Happy 18 Month Birthday Reagan!

Reagan,

I can not believe it has already been a year and a half since the first time I held you. It seems like not long ago we were preparing for your arrival, wondering what you would look like and realizing we were about to be parents. Now, you are no longer a baby, but becoming a little girl. You have such a loving heart and you show us everyday how much you love us. You are learning so many new things each day and you continue to surprise us with how much you already know. You are becoming more and more independent and you love being around people. You are such a friendly, happy little girl and I am so lucky that I get to spend everyday with you. You are such a blessing in our lives and I am so proud to be your Mom. Thank you for being such a wonderful joy in so many lives. I love you so much.

Love, Mommy

I Am So Proud

I have a feeling this will be the title for many future blogs to come, but today I am so proud of Reagan. She stayed in the Kids Club for over an hour all by herself!! That is HUGE! I walked in there to get her and she was playing and running around with another little boy. I expected her to be in the arms of one of the employee's and she wasn't, she was playing! I just watched her for a few minutes until she noticed I was in there. She came running to me, which is such a wonderful feeling. Maybe I am being a little emotional, but I teared up, I was just so proud of her. She isn't used to staying with anyone unless it's Darrin or Tache, so this is all new to her and today she did great! I know Reagan is going to continue to do little things that make me so proud and there is no greater feeling. Before I get to emotional I will save it for tomorrow, tomorrow Reagan will be a year and a half. I can't believe it!

Reagan you make your Mommy so proud, you did great today and I love you!

Reagan's First Masterpiece!

(I helped with coloring the stars)

This was the only picture I could get of her with her masterpiece before she

was off to something else!

First time with Play Doh!

She wanted to eat it SO bad, this was as close as she could get it!

For some reason she thought it belonged in her belly button!

Wordless Wednesday

"Paging Erin Snider, Erin Snider"

This morning I get up thinking "wa-hoo, I can go workout!! No more long mornings with Reagan wondering what on earth I am going to do to entertain her!!" We ate breakfast, she played. I made the bed and clean up little. Put my gym clothes on, wait for Tache to come over, load up, run a few errands and head to the gym. (I realize that I probably should have gone a little sooner, it was now noon and Reagan usually lays down around 1 ) I go up to the desk and buy a Kids Club ticket for Reagan, it's three dollars for 2 hours. I take her in there, sign her in, talk to the lady a little bit about all the rules. Reagan looks around. There are about 5 other kids in there, so she walks over to them and starts coloring and just looking at them. The lady said she would page me if she needed me or if Reagan needed a diaper change and we leave.

We walk around the gym, go upstairs, out to the pool, check out the class schedule and then I get on the tread mill. A couple minutes goes by and I hear "Erin Snider, Erin Snider." I already knew what that meant. I walk downstairs and head towards the Kids Club, there is a door with a small window on it and I could see the lady holding Reagan and she is crying. Of course. So I go in there and she pretty much jumped out of the lady's arms and into mine. She had been crying so hard she was taking deep breaths, her eyes were all red and she just looked pitiful. Poor thing, I knew that would happen. She is so attached to me and I never leave her with anyone except Darrin or Tache so this was totally new for her. But it's good for her too, this is what she needs. It's just going to take time.

Now we are home and she is napping. We just have to take it one day at a time, slowly she will get used to it and will stay in there longer. Until then, I will just have to consider a 10 minute work out a good work out!!

Jumping On The Bandwagon!

After last week, which was really long, I decided it was time to jump in and really find things to do. Now that Reagan has eliminated her morning nap and just takes one in the afternoon, we have more time to get out and do things. I have looked and looked for a MDO (Mother's Day out) around here and they just don't exist, I guess it's more of a southern thing. I tried a while back ago to put her in a day care for a few hours a day, just to have some play time, but here you pay a flat rate per day. Which was outrageous. And I have yet to find any activities that I could put her in until she turns 2. So we have just done things here and there to get out of the house and entertain ourselves.

A couple weeks ago I decided I really wanted to get into the gym. I guess it was right around the time you start making New Year's resolutions. Mine was to actually work out on a regular basis. We have a really nice gym here at our apartment but, without child care how am I going to work out? I've tried doing things at home, watching Julian Michaels workout video or doing yoga, but working out at home is impossible for me, I get too distracted. I also wanted to be able to work out with Darrin, but with him working 6 days a week and getting home around 7pm, there really isn't anytime for that. So we have just put it off.

Last week I found a coupon online for a free 7 day trial at 24 hour fitness. (I'm sure they always have those, but like I said, I haven't been inside a gym in years.) I signed up for the coupon, signed Darrin up and signed my friend Tache up. Talk about a support system! It's much more fun to work out if you have a partner! I thought if Darrin just went 3 times a week it would be way worth it and during the day I could go with Tache. So last night at 6:3op.m I talked Darrin into going up to the gym to talk to someone and just see what we thought. Not necessarily to work out, just see if we were interested. He agreed, so we went.

We walk up to the door and there was a sign "blah blah blah last day January 31, 2009." We didn't pay it much attention, walked up to the desk (with our printed out 7 day trial coupons) and said we wanted to talk to someone about a membership. He chuckled a little, I felt like we had NEWBIE written across our forehead or something and said, "ok, fill this out, there is the line." I was thinking what in the world?! A line?! Usually they are at the door waiting to convince you to sign up. It's January 31st, is everyone else here tackling their New Year's resolutions today too??

Come to find out it was the last night to sign up without paying an introductory fee, which was like $87.99 per person and the monthly fee was $29.99 vs $34.99. What a deal!! It was totally meant to be!! So after waiting our turn and filling out all the paper work, it was 8:30 pm so we just headed home, it was definitely past Reagan's bedtime and she was getting fussy. But we were super pumped about our new membership deal and we have officially jumped on the bandwagon!!

Dancing Queen

Here's a video Tache made yesterday for me while she watched Reagan I think she gets her moves from her Momma!

Back To Sewing Class I Go

It's been almost 2 months since I have been able to attend my Thursday night sewing class. First we left for Dallas on the 6th of December, then my sister came back here for 10 days and last Thursday Kaitlyn was in town. Needless to say, I am excited to go back tonight! I bought some Valentine's fabric, ordered her a shirt and have a few other things I want to work on. So, dinner has been made for Darrin and Reagan while I am gone, the house is all clean and all my sewing stuff is loaded up!

While I was cooking this afternoon I needed Reagan to be busy so I let her feed herself yogurt. This was the end result!

Happy 21st Birthday Lance!

Wish we were there to celebrate your big birthday week! Finally you can get in places without being from Arkansas! Have fun tonight...and tomorrow night, and Friday night and Saturday night. Can't wait to see all the pictures that turn up! Be careful Potter, we love and miss you!