L-O-V-E

 May was all about L-O-V-E for me. I got to spend time with Gigi and Papa G when they came to visit. I loved baking cookies with my Gigi.  Here she is teaching me the art of making a nice, rounded chocolate chip cookie. I could care less about the shape, I was more interested in eating the finished product.

Here I am after sneaking a cookie. I couldn't help myself. They were so good...chocolate chips AND M&M's...it's like heaven in my mouth.

 Evan and Ryan came to town so Auntie Darcy and Uncle Scott could find a place to live.  We got along like two peas in a pod. Here we are eating our respective cupcakes for Papa G's birthday. Try not to judge my parents for all the sweets I eat, I love them and am obviously my mother's child.

This was the first time we met Ryan and Reagan and I were immediately infatuated. I love babies and Reagan felt some camaraderie with him after seeing me in his face all day.  Here they are comparing notes on my harassment of them.

This was the first time all of us Groesbeck grandchildren tried to get together for a picture.  As you can tell things escalated quickly...

Lesson learned: getting three infants and two toddlers for a picture is not the easiest task.

 We had a breakfast date with Mimi for her birthday, which is the same day as Papa G's. I, of course, ordered the pancakes and yes those are chocolate chips in my huge pancake...I told you I love sweets.

 I've been pretty into planting things this spring. I was lucky enough to catch EPIC planting trees in our front yard. It blew my mind seeing the forklift. Here Papa G and I are supervising.

 I even managed to help plant some pots for the front of the house. Gigi and Papa G forgot to tell me to use my hands and not my face for the planting. I loved it, obviously.

Reagan is learning all sorts of new tricks and keeping us all on our toes. She has figured out how to walk while holding on to things and has even shown her problem solving skills by utilizing household objects to get her places: exhibit A.

 Reagan turned 10 months old and is changing every day. Her hair is growing. She is gnawing at everything in site as she cuts four teeth at once.  She's almost 16 pounds and finally busted out of the 6-month clothes. She cries every time Mom and Dad step out of view.  She loves playing with my trucks and cars. I'm a bit biased, but I think she's awesome.

And lastly, a confession.  I may be young, but I am in love. I tell everyone I meet that I love Allison.  She is older and wiser. She accepts me for me when I rip all my clothes off and run around like a mad man in my diaper.  She puts up with my tantrums and lack of sharing and loves to pick me up...literally. Mom and Dad don't know why she likes me when I act like a maniac but I am smitten.  Just look at my face. 

Nine Months

We have had a busy week.  Reagan turned 9 months and made her billionth trip to the doctor.  Ok maybe that is a slight exaggeration.  Here are her 9 months stats:  She is a whopping 15 pounds (5th percentile), 26 3/4 inches tall (18th percentile) and her head circumference is 17 1/2 inches (50th percentile).  Her numbers may not be impressive but this girl can move.  She is on the ball developmentally and Dr. Wichman says she even is ahead of the game in most areas so she will keep working on the weight but he's not too worried about our peanut.

She can scoot, pull to stand and walk along holding onto things.  She is trying desperately to walk and has no fear.  She can even say "Mama"...she has no idea what it means but the point is, she says it.

Daddy's friends were in town last weekend so we stayed at Mimi and Pa's house, the Davis Inn. We got so much good snuggle time in that it was hard to leave on Sunday. 

 My Uncle Justin came in town with Daddy's friends and brought the most AMAZING care package from he and Auntie Laura. We are talking a thoughtful care package with something for everyone...they even paid for Leland to get some good walks.  They are the BEST!!! Here I am with my Dinosaur sticker book that they sent for my entertainment. It is so fun!!!!

I have gotten pretty into doing everything Mommy and Daddy do. I love to pick out my clothes and dress just like Daddy.  Although I have to say my weekend shirt is much more fashionable, sorry Dad!

 Much to Dad's chagrin, I spent most of last weekend playing with Auntie Kelly's old doll.  Mommy and Daddy won't let me feed sister so this is the next best thing...please ignore the fact that the baby is dining on green dinosaurs.

I have been busy trying to get in some playdates with friends.  Monday on my playdate with Brandon and Sabrina, we tried a place called Emerald City Gymnastics.  It was heaven.

 I also tried putting the moves on Sabrina.  Fathers, lock up your daughters, I'm showing love for the ladies these days!

