Happy Easter!

Reese had a great Easter. It was so much fun to see her excitement to get baskets and to find eggs this year, and she has had plenty of opportunities. Last weekend, we had Easter with Matt's dad's side of the family. She had a blast finding eggs, chasing the other kids, and digging in the dirt. You could tell how much fun she had by how filthy her clothes were. It was good to see our neat freak little girl get down and dirty.

This past Friday, we went to my mom and dad's house for an early Easter celebration. My grandma and Uncle Ron were supposed to join us, but had to stay home sick, which was a bummer. Reese got an Easter basket from my parents, and she had fun finding the eggs that were hidden around the living room. It was also opening day for the White Sox, so she was looking adorable in the dress that (Cubs fans) Grandma Mary & Uncle Brian got her. :)





On Easter morning, Reese got her basket from us and enjoyed an egg hunt here at home. She was so serious and focused while she looked for them, it was hilarious. Her eggs were filled with puffs, and she was excited to dump them into her bowl and watch them accumulate each time she found one. She was a total stinker all day while I tried to get pictures of her, and she kept telling me, "put it away," every time I tried to take her picture. I still tried.



Checking out one of her new puzzles.







Looking for eggs:



Pointing to one that she found that she couldn't reach:



Enjoying the fruits of her labor:



Reese had to keep moving her basket to try to keep it away from Moxie, but the kitty was persistent.




Mmmmm, carrots.





We headed out to Matt's grandma's for Easter lunch.  Reese got to enjoy another egg hunt on the farm.









Matt's mom made her a Yo Gabba Gabba quilt, which she loves.  My mom said that all she wanted to do is hide under it all day today.  She sent me this picture while I was at work.



Last weekend, Reese enjoyed modeling the sweater and hat that Mary made her for Christmas. She looked so cute, and she totally knew it.









She has been obsessed with playing play dough lately.  She will sit with my mom and play for over an hour, but she always eats it when I play with her and we have to cut it short.  I'm not sure why she does so well for my mom!






She has really enjoyed getting outside with all of the nice weather we have been having.  My mom brought an easel over.  Reese loves coloring with chalk, dry erase crayons, and painting with water on the different surfaces.


She was enjoying some play time outside on St. Patrick's Day while she was all dolled up to go to a party with Matt's family.







Sometime since the last blog post, we made it up to the children's museum.  We have been members there for almost a year now, and it was really amazing to think back to our first visit there when she was barely crawling, and to see all of the things she has learned to do and take an interest in.  She loves it there, and we will definitely be renewing our membership!









We have also had a couple play dates with Audrina.  The girls play really nicely most of the time, but there are also plenty of moments to work on our sharing skills. :)







Getting that last picture of her looking at the camera and smiling was pretty much a miracle. This is the reaction I usually get when I try to get her to smile for a photo.



We also made it to the Brookfield Zoo with my parents last month (the zoo in tank tops in March--fantastic!!!).  We made great time working our way through the exhibits because every time Reese would see an animal, she would look at it, name it, and she would be ready to move on.  We heard a lot of, "Zebra.  Another one?  Another animal?"  This girl doesn't mess around.  She found a tree to "hide" behind and play peek-a-boo.











Reese has been such a sweet mama's girl lately.  She has been saying, "I missed you!" when she gives me my hug each night when I come home from work, and I fight the lump in my throat each time I hear her sweet little voice say those words.



I still can't believe how much she is talking, and her vocabulary seems to get bigger by the day.  The way she is stringing sentences together just amazes me, and it's so fun and so funny to hear the things she says.  She is singing all the time, and her favorites are Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and any song that they sing on Yo Gabba Gabba.  She has started singing really loudly in public to get attention (but then she acts really shy when someone notices her).  She's a character.

Last but not least, our baby boy is growing perfectly. We are going for bi-weekly OB visits now. Reese is really good when she goes to the appointments with me, and she likes to hear the baby's heartbeat (even though I still don't think she has a clue what it all means). He is kicking like crazy, and the kicks are becoming really painful at times. Reese never hurt me, this boy is rough! I feel like I'm getting so big already, I can't imagine how I'm going to feel in 9 more weeks.  One of my patients saw me today and said, "Oh! You're having another baby! I could see it in your face. It's fuller." People are really just too sweet.











We have been working on the baby's room, so hopefully I'll have pictures of that to share in the next post!

San Diego

We got home from our weekend in San Diego on Sunday, and we had a great time. We left early on Thursday morning, and our 4.5 hour flight turned into 5 hours because of heavy winds. Reese was a bit of a disaster from being so tired (we had to wake her up at 4:30 to leave for the airport), and the first two hours of the flight were a tough battle with our girl who doesn't sleep in random places (she did miraculously finally give in and sleep for an hour). I thought the guy sitting next to us was going to jump off the plane, but we all survived the journey.

Once we got to San Diego and got our rental car, we headed down to the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. We had lunch at a trendy little pizza bar, and then Matt and I enjoyed walking around & exploring while Reese took a nice nap in the stroller.





The Gaslamp Quarter is lined with--you guessed it--GASLAMPS!





We got to see Petco Park--it was really cool because there was a part of the park that was accessible, so we could see the inside.











For my fellow Sox fans, Carlos Quentin's banner:



Late afternoon, we headed over and checked into our hotel. Once we were settled in, we headed down to the beach to eat dinner & view the sunset. It was beautiful, and a great start to our vacation.











