Update

I'm being a bad blogger lately. It seems like we've just been going, going, going every weekend for awhile now, and when I do have down time I would rather curl up with a book and a glass of wine than do anything else. :) No pictures for this post, just an update of what all we are up to.

Raegan:

Raegan is fully weaned now. Three weekends ago I just started telling her no and giving her a cup of milk before brushing teeth and bed. The first couple nights were rough, and she was PISSED. :) But after the first few nights she adjusted to it very well. We have a pretty good routine now: bath, jammies, cup (usually with water now)/snuggle/book (if she'll let us), brush teeth and bed. Sometimes if she's still a little riled up we'll let her walk around and play for a few minutes, but no crazy times with Zane.

Raegan's vocabulary is expanding every day. I'll try to list it all here but I'm sure I'm nowhere close to remembering all of them. Right now she's saying: hi, hello, bye bye, ni-ni (night night), drink, nak (snack), baba (cup), up, no, Mama, Dada, kitty, Daisy (sometimes just Daiz), bubba, uh oh, ow. I'm sure there's more! Raegan also shakes her head yes and no, very accurately to tell you what she wants. If she wants a drink she'll go to the refrigerator and stand by and start going "eh eh eh" (it's a very specific sound that she uses just then). If she's hungry she'll go to her high chair and try to climb up in it. When we tell her it's time for a bath she'll walk to the bathroom herself, and when we tell her it's time to get dressed she'll go to her changing table. She'll also go to the door when we say "time to go bye bye".

One of Raegan's favorite things to do right now is buckle the straps on her changing table. She's done it several times now. She also likes to put the shapes in her shape sorter - she's not to the point where she can match them on her own, but if you put the right hole facing up she can get the shapes in pretty smoothly. She has this ladybug toy with shapes you push into the ladybug, and she will push them all in then hit the top of the bug to make them all pop out again. She also loves rocking in her rocking chair and talking on her cellphone. She'll hold it up to her ear (sometimes her neck) and say "hello". It's too stinkin' cute! One of Raegan's other favorite things to do still is peek-a-boo. It's so fun to hear her crazy laugh when you get going with that game.

Zane:

Zane turned 12 yesterday! Where does the time go? He's still doing very well in sixth grade. He's doing much better at not talking as much during art class, and his high A reflects that. :) His biggest challenge right now is remembering to turn in his practice sheets for band (and his B, as opposed to the over 100% he had last quarter, reflects that). It's a lot harder without me reminding him every week. His first middle school band concert is next month. I'm excited to hear how much the band has improved since last year.

Zane's really into Greek and Roman history and mythology right now. If you ever have a question about either of these subjects, let me know. I'm sure Zane knows the answer! lol

Hmmmm, what else? It's hard to find as much to write about Zane, because he's older and he doesn't change nearly as quickly as Raegan does. Which is good, because I don't think I could keep up with the both of them if they both developed so quickly!

Our week

Picture-less update on the kids:

Zane:
Zane is doing really well in middle school so far. We were kind of worried because of his huge lack of organizational skills, but he seems to be doing well so far. He's only had one late assignment in the last three weeks, which is excellent for him. I took a peek at his grades online and as of yesterday he has all A's! He's never had a problem with understanding the material, it's just remembering to get everything done and turned in.

Soccer practices started this evening. We're doing something new this season since Zane is too old for YMCA sports. He's going to play on a middle school (6th, 7th and 8th combined) team through Parks and Rec. Luke said there's only a couple other 6th graders on the team, but I figure that will be good for Zane. Apparently there was a kid at the skills assessment last week who was over 6 foot tall. How do kids get to be that tall when they're in middle school? Jeez.

Zane has finally decided he wants a haircut. All I can say is thank the good Lord Almighty. He needed one about 2 months ago. :)

Raegan:
Raegan has slept through the night for almost two weeks now. She usually wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning. If it's closer to 5:30 I put her back down after she nurses and get her up around 7:00 to get dressed and walk out the door. I don't know if she was just really tired from her birthday party this weekend or if she's really playing hard at child care, but she's been in bed before 8:00 every night this week.

I'm slowly starting the weaning process. I've taken out the nursing in the late afternoon after we get home by giving her another snack as soon as we walk in the door. Today she ate a 4 ounce container of strawberry yogurt in one setting. And still ate a good supper. Next week I'm going to have Angela stop one of her bottles during the day. Slow and steady....

Raegan is a climbing machine! Today she climbed up on top of her Little Mermaid push toy and proceeded to climb up onto the couch. It seems to me like she can probably take off walking any time she chooses to. I think she's still just a little nervous about letting go. :)

We've been enjoying the much nicer weather. Last night we put the water table out on the deck and played in it for awhile. Tonight we went on a long walk. I hope that fall is here to stay! I can't wait to take the kids to the pumpkin patch next month! Fall is seriously my favorite season.

Well, that's about all in our neck of the woods for now.