And finally, I may have mentioned I love farms so you can imagine my love for the Deanna Rose Farmstead.  I went with Gunner and Sutton and, while I love the playground and seeing all the animals, feeding the goats pretty much blows my mind. It's the best.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

In light of Mimi's recent diagnosis, we decided to drive down to Plano, Texas, to be with Auntie Kelly, Uncle Andy and the triplets for Easter. Boy, did we have grand plans--a professional photographer; a church Easter carnival complete with petting zoo, jump houses and a hunt; touring their new home; an Easter hunt and feast after church--GRAND PLANS.  But as life has been doing a lot lately, a curve ball was thrown.  Enter Stomach flu of Easter 2015.  Reagan picked it up on the xray table at Children's Mercy and began vomiting in the car.  Then came Mommy that night. Then me, then Daddy, then Mimi, then Pa....so on.  Reagan held the record for quickest recovery from the flu and even smiled through the vomiting.  As is usually the case with me, I go big or go home so I got the award for most vomiting and earned a trip to urgent care for Zofran.  You want quick service at an urgent care place? Puke in their waiting room. It works wonders...

On the plus side, everyone but Mommy made it to the Easter bonanza and house tour.  Here's a video of my first official Easter egg hunt. I think I did pretty well but you be the judge. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the bounce house...you can see me making a beeline for the exit once everyone started bouncing.

Before the vomiting got underway, I did have some fun with my cousins. We played, they showed me their new house, we had a slumber party for about 30 minutes until I got scared and left.  They're my buddies.

Here is a snippet of what Easter actually looked like.  Think that's an Easter basket Claire is holding? Wrong. It's a puke bucket.  Ah, memories.

On the plus side, we can all laugh about it now.  And when we got home, Reagan and I took it easy and got some great snuggle time in.

All this illness has not been great for our sleeping habits. Reagan and I are both pretty anti-naps these days so this is what we end up looking like at 5:00PM when Mommy starts dinner.

And this is what we look like at 10:00PM because of late naps.  Someone should really sleep train us...

We have been spending some time at Great Grandma Cookie's. I love going to see her.  I get to see all my cows and horses (farms are my latest obsession) along the way there and then get a captive audience to discuss all the contents of my backpack, literature and my views on the world.  I am quite the motor mouth these days so it's a pretty one-sided conversation, but she doesn't seem to mind.  Here we are sitting in my favorite chair "talking." 

In recent Reagan developments, Mommy and Daddy think she might be a little ornery.  Mommy walked into the pantry to catch her doing this.  Her smile says it all.

 Next day, we all found her in my Legos, eating the instructions.

 She turned 8 months at the end of last month and we are learning new things about her each day.  She loves: computers/phones/ipads, trying to eat cords, gnawing on shoes, putting random things in her mouth, Leland's tags, standing, scooting and smiling.  She hates: sitting still, drinking bottles, strangers, socks and getting things taken away from her.  She's still struggling with her stats, the stomach flu and another couple of rounds of respiratory virus didn't do her any favors, so we will leave those out for now.  I will say that despite her slight size, she is a force to be reckoned with. She is feisty and holds her own when we rough house. She even giggles when I wheel barrow her around the house. She's the best.

Tough Times

 I have been hearing whisperings about my absence so for those of you who don't know, this month has been tough for us.  My Mimi was diagnosed with ALS. It's been devastating and we are all trying to wrap our brains around this.  Obviously I am too young to really understand what's going on but I can sense Mimi doesn't feel well and that Mommy and Daddy are really sad, so my behavior has been a bit off.  One of my outlets has been coloring on the couch.  Dad about died when he saw it. Mom laughed....a crazy laugh but I'll take it.

I have also found that manual labor is a good outlet.  I loved putting my "boobs" and snow shovel to good use.  There is a LOT more shoveling to do at the new house so it's a great way to exercise.

 Snuggling with sister also helps.  Sometimes I am a bit rough but she's pretty tolerant of me.

 I have also found solace in my new friend, Tail.  Actually, he was sister's Christmas present from Auntie  Kelly and Uncle Andy but I took him as my own and no one has the heart to make me give him back.  And, yes, I named him Tail all by myself.

 Daddy has been spending some time at home with us so that Mommy could be with Mimi for Pa's heart surgery and so that she and Auntie Kelly could go to Mimi's doctor's appointments with her.  This is what she came home to. News flash...the house doesn't usually look like this when Mommy is home with us. At least we all had fun!  Daddy is the best!

 Brandon, Sabrina and their Mommy were nice enough to treat us to a trip to Science City to cheer us up.  All of these dinosaurs were a great distraction. I loved it.

 In the midst of Mimi's news, Pa's surgery and going on two weeks of Mommy, Daddy, Reagan and I being sick, this sweet girl turned 7 months.  She isn't breaking any weight records yet but at every appointment I like to get in the doctors' and nurses' faces and tell them how cute my sister is.  I am one proud big brother.  She is scooting up a storm, trying to stand, sitting up all by herself (when I am not tipping her over), and starting to talk and sing...though no one knows what she's saying.  She has 2 teeth, loves to laugh at me, loves watching sports, is infatuated with Leland, and has major separation anxiety from Mommy and Daddy.

