sweet baby. If she is crying it's because she is hungry or tired, otherwise she is just looking around and taking it all in. It's so easy to get her to smile which I love. The first 3 months Reese was a little tough, she wanted to be held on the time and seemed to fuss a lot. But wow, she has completely mellowed out and I'm very grateful for that. I love my Reese's to pieces!!

Swimming and standing

Bria has been going swimming with Heather and Tracy often, and it just so happens that Tracy is a swimmer. So Bria has her own personal trainer which is pretty cool. On Sunday we all went swimming so that we could see our little fishy in action. Oh my goodness, she was so much fun to watch. She swims easily with her life jacket on and floats on her back with ease. Then we decided to put goggles on her since she was interested in them and she had a blast. We took her life jacket off and she would go under water with her eyes open and look all around. I couldn't believe how long she could hold her breath, it was a good 7-10 seconds sometimes. She even let go a few times and would swim towards me under water. She is definitely comfortable in the water and I'm so glad for that. Swim lessons will be starting soon, gotta keep her motivated!

Reese hangin' out with Grammy while Bria swam

Testing out the goggles. Next time we'll use an underwater camera :)

Lovin' her goggles

We've had some snow here the past few days, not a ton but enough to make everything look all perty. Bria and I even made a miniature snowman in the backyard.

My sweet girls hangin' out.

Adorable smiles from Reese.

Grammy came up for a visit and it's always nice having her up here.

She took Bria to Heather's for a sleepover which was awesome. Bria loved it and so did we :)

Miss Reese is such a strong little thing, she loves standing and seems to be on the verge of sitting by herself, we'll see though :)

"What, like this is hard?"

"You're impressed aren't you Dad?"

Crafty fun

This week was pretty good. I had good Mom days on Monday and Tuesday. Good Mom days are the days where the tv is not on, or only on for an hour the whole day. We did lots of little crafts and Bria played in pasta shells that I colored the night before. I colored pasta shells and rice. It took awhile but it was worth it. I put them in these tupperware bins and she's been having a blast with them.
Tuesday night Bria woke up puking 5 times, it was so sad. Her body was heaving and you could tell she was in so much pain. Afterwards she seemed completely fine and wanted to stay up and play. I think she was scared to go to sleep because she didn't want to wake up puking again. Wednesday she seemed a lot better, just wasn't really eating. Still, today, she doesn't have much of an appetite but seems to be fine otherwise. It's so sad seeing your child throw up, you feel totally helpless.

Before Bria got sick we had fun with some of my dollar store finds.

Fun with crafting pom poms

We seriously did this for over an hour one night. Just took turns dumping them on each other.

$2 for 2 bags of pom poms, cheap fun is the best!

I cut holes in the bottom of a box and Bria had fun putting different objects through them. It's nice when she can stay busy like that. Plus it keeps Reese entertained too. I'm assuming there's some learning going on too :)

It's nice to find fun games to play as a family. Reese is always entertained with us running around being crazy.

I had to take a picture of Reese rubbing her head and sucking her fingers. I have a similar picture of Bria rubbing her head and sucking her thumb. I'm pretty sure it was the same hands too. Funny girls.

Good stuff

We had a good week over here and I always love being able to say that. Don't get me wrong, we've had our ups and downs, but overall it was enjoyable.

Thanks to pinterest and an awesome blog (play at home moms) and also the dollar store, I got a bunch of fun craft stuff for Bria and it's kept her pretty entertained. Plus, I've been able to learn ways to teach her in a fun and interesting way so she pays attention. Score.

Bria has been sporting her new clothes from Christmas and I just can't get enough of them, I'm hoping she doesn't grow out of them for a long time.

Sassy cuteness.

Why yes, my 3 year old has TOMS! LOVE!!!

Did I mention Reese has been rolling over for the past week. As in, whenever we lay her down on her back she inevitably rolls over to be on her tummy. This girl LOVES being on her tummy. Such a strong little thing.

Another adorable outfit from G&G Armstrong, they are keepin' her stylish that's for sure!

We had a few playdates this week and I hosted one at my house. It was a lot of fun, we had 7 Moms and their kiddos so it was nice and chaotic, but the good kind :) Next time I'll remember to take some pictures...I hope. I like hosting and it's fun to chat with other Moms, the morning flew by that's for sure.

Today was super awesome. I went bridesmaid's dress shopping with Kayla (Lance's fiance), her Mom (Heidi), Anna, my Mom, and two sisters (Jaime and Jenny). It was FABULOUS! Kayla put her dress on for us and oh.my.word. I want to get married again just because I want to wear that dress. Although, it was seriously made for Kayla. Oh man I love weddings. Then us 3 sisters tried on bridesmaids dresses and who knew that was so fun? I guess when you have awesome sisters like I do everything is fun. After all that fun we ate at P.F. Chang's, where we sat right next to Greg Oden. He plays for the Blazers in case you didn't know. Well, okay he's been hurt a lot so he rarely plays, but still, it was cool to see him. Anyway, we ate an enormous amount of delicious food and then asked for 3 desserts. And devoured them all. For real. Complete with moaning noises and all. I'm pretty sure everyone in the restaurant was staring in disgust, but then quickly ordered the same thing we were having. I love chocolate.

So now here I am, the girls are sleeping, Brian is out playing poker with the boys, and I'm about to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and the remote. I never get the remote, this day rocks.

::sigh::

Love my girls.