Dear Lord...

We finally gave in and bought Reagan the "real tail, just like Ariel" costume for Halloween. Then she had the nerve to say she also needed the Ariel shoes, magic wand, and crown. Ugh! We had been trying to teach her about not being greedy and having a grateful heart for what you have. A night or so later, we were saying our bedtime prayers. Reagan's went something like this: "Dear Lord, thank you for my real tail, just like Ariel. But I also want the Ariel shoes, Ariel crown, and Ariel magic wand. But it's OK I don't have them. But I really want them. But it's OK I don't have them. But I really want them..." You get the idea. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

Reagan has been learning her Bible verses for AWANA. This past week, one of her verses was a simplified version of Romans 3:23--"All have sinned." When Reagan wasn' t understanding the words exactly, I repeated it slowly and then said, "Sinned means that we've all been naughty. You are naughty. Presley is naughty. Even Mama and Daddy are naughty." When I was quizzing her a day or so later on the verse, she said, "All have sinned. That means you're naughty, and Daddy's naughty, and Presley's naughty, and I'm naughty."

Two Funny Incidents

Reagan is sick. : ( She has had a fever since yesterday, and she is being uncharacteristically still. Today I asked her if there was anything I could do to make her feel better and she replied, "You could give me some of your energy." Where does she get this stuff?

Later today, she was obviously feeling a little better. The phone rang and caller ID said "unavailable," so I didn't answer it. (This time of year, we get a zillion calls from politicians.) Well, Reagan was in another room and did answer it. I could hear her saying, "This is Reagan. Do you want to talk to me?" When I took the phone from her, the caller on the other end was a recording.

Catching Up

As you may have imagined, having two children has greatly affected my ability to blog in a timely manner. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day for such luxuries. But I'll try to catch up on the last couple of months.

Presley is getting to be such a big girl! She babbles constantly and is getting rather round (in the 90th percentile of height and 75th of weight and head size!). She rolls over now and loves sitting in her exersaucer. On the downside, she's also teething--drooling and getting pretty cranky at times. But she's still a basically happy baby.

Reagan continues to be an imaginative, animated child. It seems she's imitating a different princess each day. In fact, she'll say, "Mama, I'm Reagan now," to let me know when she wants me to treat her as my daughter. Otherwise, I'm supposed to play along, I guess. Daddy very often finds himself playing the part of Prince Eric or Beast or...whomever.

We're getting geared up for Halloween. Reagan wants "a real tail, just like Ariel," but we had already agreed that she would be Belle for Halloween. We actually did purchase the mermaid costume, but haven't told her yet. We're trying to teach her a life lesson--not to be greedy and to be thankful for what you have. If she seems to have mastered it by Halloween, we'll fork over the Ariel costume.

Presley's costume will be a surprise. I'll simply say that it has something to do with Daddy's favorite hobby. If I ever get Scott to show me how to post pictures on here, I'll post some after Halloween.

Not much else to report. We keep a pretty predictable schedule. Tuesday is Kinderdance; Wednesday and Thursday are preschool days; on Monday and Friday, we usually stay home. I'm working as much as I can, but there never seems to be enough time to do everything. From here on out, I'm sure that will only get worse.

Ariel Obsessed

Reagan's favorite princess seems to change from week to week. Sometimes it's Belle, and she walks around with a book in her face, just like the opening scene of the animated film. At other times, she's being Jasmine, and either Daddy or Mama play the part of Aladdin. But lately, with the release of "The Little Mermaid" on DVD, she's been seeing lots of commercials that have her thinking about Ariel.

In particular, the McDonald's commercial with the two little "mermaids" on the beach has caught her eye. About a dozen or more times a day we hear, "I want a green tail, just like Ariel." We tried explaining that if Reagan were a mermaid, she's have to live in the water and that Mama and Daddy couldn't live there with her...wouldn't that be sad? But no, she says she wouldn't be lonely because she'd have Flounder and 'Bastian the crab to keep her company. (By the way, she has a hard time pronouncing "Sebastian," and it comes out sounding more like the word for an illigitimate child. Hee hee.)

At this point, Reagan thinks she's going to be Ariel for Halloween. That might be tough, considering we don't have an Ariel costume. (Belle was her original choice, and we have that costume all ready for her.) Maybe "Ho Ho" (aka Santa) will bring her a "green tail, just like Ariel"--if he can find one!