While I know this month has been hard, I am so blessed to have such a loving family...I do feel blessed despite my stink eye in this picture.  I know God is watching over us and will help us through this tough time.  I also know I am blessed to have a Mimi as generous, kind and loving as mine. Here's an example of how awesome she is.  As she is struggling to eat and talk, she had been looking forward to sharing a family dinner with us the night before her big doctor's appointment at the ALS Clinic. Auntie Kelly was in town, it was a pre-birthday dinner for Mommy, everyone was just getting ready to eat their delicious meal and I puke. Everywhere.  She didn't get mad. She helped Mommy scoop me up and take me out to the parking lot. She held me while I was covered in vomit and cried.  Even after I had just ruined her meal she had been looking forward to for weeks.  Even though she had no idea what in God's name I was sick with and knew she could not afford to lose weight by getting sick herself.  That is love. This woman is amazingly selfless.  Reagan and I are blessed to call her Mimi.  Please say a prayer for her.

Firsts of the Month

Lots of firsts going on here.

This first haircut in a big boy chair all by myself brought to you by Windstead's Chocolate milkshake and the amazing Marianne.

 Like it or not, sister saw her first Patriot Super Bowl victory and she and Daddy were ELATED...We were probably the only house outside of Boston to be cheering on the Pats after deflate gate.  Oh well. Here sister is being captivated by the science knowledge of Bill Belichick. 

 Reagan is on the move. She can officially scoot and loves hiding herself in places, presumably to take a nap since I still wake her up every time I see those eyelashes close.  Here she is trying to sneak a rest while under Daddy's shirts in the closet.

 Although she can barely see over the tray of her high chair, Reagan has started solid foods. So far we are four for four on things she likes--cereal, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. 

 I am officially enrolled in my first school.  Awesome Kids Preschool.  Mommy rolled her eyes when she heard the name and Daddy asked her to visit but then we both fell in love.  Here I am with my dinosaur backpack on enrollment day. I cried and threw myself down in the church parking lot when I realized that school did not actually start that day.

And this picture captures my first love. The trash trucks. This here, is the highlight of my week. I live to see those black and yellow bins line the street. I start talking about it Thursday night, wake up at 5:30am Friday and sit at the window talking about it all day.  It is my parents' personal hell when trash is delayed a day and my neighbors don't get the memo and set their trash out anyways because then I sit at the window for two days straight.  Seriously, I live for trash days.

Happy New Year

 Christmas break was awesome. We got to spend lots of Daddy time. Even when he was working in his office, I got to see him.  It was also Daddy's birthday and I was pretty obsessed with the singing and cake part once I caught on to the whole birthday idea. It was hard for me to let it go once I learned the song.

 Mommy calls Daddy the creative parent...This was Daddy's solution to curing Reagan's fussiness during the bowl games.  Ipad in the crib because this girl loves her football.  Judge if you want but it worked.

 I am spending more time reading and writing these days. Daddy worries Mommy ties my right hand behind my back while he's at work to force me to be a left hander...here's the proof that she doesn't.

Those "boobs" I so desperately wanted...here they are. And I'm loving them.

 Mommy helped put this photo collage together to show the evolution of Reagan's and my relationship.  We have some work to do since right now I am pretty into waking her up every time she sleeps, sitting on her, poking her in the eye and screaming "Eli-Eli-O" in her face (that's my version of Old MacDonald Had A Farm) until she screams in fear.  We've titled the pictures from left clockwise: Get Off Of Her, Get Off Of Her, Get Off Of Her, Let Go.

I may give her a lot of crap but it turns out I am the only person that can make her laugh so at least I have that going for me.  I pretty much will do anything to make her laugh but jumping up and down and yelling for her to laugh is my go-to method.

 Baby sister has been working hard to grow big and strong. She turned 6 months and is finally on the charts. Weighing in at a whopping 13 pounds 6 ounces (8th percentile) and standing 26 1/4 inches tall (55th percentile), this girl is packing it on. So much so that Dr. Wichman said we are free from Ready, Set, Grow.  Thank God. Now if we could just graduate from the weight checks, physical therapy and feeding therapy.

New Year, new rules.  Mommy may have finally hit her limit with me sleeping with her and waking up in the middle of the night bright eyed and bushy tailed. This video, taken in the middle of the night, shows what she was dealing with.  But, "Hey, Hey, Hey" it gave her the wake up call she needed to get me into my big boy bed.  She doesn't quite have the heart to make me cry it out during the night but it turns out with my trusty turtle and my music I can usually fall back asleep. 

Until next time. XOXO

Lessons Learned

 We have learned lots this month. Here are the highlights.