We were looking forward to going to Sea World the next day, but our plans were about to change.

The next 24 hours were miserable. I woke up that night around midnight with the worst, most painful heartburn I have ever felt. It was so bad that I couldn't sleep, and within a couple of hours, it turned into vomiting. I kept getting more and more sick through the night, and since we had put Reese's pack n play in the cove right outside the bathroom, I ended up waking her up with my frequent trips. So, at 3:00 in the morning, she was awake as well. She wanted to be in bed with us, but since Reese doesn't sleep well in random places, she wouldn't sleep. She just kept tossing & turning & climbing around. Eventually, she demanded Elmo, and we put in her DVD to try to get her to rest. She finally fell asleep around 5:00, and slept until 7. Once she was awake, Matt decided that he would take her to the grocery store to get milk, Sierra Mist, and saltines while I stayed back & tried to get more rest. By the time they got back, Matt was starting to feel miserable as well. We both had horrible body aches & chills, and we were so exhausted, we could hardly keep our eyes open. We spent the day taking turns watching Reese (which really involved sitting next to her while she watched tv because we didn't have the energy to do anything else) and sleeping. I felt so bad for our poor girl being trapped in the hotel room with us. That afternoon, Reese laid in bed with us and slept for 2 hours (which again, is a rare miracle). She woke up crying, "ache, ache," and tooting, and I was terrified of what was to come. Luckily, after I took her outside to run around a bit, she seemed to be fine and she never ended up getting sick. We all went to bed at 7:00 that night, and after 12 hours of sleep, Matt and I both felt recovered enough to leave the room again.

On Saturday morning, I took a quick walk around the hotel because Matt said that he could hear seals barking when we went out to get coffee. Our hotel was right on the marina, and as I was walking along, I thought I saw a dog swimming in the water I was walking along. As it got closer, I realized that there were two of them, and they were actually sea lions.





All of the landscaping at our hotel was beautiful, and there were tons of sidewalks with lots of trees and plants to walk around and enjoy. Reese loved it, and she had fun picking up loose flower petals as we walked along. There were a lot of them that were falling off of these flowered trees, and they were really pretty.





I also saw this beautiful wall of flowers & rocks, and I thought that the reflection in the water looked really cool.



Once we were confident that we were feeling good enough to head out, we headed up to La Jolla, which is a little community in the northern part of San Diego. The views were absolutely beautiful. We visited a cove where there were tons and tons of seals and sea lions hanging out. They were barking like crazy, and it was so fun to watch them swimming & playing on the rocks. It was really amazing to see.

















After just a short time, Reese got very impatient in the stroller, so we let her run around on the grass. Of course, she wasn't nearly as interested in looking at the ocean, or even the seals and sea lions as she was in picking tiny pieces of garbage out of the grass.















After we left La Jolla, we went to Balboa Park, where we met up with my friends Nicole & Nathan, who had flown in from Vegas the night before. I hadn't seen her in about 9 months, and it was so nice to spend the day with them. We spent some time walking around Balboa Park and enjoying the gardens. The Japanese Friendship Garden had beautiful cherry blossom trees, and this cool little pond with huge fish that Reese loved looking at.





The Desert Garden was really cool too.









Reese rode the carousel with Matt (my stomach was not ready for that!). I did go on a little train ride with her, but we didn't get any pictures of that. About halfway through the train ride, Reese started clapping & yelling, "Yay! I ride the train!!!!" It cracked me up.



Once we left Balboa Park, we headed over to Seaport Village, which is a really cute collection of shops along the harbor. It was fun to walk around. Reese found a guy playing an instrument that I have never seen, and we couldn't tear her away from standing there & dancing along. It was pretty funny to watch, and we were happy to see her having such a good time.

After that, we headed over to Coronado Island. We hung out at the Hotel del Coronado, which is an old historic hotel resort just across the bay from downtown San Diego. We finally got to put Reese's toes in the sand, and it was awesome. At first, she didn't know what to think, and then she got this big smile on her face & kept saying, "Wow! Wow!" It was so cute. She loved kicking her feet around, and picking up handfuls of sand & watching the grains fall from her fingers. It was so cool to see her experience that for the first time. Unfortunately, she also loved eating it, and we couldn't keep her from putting several handfuls of sand in her mouth (GROSS!).













While we were letting her play around on the beach, we started to notice some dolphins swimming around in the water, so we moved closer to the shore to watch. Reese was fascinated by the tide coming in, so Matt took her to put her feet in. The water was FREEZING, and we were afraid she might freak out, but she thought it was absolutely hilarious each time the water came up and splashed her feet, and she threw a fit when we eventually took her away from it.













We ended our day with dinner with Nicole and Nathan, and Reese was exhausted from the events of the day.

On Sunday morning, we packed up our room and headed back downtown. Matt and I took another nice long walk through downtown & along the harbor while Reese napped in her stroller.

My growing belly at 26 weeks:



We had a farewell lunch once she woke up, and then it was time to head to the airport.





Luckily, the winds were in our favor, and the flight home was only about 4 hours, and Reese was amazingly good. The poor girl didn't get home to her own bed until 10:30 that night, but luckily, she has gotten right back on schedule (and Illinois time) this week. Now we shall see how we fare with the time change this weekend!