Update on the Girls

The baby princess is growing so fast. I can't believe she's almost 12 weeks old. She's still sleeping like a champ, although I find myself reaching over to pop the pacifier in her mouth several times a night. But at least I don't have to get up to feed her! Presley's favorite activities include smiling, "talking," and "playing" on the floor with her toys. She's so close to rolling over!

Reagan is gearing up for a big change in her little life--the start of preschool. She has learned her teachers' names (Miss Roshawna and Miss Christy), and we've bought all her supplies. We found out her "boyfriend" Curry is in her class, so at least she'll have a friend from the start. Reagan has also learned her phone number. It will be fun to see what she learns in preschool.

Scott is making a big change too--starting a new job after 13 years at Thomas Nelson. He'll be at CHD Meridian, a health care company, doing about the same stuff he does now. The pay is better, but mostly he was just ready for a change. I'm sure the first few weeks will be busy, but I'm hoping it will be a good move for him.

I'm finally back to work, doing a writing project and a few proofing projects here and there. It's kinda tough to fit them in right now, but I'm hoping it will get easier once Reagan starts preschool. I do think it takes me longer to do things than it once did. Concentrating on work seems more challenging. I guess I still have hormone brain. Or maybe it's just that I have more to think about now.

Update for August '06

The last few weeks have flown by, with Presley growing so fast! Reagan is a great big sister. She loves to make Presley smile and wants to hold her constantly.

Reagan starts preschool next week. We visited her class and met her new teachers, Miss Roshawna and Miss Christy. (And Reagan has actually learned both their names.) Reagan's "boyfriend" Curry is in her class, too. It will be interesting to see how she adjusts to the structure of a classroom setting.

Reagan has learned her phone number. Her mind is like a little sponge these days. And she always seems to hear and repeat exactly the thing you hoped she would miss. I can't wait to see what she learns in preschool.

We're looking into dance class for our little tippy-toe walker. She seems like she would be a natural.

Sleeping Through the Night

At the risk of sounding cocky--and later having to eat my own words--I am happy to announce that Presley is now consistently sleeping 7-8 hour stretches at night! She has even gone as long as 9 hours without a feeding. At six weeks old, this is quite an accomplishment. The downside, however, is that she tends to start her 7-8 hours at around 9:00 p.m., meaning that she's still ready to eat by around 4:30 a.m., much earlier than I would desire. And it doesn't really seem to matter when I feed her at night--she still thinks 4:30 should be breakfast time.

Regardless, I'm still getting a decent amount of sleep, and for that I am very grateful.

The First Month

I can't believe it! After only three weeks, I am down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Wow, that nursing thing really works. Now all I need to do is lose the baby weight I gained when Reagan was born--ugh!

Speaking of nursing, Presley is doing much better than Reagan did. (By this point with Reagan, I was getting over mastitis, and had given up nursing permanently in favor of pumping.) It still hurts like crazy and is time-consuming and cumbersome. But I fully believe in the health benefits, so I'm willing to take the extra effort.

Presley has been sleeping very well--usually 5-6 hours the first stretch at night. (She has even gone 7 a couple of times!) And when she does wake up she just wants to eat, have her diaper changed, and go back to sleep. Did I mention that she's not even four weeks old? I know, I know. We're very lucky.

The last meal from our church care ministry came this week, which was very sad. There's nothing better than a home-cooked meal that you didn't have to cook! We've been eating very well the last few weeks. Guess it's back to pre-packaged frozen dinners and takeout.

Overall, we're all adjusting much better than I expected. Two is definitely harder than one, but we're figuring it all out and managing pretty well. But I still have no plans to go to the grocery store with Reagan and Presley anytime soon.

Miss Independent

Reagan is becoming more and more independent every day. She is truly embracing the role of Big Sister. Sometimes she gets tired of Mama holding Presley, but mostly she is very pleased to have Baby Sister with us.

Now that Mama often has her hands full, Reagan is doing more things on her own. She has started saying, "I need to use the potty by my lone." (As in, by myself or alone.) She does everything pretty well, but still needs a little help getting her pants/panties back up.

Reagan has also started eating cereal in a bowl with milk, just like Mama. Last week, after breakfast, Reagan stood and upon seeing the mess she had made on her lap said, "I'm all milked up!" Later in the week, she made a similar comment when she spilled blueberries in her lap: "I'm all jellied up!"

