We're back! And Reagan is almost 9 months!!!!

After several months, we're back! It's been a busy fall, traveling back to MN for Gopher football at "The Vault" (aka TCF Stadium), fall visitors and a long weekend in Cancun. Reagan is growing by leaps and bounds and is now topping out at almost 20 lbs. She is eating lots of different foods and we are anticipating adding finger foods to her diet. She is standing and pulling herself up and is busy cruising around all of the furniture. Much to the dismay of Sammie, Reagan is a speed demon in crawling mode. Sammie's favorite time of day is when Reagan goes to bed...just like the old days...

In October, Robin, mom and I took a long weekend trip to Cancun to relax in the sun, drink fruity cocktail drinks and enjoyed some relaxing, RESTFUL night's sleep. The weather was great, the food plentiful and the drinks perfect. While Reagan was missed, I believe the phrase is "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"...

During one of our trips to MN, Reagan went to the Minnesota Zoo with Nani and Aunt Robin. Though the animals were some what interesting to her, she did enjoy her time with Nani and Robin. The trip tuckered her out though!

Finally, Reagan enjoyed her first Halloween, dressing as a Sock Monkey. We breathed a sigh of relief when we put her into her costume, as we were a little fearful that she might not fit into it at the rate that she was growing. Though a little wary at first, she soon found it easy to cruise around waving her tail around.

6 month birthday & first Door County trip

The past few weeks have been very busy for our little Reagan Roo. Two weeks ago we headed up to Door County for our annual Chappell-Samuels family vacation. This year, in addition to both sets of Grandparents and the aunts, Great Grandma Phyllis and Kate's boyfriend, Eric rounded out the crew. We headed up a day early so that we could stay at a hotel with a swimming pool and took Reagan swimming for the first time. Though a little apprehensive at first, she decided that it was a great time (just as long as mommy or daddy was there to cling to). It's amazing to see her learning cause and effect first hand, as she splashes in the water and then giggles in delight.

This year we stayed in Fish Creek at the Whistling Swan Hotel. It is a darling little bed and breakfast that has truly amazing food. We'd highly recommend it to anyone...who doesn't have a 6 month old child. I believe that the word that describes their action as we hauled in our own refrigerator is "cringe". We've already started scouting out houses to rent next year and continue to dream about purchasing a vacation home up there. Perhaps by the time we get to retirement! Reagan loved Door County but had a hard time getting her necessary naps in, as she was continually worried that she was missing something great. That lead to one very tired baby, who seems to fall asleep whenever she was still as seen by the evidence below...

The following week, Reagan went to her first week of daycare. So far she is the only infant in the room and eating up the one on one attention. I hope she does well when she has to start sharing attention. I guess it is a good trial run to see if another sibling (aka competition) will take! :) She has been swimming in the little pool, reads lots of books and played with playdough today.

This past weekend, we traveled up to Franklin, WI for a family picnic with Steve's extended family. Steve's cousin Mark and his family were back from school year in Australia and his other cousin Brian was off to an Engineering conference in Barcelona. We got to visit with all of the family and introduce Reagan to everyone. Again, little miss Reagan decided she was so over naps until we hit the car for the ride home.

Sunday we headed downtown to the Loop to meet an old co-worker of Steve's at Gage for brunch. We had a simply delicious meal and enjoyed catching up with Laura. Afterwards, we strolled down by the lake and played in the water feature at Grant Park. Reagan cooled her feet in the water with mommy.

Here are a couple more pictures from our Door County trip:

Aunt Robin and a happy Reagan

Reagan and Nani (making her walk)

Reagan and her Nani

One of Reagan's favorite activities...flying

Reagan's first airplane ride

We've just arrived back from a whirlwind trip to Minnesota for the baptism of Reagan's godparents' second child, Jacob and a psuedo-surprise 30th birthday party for Chris Chapp.  The trip was Reagan's first plane ride and she was a champ on the plane.  The flight there was the most turbulent flight either Steve or myself had ever flown but Reagan didn't even bat an eye, as she slept through take-off and most of the flight.  She showed her true colors when she awoke though, as she would chatter and wave her arms and then look at the poor man sitting beside me trying to work, to see if he was looking at her.  When he continued to work and not look at her, she would raise the volume of her chatter and look at him again.  By the end of the flight she was not only shouting at him but also reaching out and touching his arm to get his attention.  

MSP was a nightmare coming home this morning though, with thousands of children sprawled all over the ticketing/check in areas in town for an international youth soccer tournament.  We barely made it through security and were amongst the last people on the plane after waiting behind the 10 year old boys checking their 3 foot tall Sponge Bob Square Pants toy.  After the crazy weekend of events, Reagan slept the whole flight and it now currently asleep in her very own crib.  

Super Nanny

We're a week and a half into Robin's summer stint as Super Nanny! She's putting Reagan through the development ringer, with the newest activity called "side sitting". It looks kind of like she is leaning to one side and is apparently the precursor to crawling. Reagan is getting close to rolling over and is enjoying sitting time in her bumbo chair. She has the most infectious laugh and continues to beam from ear to ear. She loves to "fly over her Daddy's head" and still thinks Mommy and her ponytail are pretty hilarious.

