Katya pottya

Katya continues to have success in potty training, besides a set back yesterday and the day before. That was because she has diarrhea, poor baby. She also threw up once but I think it was something we ate because my stomach was bothering me too. Now that things are back to normal she is back to going pant-less at home. It works great that she loves dresses so much because they cover her naky bottom but allow her to easily use the potty. She still has trouble remembering to hold it when wearing underwear or training pants but is doing better. She has been resisting taking the time to go to the bathroom lately (despite the reward afterwards) but that is to be expected. She can hold her bladder really well and when it gets to full to hold any more she gives in and goes. Sometimes we have to insist she tries, which is tricky because it can easily turn into a fight. We are doing everything we can to keep the experiance positive. She is really good at recognizing the need to have a BM and is getting increasingly confident in going in the toilet instead of a diaper. It is exciting to think that she will be out of diapers soon!

Kiss from dad on Superbowl Sunday

Smiling 'with teeth'

Eileen Anna Thompson

My grandmother, Eileen was born in Buffulo New York on Oct 10, 1919. She and her family moved to Englewood, California when she was four. She graduated from UCLA in 1942 with a degree in Education. She meet her husband, Lester Thompson on a blind date in 1935 and they were married in 1942. While Grandpa was serving in WWII, grandma worked for Douglass Aircraft. Later they started their family and had 8 children; Daniel, Kathleen, Maureen, Colleen, Christine, John, Dennis and Elsie. Grandma taught business classes at Mater Dei Catholic High School for 14 years. Her devotion to a faithful life was unsurpassed. She attended daily Mass and was very involved in her parishes. She died on January 11, 2010 in the home she shared with her daughter Colleen and son-in-law Skip. She was laid to rest on January 23rd at Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, buried with her husband Lester. She has 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

My grandma was always very supportive and proud of me. I am struck by how much love she showed for the people that were important to her grandchildren; significant others and spouses. I know that Craig was in her prayers daily. She was a strong and passionate women. She did not always have an easy life and keeping God close to her was imperative to her well being. Second in importance to her spiritual health was her physical health; she and my parents were wonderful teachers of healthy eating. It is such a blessing to be a part of the wonderful Thompson family, led by our matriarch Eileen. I believe that she will continue to lead the family in many ways and will live strong in our hearts always. I love you grandma.

Video clip of Reagan

Here is a clip of Reagan's crawling. She did not crawl as much as I was hoping for the clip but it is still cute. She gets up on her hands and knees alot, as you can see, but still on her belly to crawl. She gets all over the house like this but not very quickly, as you can imagine. It looks exhausting! When she is banging the floor in the video it is because I am talking about the dog behind her and she is trying to sign dog.

I am pretty sure she knows that I am mama and when she says it, she is often referring to me. First word? Their first word is hard to determine, not like I imagined before I was a parent:0) I think she knows who da-da refers to too and when looking at the dogs the bable is more dahhh, instead of daaa. It is so amazing seeing these little people develop.

Long overdue...

I have been so bad about blogging lately! January was a busy month and flew by. I was fortunate enough to fly with the girls to California to attend services for my grandma. It was an exhausting trip but great to pay tribute to grandma and to see all the family. It was quite the event. Here is a picture of my parents five grandchildren enjoying a cookie on the kitchen floor:

Katya had SO much fun playing with her cousins and her grandparents, she did not want to come home!

Katya has been doing really well with potty training this month. She is able to hold her bladder really well and tell us when she has to go. We leave her diaper off for most of the day while we are home. This seems to work best and remind her that she needs to use the potty (as oppose to training pants or underwear).

Reagan is coming up on 10 months old pretty soon. She is signing 'dog' really well and even saying, 'Da, Da' when she sees them. She has signed milk a few times but doesn't do it much. She waves and claps a ton. She will clap when I ask her to! It is so amazing how smart babies are. She still hates baths, screams the entire time. When she is not being bathed she is a pretty happy girl. She likes to snuggle but also loves playing and can entertain herself pretty well. I have been blessed with such sweet babies!

I am working on my grandma Eileen tribute post and I will try to do better about blogging more often! Love to all.

Reagan 9 months old

We had to reschedule Reagan's 9 month well child check today because we don't have are new insurance information yet from Dow Agroscience. By my own measurements she is 28 inches long (approx the 65th percentile) and weights 18.2 lbs (50th percentile).

Here are some things she is doing these days:

* Army crawling well
* Getting onto hands and knees and rocking
* Babbling ma-ma, da-da; happy screeches, clicking tongue
* Sucking thumb more to self sooth
* Starting to drop the 3rd nap
* Weaning slowly to the bottle
* Pincer grasp, self feeding Cheerios, pear, cheese, other soft foods.
* Favorite food is avacado

Reagan has her preferences with solid foods but she eats most everything pretty well. She is not too sure about yogurt; but that is because we only give her plain, no sugar or flavors added, which is pretty tangy. We are buying Nancy's whole milk yogurt for her because the whole fat is good for brain development, and it is delicious! What a treat for the rest of us:0)

She is doing much better with the weaning. I am nursing her 2-3x's in a 24hr period and she gets 3-4 bottles. My milk supply is dropping off and I imagine I will be done in another few days. She does best taking the bottle from me. It is kind of funny because a lot of babies won't take the bottle from mom (Katya was like this) yet little Reagan prefers it from me. We switch her to a fast flow nipple and now that she is use to it she is getting more formula down which is good. She is finaly drinking the 6-8oz bottles that a baby her age should.

Reagan is really interested in her sister and the dogs these days. Katya can really get her laughing, it is so cute. Reagan puts her hands over her head for "so big!" She LOVES a 'baby Elmo' book that my parents got her for Christmas. Her little face lights up everytime I start reading it to her. She has clapped a little but not real often. We are working on bye-bye. She is not signing yet but she pays attention to the signs when I do them. Here are some more cute pictures of her eating at my parents house.

Christmas pictures added

I added a Kodak album link of the pictures we took in California. Beware, there are a lot of them! Starts with the Smith's at our house and ends with the plane ride home.

Grandma Eileen Thompson

My dear grandmother passed away this morning. I am so happy that she is now pain free, at peace with the Lord our Savior, and with her husband. Yet, of course, I am so sad and grieving the loss. It is hard for me to put my thoughts into words. I am so incredibly thankful that I got to see Grandma twice while we were in California for Christmas. The visits were very brief yet they were so special and I feel so blessed that I was able to tell her how much I love her. She was able to meet her little namesake, Reagan Eileen and got to see Katya too. I look forward to telling my girls about meeting their great grandma Eileen when they are older.

I will do a longer, tribute post to Grandma in a few weeks, after her funeral. The celebration of her life will be next Wednesday and Thursday; I am very much hoping to go but I am still trying to work out the details.