Pretty much every day Reagan comes up with some new funny expression or behavior that keeps us cracking up!

Reagan Is a Big Sister!

Presley Faith Gibbs arrived at 4:08 p.m. on June 11, 2006. Reagan just loves her new baby sister. By comparison, Reagan suddenly seems very grown up to her Mama and Daddy!

Reagan has been playing peek-a-boo with Presley and loves to gently pat her and talk to her. So far, she has been gentle with the baby and doesn't seem to be very jealous. Of course, Grandma is still staying with us and is giving Reagan lots of extra attention.

For her "Big Sister" gift, Presley gave Reagan a Big Sister Dora doll. We get to hear Dora sing, "It's great to be a big sister!" all day long. (Reagan might have been slightly more excited about the doll than she was about her actual sister.)

Next week, Daddy will be off work and plans to take Reagan on a Daddy/Daughter date. They're going to see the movie Cars and eat at Krystal. (Mama told Daddy he would be on potty duty after that, since Reagan's stomach has never been exposed to Krystal burgers.) By the way, Reagan has been talking about seeing Cars with Daddy for weeks. Mama has asked if she could go too, but Reagan says, "No. Just me and Daddy." Guess I'll catch it on DVD.

She's Finally Here! (A Birth Story)

Presley Faith Gibbs made her appearance on June 11, 2006 at 4:08 in the afternoon. After about two weeks of contractions and false alarms, we had an induction scheduled for June 15. Fortunately, we didn't need it.

At about 4:15 a.m., I woke up thinking I was leaking amniotic fluid. I woke Scott up and called the hospital. They said I needed to come in ASAP to be tested. So, we packed our last-minute items, woke up Reagan, and headed to Nana & Gran's to drop her off. We got to the hospital at around 5:40 (not bad, considering it's on the other side of town and we had to make a stop). The first test was negative for amniotic fluid, but they wanted to watch me for an hour and check again. At 7:00, the test was again negative, but when the nurse did an exam, more fluid gushed out, so they had me walk around for another 30 minutes. After that, the test was STILL NEGATIVE! But by that time, I had dilated to 4 cm, so they decided to admit me.

The funny thing is, the contractions I was having were much milder than those I had experienced over the last couple of weeks at home. In fact, if I hadn't had the leakage issue, I wouldn't have even gone to the hospital until much later in the process. I certainly didn't feel like I was in labor.

By 6 cm, I decided to get my epidural (around noon)--not because I was in so much pain but because I was afraid I would dilate beyond the point of no return before I got it. (Didn't want to risk pushing the baby out without meds!) But the epidural experience was so bad that I almost wish I hadn't had it. I know, that sounds so unlike me! I have long sung the praises of a good epidural, but this was not one. Rather than just numbing me from the waist down, this one went all the way up to my chest! I had no muscle control and my breathing was affected. I also got nauseated, which was awful. (Try throwing up when you can't feel your stomach muscles--not easy.)

The anesthesiologist tried sitting me upright and turning down the meds, but eventually I asked them to turn it off completely (around 2:00 p.m.). By the time I was ready to push (3:30 p.m.), I had regained much of the feeling in my upper body, but I still couldn't even move my lower body. All I could do was hold my breath and grunt, hoping that was pushing the baby down.

Fortunately, everything worked out fine, and I was able to deliver her in about 40 minutes, with only a minor episiotomy. But I didn't regain all the feeling in my legs until 7:30 or so that evening.

Despite the bumps in the road, we are extremely thankful to have our beautiful, healthy baby at last. She looks pretty much like her big sister did at this point. She's eating like a champ and, after a couple of rough nights, is now sleeping between her night feedings. (She was having some stomach issues--spitting up and not having enough dirty diapers.)

We're settling into a rythm and actually getting some sleep--and she's not even a week old yet! We're praying that continues.

Still Waddling Along

I'm REALLLLLY ready for this baby to get here. It's official: I am waddling. And I'm so tired all the time because I can't get through a night without getting up at least four or five times to use the bathroom. And getting out of bed is no small feat, either. With the fortress of pillows that surrounds me, I have to shift everything and then roll (because I can't even sit up without a struggle!) out of bed. When I return, I have to reset all the pillows and deposit myself back in the cocoon, hoping I land in a comfortable spot. And, did I mention that my back aches, like, all the time? Oh, and I also have allergies (pollen counts are at a decade high), and since your nasal passages swell when you're pregnant, I have to wear Breathe-Right strips and take Benadryl every night. Even after these measures, Scott says I snore so loud that he can't hear the TV.