Reagan sitting in her Bumbo...look at that smile!

We took her to her 4 month check up on Monday and she weighs in at 15 pounds (75th percentile) and 24.5" long. I believe that they also measured her head but I can't recall the details on that one! She made it through another round of immunizations, though she spit back most of the medicine that they tried to give orally. Though shots were definitely no fun, she was a trooper. The biggest news that we got at the check up was the green light for solid food. I had to giggle to myself when the Dr. mentioned that if Reagan didn't take to the rice cereal that we could try a different kind. In my head I was thinking, "Not take to rice? Not a problem, it's in her genetic make up to love the rice!". Tomorrow is the big day, as Steve was traveling all week in Louisville.

Reagan flying with Daddy

New Digs...and new creatures...

We're settling into our new home and have officially moved the last box from the Condo in Logan Square to the 'Burbs in Deerfield.  My dad spent a  good portion of a week working out in the yard (ask him about his 'Day Laborer' tee shirt) providing some TLC to our much neglected yard and meeting all of the neighbors.  I think when he comes back in a couple of weeks I'll have him introduce us!  

We're slowly getting the rooms in a livable state, in order of importance...Reagan's room and our room were first, followed by the kitchen and bathrooms.  All of the other ones will have to wait. We received an ENORMOUS family sofa from Crate and Barrel and are enjoying watching TV from it. Much to Steve's delight, the extra large sofa dwarfs the current TV so next on our shopping list is a TV to rival the seating.  

We've had some visitors for Cubs games; Lynch flew out for the Cubs v. Dodgers and Micah, Jason and Ken came out for a rooftop Twins v. Cubs.  

Reagan is getting to be SUCH a big girl!  She's cracking up all of the time and she thinks her mommy is SO funny.  Robin is one day into the summer nanny job and is already working her hard--sitting in her bumbo chair, playing in the exer-saucer and rolling over many times.  I think she's done with her growth spurt and trying to hold her bottle all by herself.  With the amount of drool coming out of her and the way she enthusiastically attacks the teethers, it seems imminent that teeth are in our near future.    She's turned out to be quite the chatterbox, yakking it up with anyone and everyone who will listen, including her Gophers hanging above her crib.  She taken to yelling when she's finished eating.

Minnesota visit (belated!) and a new home for Reagan

After a short hiatus from blogging due to an unfortunate lapse in memory (a.k.a. leaving our computer at my parents' house in Apple Valley), we're back!

We made a week long visit to Minnesota to accomplish many things:

1. Instill in Reagan a love for all things Minnesotan; between the mobile and the trip, I think it's working (here she is staring at her Gopher mobile)
   
   
2. Celebrate Steve's birthday with about 75 of his closest friends
3. Introduce Reagan to all of the other Alpha Chi Legacies (pictured below; Me & Reagan, Steph & her Reagan, Heather & Lizzie and Emily & Tyler)
4. Let Reagan meet her Godparents, Megan and Scott Berry
5. Spend some QT with my Goddaughter, Ashley Berry (Ashley Berry hamming it up for the camera)
6. Have Reagan baptized at the church we were married in

Thank you to all of the people who stopped by Steve's birthday party to visit and meet our little one!  We had an awesome time and miss you all very much!

It seems like ages ago, so I'll just post some pictures and move onto the MOVE...

On Wednesday we packed the entire contents of our condo in the city and made the big move to the 'Burbs to our new home in Deerfield.  We filled a moving truck to capacity (they literally had to leave the back doors ajar and tape our stuff in to make it fit!) and headed out the house.  With the new place just minutes from my office, I am thoroughly looking forward to gaining nearly 3 hours of my life back each day due to a MUCH shorter commute!  

Steve's parents were amazing and made several 1.5 hour+ trips to Deerfield to pick up and/or watch Reagan while we worked on getting our home in a livable state.  Reagan's room was first, followed by our room.  Everything else will have to happen later!  My dad also came out to add some much needed TLC to our yard, as it was in definite need of help after many months of neglect.  Already it looks like a completely different yard.  The neighborhood is extremely friendly and everyone has stopped by to welcome up and wish us luck.

We'll post pictures, as soon as we can locate a camera!

Aunt Robin comes for spring break

For Robin's spring break, she decided to forgo the bikini and tequila poppers and come to Chicago to visit her favorite niece (ok, her only niece).  It's been so nice having a trained professional here to show us all sorts of new games to play with Reagan, as she was getting tired playing "Who is that baby in the mirror".  Robin is thoroughly working Reagan through tummy time and got all of the new toys out to show her.  In addition, Robin helped Reagan discover her feet, which was quite exciting!  Our favorite game so far has been putting the little stacking plush flowers on her wrists, Edward Forty-Hands style (and by our, I mean Robin and I, getting a good laugh at it!).

