Another trip to the lake

Here's a couple pictures from our trip to Kanopolis yesterday. Us girls ended up getting out there around 10:30 and only staying until 12:30 because we had skipped Raegan's morning nap. She was pretty much falling asleep in the boat, which I took as my cue for us to go. :) I got to ride the tube with two of my nieces, which was fun but rough. I haven't been on a tube for two years now (due to being pregnant and all last summer) and this was a three seater where the back seat is really rough. Luke said I looked like one of the balls in those push toy popcorn poppers for toddlers.

I'm not sure why it looks so grey in this picture. It was actually a beautiful sunny blue skied day.

Raegan was much more pleasant about wearing her life jacket this time - I got her into it without any help, and she only wailed for a minute or two.

My little helper

Last week I cleaned out Raegan's closet and went through the bag of clothing that's too big for her. I weeded out some things that are too small that got in there somehow and boxed up the things that are way too big (2T and up) then took the bag of 18 month stuff for this fall and winter to the basement. I hauled it all out in the living room so that I would have room to work, and ended up with a helper. Raegan is very much so in a dump and fill stage right now, so this was right up her alley. Since I'll end up washing everything before she wears it anyways, I just let her play in the mound for awhile, because it kept her so happy and entertained.

Summer is ending! :(

Today Raegan and I went to lunch with my mom, as kind of our last hurrah before school starts. We went to Jalisco's in Lindsborg, which has some very tasty Mexican food. Raegan liked the guacamole, but wasn't nearly as into the beans as she is at our other Mexican restaurant. I forgot to take my camera in because I was going to get a picture of our last summer ladies lunch, but I did take a couple pictures at my mom's house.

Raegan was up again in the middle of the night for at least 45 minutes that I know of before I fell asleep. She slept until almost 9:00 but missed her morning nap. I expected her to take a decent nap in the afternoon. Turns out, she fell asleep in the car at 1:00. I transferred her to her swing at 1:30, and she was awake for 10 minutes or so then. Then she slept until 4:15. Holy cow, longest nap ever! I wish she would tell me when she's going to take long naps so that I can take one too! :)

Tri-Rivers Fair parade

Yesterday Raegan, Zane and I went to the Tri-Rivers Fair parade with some friends. It's amazing how pleasant 92 degrees feels when it was 107 the day before! We found a spot in the shade of the Access television truck, so it was pretty nice. Zane got a decent amount of candy and Raegan got to see her first parade, so we left happy. :)

This is Raegan when the parade first started. She was very skeptical about the whole thing.

"Seriously. WHY are we watching all of this?"

Zane and his friend Gavin

"Okay Mama. This isn't half bad!"

Raegan loves Randy!

Zane was kind of trying to avoid this picture actually, hence the strange smile.

Tiny donkey!

From a distance all you could see was the white animal, and we all thought there was going to be a real tiger in the cage. Turns out it was just some stuffed animals. Not cool, Rolling Hills.

She has a wrapped sucker in her hand to entertain her. Don't judge me. :)

She loves playing with water bottles. :)

Enrollment

We went tonight to enroll Zane in middle school. I cannot believe that he is going to be roaming the halls of that big school in less than two weeks. The nice thing is that the sixth graders are kind of segregated from the 7th and 8th graders - their classes and lockers are all in one wing. Zane's locker is right in the middle of all of his core classes, and it's not too far of a walk to Art, P.E. and Band. We couldn't get his combination lock on his locker to open, so if we have time tomorrow I'm going to take him back over so we can fiddle with it some more and probably get some help. Another nice thing that USD 305 does is that the 6th graders go to school for a full day before the rest of the middle school starts. It's not really a school day, more of an orientation. And then that evening Luke and I will get the joy of spending an hour and a half (who plans these meetings?!) at the Parent Night meeting the teachers and learning a little bit more about what middle school will be like.