And these are only the things I can mention without blushing. SO much is going on in my body right now that I don't even want to think about.

According to my official due date, I have four more weeks. But I'm shooting for three max. Beyond that, my mental health may be in jeopardy!

Reagan's Favortie Things for May '06

Favorite Kids Shows: Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, Wonder Pets

Favorite Prime Time Shows: American Idol (she's now pulling for Taylor, since Kelly is out), Everybody Hates Chris

Favorite Food: chicken nuggets with honey

Favorite Sayings: "I have an idea," "That's not the law," "Watch my show"

Biggest Fear: ladybugs (any sort of bug is classified as a ladybug)

Favorite Clothes: Belle dress and Snow White costume (which we wear almost daily)

Reagan is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Sister. She still wants to name her Kelly Pickler. Since Mama is hormonal and gets weepy at almost anything, Reagan asks, "You sad?" a lot. She also yells, "Baby Sister come out!" to Mama's belly and then says, "She not ready," when it doesn't work.

Hopefully our next post will be the announcement of Baby Sister's arrival!

Getting Ready for Preschool

Last week we visited two Mother's Day Out programs to see where we'd like to have Reagan in the fall. If all goes well, it looks like we'll have her in for two days a week at the church that is right across the street from us--how convenient! I used to attend that church, so I'm very comfortable with what they teach, and they also have a very new facility with a fabulous indoor playground. Reagan (and Mama) can't wait!

Preschool (well, actually Mother's Day Out) was a great motivator when it came to potty training. I told Reagan that if she wanted to go to preschool after Baby Sister was born, she'd have to learn to shoo-shoo in the potty because they don't let you wear pull-ups in preschool. (Actually most MDO programs do require their 3-year-old classes to be potty trained.) I'm happy to report that Reagan is now fully trained and rarely has an accident. And though we put pull-ups on her at night, she is almost always dry in the morning. On the drive to visit both MDO programs, Reagan reminded herself: "I learn to shoo-shoo! I go preschool!" She's very proud.

Reagan has also learned to recognize her numbers. I was changing my wooden calendar (you know, the kind with all the little number pieces) to April and asked her to bring me the correct numbers I needed. She did it perfectly through 11. I even skipped around, since I was putting numbers in from both sides, and it didn't mess her up. I have been seriously negligent in actually teaching her anything, so watching TV and playing My First LeapPad must be doing something good for her!

Countdown to Baby

Today I'm officially at 31 weeks, but since I'm counting on this baby being early, I expect to have about 8 weeks left. We're just now starting to do all those important baby preparations that first-time parents would have done months ago. For instance, Scott spent the weekend priming the nursery. He still has to paint it, but hopefully that will happen this week. At the moment, the crib, changing table, glider, bassinet, and various other items are blocking our hallway.

We have a plethora of boxes and baby accouterments to get down from the attic. This will hopefully happen over the Easter weekend, as my family will be in town (read: Dad and my brother can help Scott do the heavy lifting instead of me!).

We still have several things to get rid of, since we're converting what was our guest room into a nursery. (We had taken the liberty of using the closet space in that room, so now we have to shuffle and eliminate.)

Reagan asks almost every day when Baby Sister is coming out. She even yells, "Come out, Baby Sister!" to my belly. So far, it's not working. We're all anxious to meet our little one--and I'm especially anxious to finally hold her outside my body (and get a little freedom from my ever-growing belly).

She doesn't officially have a name yet, but we're getting closer.

Have We Found Our Baby Name?

Now that Reagan is going to be a big sister, we've been trying to include her in the pregnancy and birth in little ways. Recently, we've been asking her what we should name her baby sister. Her responses have ranged from "Snow White" and "Belle" to gibberish that we can't understand.

This past week, we asked Reagan again what we should name baby sister. Her response: "Kellie Pickler." Now, unless you're American Idol devotees like we are (well, mainly Reagan is), you may not know that Kellie Pickler is the very country-fied blonde contestant who always seems confused about something Simon Cowell has to say to her. She certainly has a likability factor and a charming accent, but she's not exactly the most brilliant young woman on the show.