 1) Sister can make even paper gowns look good.  She  went to Ready, Set, Grow and even though it was a tough appointment, she smiled and charmed everyone she met.  While they all agreed she is cute, they said she needed work on the whole weight gain thing so Mommy started working even harder to fatten her up. 

 2) Sister is not impressed with her current stats.  At her four month appointment, Baby Reagan was just over 11 pounds and about 23 inches.  Not even on the growth chart for weight.  You can tell she is thrilled.

 3)  My playdates with my Rice cousins are seemingly cursed by people giving me germs.  They trekked up from Dallas and I was so excited to play with them over Thanksgiving.  Of course, I got the stomach flu Thanksgiving night and well...that was the end of my visit with them.  I spent the next five days on the couch with the exception of doctor's visits and an ER trip so, once again, my play time with my Ricelet cousins was ruined.  Mommy has promised me a special trip to Texas to make up for it.  Even though I only got one night to play with them, I haven't stopped talking about them.   Here we are having a post-dinner bath.

4) When you are already sick with one thing, you can get another.  After the stomach flu sent me to the ER, I picked up RSV.  Here are some pathetic pictures of me.  I had two more ER trips and three more doctor's visits but managed to turn a corner without hospitalization...which I am told was nothing short of a miracle.  Consequently, during this time we also learned that pink medicine (amoxicillin) is awesome and I will do just about anything for M&M's ...i.e. breathing treatments every four hours.

 5) You should not share RSV with babies.  After I shared RSV with sister and her weight started melting away, it was back to the hospital she went for a little TLC.  Once again she was the Belle of the Ball only this time the nurses all came to visit her instead of parading her around the halls.   We couldn't walk around the hospital without masks and everyone who entered had to gown up so it was a little scary for me.  It was good, however, to see some familiar faces from last month's stay and to get to play with the same dinosaur toys.  I spent most of my days at the hospital guarding her crib and standing on a chair to mean-mug anyone who came to examine her.  Lucky for me, they thought my overprotectiveness was endearing. The nurses even spoiled me by making sure I had a copy of "Lion Candy" (AKA Lion King) to watch in the room.

 6) Hospitals do not enjoy having siblings there all day.  In fact, they want to get you out of there ASAP so no one else gets sick.  Once they gave Mommy her nursing degree and I had spent a total of 14 of sister's 27 hours in the hospital literally climbing the walls, they were itching to get us home.  Here we are elated to get the news that we could take sister home.  She was less than pleased her friend the NG tube would be accompanying us.

 7) Speaking of NG tubes, we learned that Reagan can pull those things out like nobody's business.  Mommy would barely have her head turned and sister would yank it out mid-feed.  After 5 days of constantly re-inserting the tube, Mommy and Reagan were thrilled when Dr. Wichman said they could be rid of it.  This was sister after she yanked it out for the last time.

 8) Cousins can be pretty different.  I did get some cousin time in with Evan when Auntie Darcy and Uncle Scott came for a visit.  We are pretty different.  He's more cautious. I'm a dare-devil.  He likes to read. I like to rough house.  We still got along pretty well.  Even though he and I don't see eye-to-eye about books, we do share a love for iPadding, dinosaurs and turkey pepperoni.

 9) Cash may be king in most places, but here at the Groesbeck household, dinosaurs trump all.  We got to have an early Christmas while cousin Evan was in town and Pemberley, Uncle Raleigh and Auntie Jessica celebrated with us too.  While I got lots of cool things, my favorite was my dinosaur wall stickers.  They keep me entertained for hours.

 10) I. Love. Boobs. (AKA boots). We had our first snow and it was glorious.  I've always been pretty anti-boots (many will remember the tears from Breckenridge when Mommy forced me to wear some) but once I saw Mommy put hers on this year, I became obsessed.  I began asking for them. All. the. time.  Only I call them "boobs." So it made for some rather awkward shouting at Babies R'Us and Target when Mommy took me shopping for some.  Here's a preview of how this conversation often plays out in public.

 

11) Last and best, we all learned that sister is fierce.  She  turned 5 months and even though Ready, Set, Grow tried to burst Mommy's bubble again about Reagan's progress, we are celebrating the fact that baby sister officially broke 12 pounds.  She is tiny but fierce and she has overcome a lot to stay on target developmentally.  She can almost crawl, she holds her head up like a champ, she grabs everything in sight and rolls over like it's going out of style.  She may have torticollis and feeding issues and not weigh much but she's still smiling and that's all this big brother cares about.

And here we are. All caught up.  Today is Christmas Eve and we have a lot to be grateful for this year.  We are all healthy and happy which is better than any gift under that tree...unless it's dinosaurs. That ranks pretty high up there too. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  XOXO, Griffin