I jokingly told Zane that we're going to homeschool him or have him do online school after this year, because next year it's going to get ridiculously expensive to have him in middle school. The fees break down like this (we only had to pay the first two this year):

Enrollment: $60
Activity Ticket and Yearbook: $25 (I *know* this isn't a necessity, but what kid doesn't want a yearbook, and it would have been $25 for just the yearbook alone)
Gym Clothes: $20
Activity Fee: $50 (this is for him to be in band or a sport)

Yep. Ridiculous. Why they have to wear specific shorts and t-shirts I don't know. Seems like he has a whole dresser full of shorts and t-shirts that he could sweat in just fine. *shrugs* And why 7th and 8th graders need specific gym clothes and 6th graders don't, I couldn't tell you.

So the boy is enrolled and starts on August 16th. Yikes!

The last few weeks

I've forgotten to do this for a couple weeks now!

New things Raegan is doing or expanding on:

-She's starting to babble/talk to people who are not just the immediate family. Today, we went to visit daycare together before Raegan starts next week, and she was talking to the other kids. And then later in the morning we went over to my friend Katie's for a playdate, and she was talking with Katie and her son Greyson.

-Raegan's eating more and more solids. Yesterday she ate two full jars plus table food (peas, pizza crust and apple). And she actually ate some solids for breakfast yesterday morning! Not baby cereal (which she still consistently hates!) but a half jar of bananas and mangos.

-Although she is still waking up at night, she's not freaking out nearly as much about me not nursing her. We rock for 10-15 minutes and she falls back to sleep. She's also gotten herself on a very good schedule during the day: up for the day between 8:00 and 8:30, nap from 10:30-11:30, nap from 2:30 or 3:00-4:00, in bed by 8:30-9:00. Obviously this will all rewind by an hour and a half or so next week, but I'm hopeful she'll stay on schedule. Angela (daycare provider) is pretty structured, which I think all children need, so I think things will work out great.

-Raegan gave kisses to Greyson today. She was over there patting him on the leg, then she started to crawl up him. She leaned over real slow to his face and gave him a kiss on the forehead. You could see that he was like, "What the...." but Katie and I were both like, "Awwwwww!"

-Last night in the bathtub Luke said she was playing a game with her toys. She would babble to them and move them around, then pick one up and throw it out of the tub, then repeat the whole thing over again.

-Today at Katie's I said "milk" and Raegan looked at me and did the sign. Yes! My child can sign!!!! When she gets a little older, I want to get her some of these Signing Time videos. My friend Angie plays them for her toddler, and he loves them and knows all kinds of signs.

First trip to the lake

First off, a quick shoutout: Happy Birthday to my awesome Mom! We love you!

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Yesterday after Raegan woke up from her nap, we went to go join Luke and his brothers at the lake. We've had a boat for 3 summers now. It's an '81 and it has a bunch of quirks (like to get fully up to speed if you have four people in it at least two people have to go to the front of the boat) but it's a boat. Raegan and I haven't been yet this summer, but when we were in Wichita Friday evening we bought her a lifejacket, so we thought this was the weekend for it.

When I put Raegan on the beach at first she was really unsure. She actually cried when the little tiny waves started coming up on her. I thought that it was going to be a very quick trip to the lake. She FLIPPED OUT when we wrestled her into her lifejacket (it was a two person job) and she sat really stiff and scared looking in the boat. After about five minutes she started looking around, and she really liked it when we got into the lake to swim. However, she wanted you right with her all the time. Even when we went to another beach, she wanted to be touching me while we sat there playing. Raegan really liked that she could scoop up sand and rocks with her hands, and of course splashing in the water. Luke's brother Darin recently bought a couple jet skis, so I was able to go out on one with Luke towards the end. I even drove on the way back, which was crazy! I love going fast, but it kind of freaks me out! Raegan wasn't too keen on us leaving her, but she likes her Uncle Devin, so he was able to entertain her for a little while.

The only thing that would have made it better was if Zane could have been there. :( He's going with his aunt to Great Wolf Lodge next Friday and Saturday, but hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can all go out next Sunday. I told Luke we need to start saving money once my raise kicks in so that we can buy a jet ski next summer. We'll see - I'm sure there's many more practical things that we can be using the money for. lol

This is when we first put her down at the beach. Can you tell she's crying?

Not too sure about this, Dada!

Still a little meh.

Getting readjusted

There's my happy girl!

She was talking to her Uncle Waylon in this picture.