Nevertheless, Reagan is sticking to her "Kellie Pickler" name choice. Mama and Daddy aren't on board just yet.

More Potty Talk

I realize potty training is a subject that I've revisited several times on this blog, but we have a new development that I thought was worth mentioning: Reagan is finally pooping in the potty!

She has been consistently peeing in the potty with very few accidents since my last entry. We still put pull-ups on her for sleeping, and sometimes when we leave the house for errands and such. And until several days ago, Reagan would wait until one of those opertune pull-up times to do her business. In fact, she would even ask for a pull-up. That's when I realized we had a problem. She was intentionally avoiding pooping in the potty.

I'd like to say that I came up with some great motivator. The fact is, even after bribery, she resisted. Our luck came in the form of constipation. We had been in Indiana visiting my parents for a long weekend, and Reagan had gone four days without pooping. She still didn't go on our first night home. The next day, knowing it was bound to happen, I decided to forego the pull-up for her nap and deal with the consequences--hoping she would not go in her panties.

By late afternoon, she still hadn't gone. I guess by evening her prune juice finally kicked in, and she was able to go in the potty with me cheering her on. It wasn't pretty. She was upset and her tummy hurt (constipation doesn't make for the most comfortable bowel movements). But when she got immediate praise--and a treat and a prize from her reward bag--she felt much better about the situation.

Three days and four prizes later, she is consistently going "shoo shoo" in the potty. And she says, "I so proud!" Don't know how long we'll have to keep up with the bribery, but I'm not ready to cut her off until the whole system is well-established. For now, I'm just happy not to be changing any more stinky diapers.

Reagan's Favorite Things

Here's a list of Reagan's current favorites.

Favorite TV show: Dancing with the Stars (American Idol is a close second)

Favorite CD: Walk the Line soundtrack ("Listen to Johnny Cash!")

Favorite movie: Annie (loves to sing "Tomorrow")

Favorite characters to portray: Belle ("I Belle!"), Annie, Clifford

Favorite noisy toy: My First Leapad

Favorite quiet toys: Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland dolls

Favorite sayings: "My father's not crazy!" (from Beauty and the Beast), "I need help," "No, I not take a nap," "You read book"

Reagan's imagination is developing so quickly. Every day she decides to be a new character--and you must call her by that name. She's also learning new songs constantly, and she LOVES the music of Johnny Cash. Her favorite song right now is "Jackson." (We got married in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout!)

We are constantly squishing imaginary spiders and such, as Reagan tells us, "I scary!" Yesterday, she decided the TV was scary, so we had to turn it off. Conveniently, it was no longer scary when it was time for "Dancing with the Stars" to come on.

Reagan has started telling random people at the mall about the baby in Mama's belly. She says that she has "Baby Kate" in her belly. She also likes to play doctor, which means she wants you to do a pretend ultrasound on her tummy. You have to say, "It's a girl!" and then she rubs off the imaginary gel and gets up.

Every day is a new reason to laugh in our house.

Naming Baby

As many of you know, Reagan is going to be a big sister in June. We've been trying to ease her into the idea in a number of little ways, but so far Reagan is still asking for a puppy rather than a sibling.

This morning, Reagan and I were cuddling in bed and talking about baby names. I asked her what she would name a baby brother or baby sister. At first she thought we should just name it "baby sister." But when I started mentioning boy names that were on our "still-in-the-running" list, Reagan finally came up with one of her own to add to the list: "Um...Rudolph!"

OK, so I guess we watched that DVD a few too many times before Christmas. Don't tell Reagan, but I'm pretty sure there won't be a Rudolph Gibbs in the family anytime soon.

Feelings...Woh, Woh, Woh...Feelings

For some reason, Reagan is interested in feelings these days. One day while eating lunch, Reagan looked at me and asked, "Mama, you angry?" I said, "No, I'm not angry." She came back with, "You sad?" Again, "No, I'm not sad." Finally, she asked, "You happy?" and I responded with, "Yes, I'm happy!"

Since then, this has become a recurring conversation. Reagan asks just about everyone she sees if they're angry, sad, or happy. And she rather enjoys sharing her own feelings as well. (She's always happy, by the way.)