This week Reagan has also become quite the little talker, trading her little baby grunts for coos and gurgles.  She now spends most of her awake time vocalizing how exciting her world is through her new sounds.

It's been a busy week--since Robin is here, we've ventured out quite a bit more than usual. We've been quite amused watching people trying to determine which one of us is the mommy as we push Reagan around.  Today the weather turned warmer and mild so we walked around Old Orchard Mall, an outdoor mall near us and Reagan was the best little shopper.  I think she must take after her mommy!

My Life As a Teenager Boy

Reagan sporting a Baby GAP outfit and an unfortunate case of baby acne

What does Reagan and a teenage boy have in common?

• Days consist of eating and sleeping
• An unfortunate case of acne all over the face--is she too young for Proactiv?
• Dreams of boobs, eating and sleeping (in that order)
• Propensity to do exactly the opposite of what mom and dad want her to (ex. staying up all night!)

On Sunday we awoke to a strange silence in our apartment.  After rolling over to check the time, we realized that our baby was still sleeping (rare that we wake up before her) and the power was out. After a stormy and windy night, snow had settled into the Windy City, freezing the rain on power lines from the previous day and knocking out power in Logan Square.  Facing a whole day with no power (and no way to heat up bottles) we packed up Reagan and all of her stuff and headed out on her first official roadtrip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Chappell.  Like most babies, she loves the motion of a moving car and proceeded to immediately fall asleep, sleeping soundly for the entire 2 hour drive to Steve's parents' house in New Berlin.  So far she's a car riding champ.  Having taken off the carseat Bundle Me when the warm weather landed in Chicago, Reagan decided to wear her winter coat. The first time we put her in it, we could barely see her little face, as she was literally drowning in the massive amounts of fabric.  This time, the fit was much better!

We've finalized the details of our house close and look forward to getting into the house next month, the last week of April.  With 4 bedrooms, there will be a guest room for anyone who wants to visit (though over the summer Robin will be occupying the room as our live-in summer nanny). We're taking reservations, so make sure to contact us if you have a trip planned to Chi-Town!

As a reminder, we'll be in Minnesota April 11th- April 19th.  Steve's birthday party is open to any and all who'd like to stop by my parents' house in Apple Valley.  Call either Steve or myself if you need directions!

Minnesota's Big Dance

Reagan & I are home alone while Steve is out on the road.  We're currently watching the 10 seed Gophers take on 7 seed Texas on the computer, as Comcast sucks and we aren't getting the MN game on tv.  Reagan is sporting some Gopher gear and hoping for a Gopher victory.  

Yesterday we put an offer on a house in Deerfield and found out that our offer was accepted.  We close at the end of April and will begin to move our stuff into our new home in Deerfield.  The whole process was quite the whirlwind, as we hadn't intended on purchasing a house until June but we felt the house was too good to pass up and there were a couple of other bidders who we were competing with.

Here are a few pictures of our new home, contingent upon inspection...  

It's Big Ten Tourney Time

GO GOPHERS!!!!!!

Today we're planning on watching the Gophers take on the Wildcats in Round one of the Big Ten Tourney.  We had to laugh, as we has actually contemplated road-tripping down to Indianapolis for the tournament pre-baby.  The thought process; She's a baby.  She eats, she sleeps, she poops, how hard could it be?  In hindsight, we really were new parents as we had no idea how utterly ridiculous the idea was until we met her!  Maybe next year...

Despite not attending the tournament in person, we've got a big night of beer and pizza (and breastmilk for Reagan) and college basketball.  Hopefully we'll be able to stay awake to watch the games, as we're in the throes of many sleepless nights.

Reagan is getting so big and has officially outgrown her first clothes.  I began to pack up some of the NB sized clothes to make room for all of the cute big girl clothes!  She's still sporting a lot of pink, good thing she looks so cute in it!  

Reagan hanging out before her bath

Here's a couple of other pictures that we especially like...

Please save the date...we'll be back in Minnesota for Steve's birthday and Reagan's baptism. Reagan and I will be in Minnesota April 11th-19th, drop us a line if you want to meet for lunch/dinner/coffee, etc!

• Steve's birthday party will be April 18th at 1pm in Apple Valley at my parents' house.  I've sent out an evite but if I missed you, shoot me an email and I'll add you to the evite.  Food, beverages and Byerly's sheet cake will be provided.  
  
• Reagan's baptism will be April 19th at 10am at Calvary Lutheran Church (the church we were married at).  We'll have brunch afterwards either at my parents' house or at a restaurant nearby.

Whose kid is this?

Hilarious, truly hilarious...the night's events unfolded like this...

Cat Chu offered to bring us over dinner last night and who are we to turn down home-cooked goodness?  In return, we decided to bathe Reagan and put her in new pj's for Cat's visit.  We filled up the baby tub, scrubbed her down and lubed her up with a nice coating of baby lotion.  There she was smelling as sweet as she looked.  Cat's visit was fairly uneventful, with the right amount of alert and sleeping times and a feeding in the middle.  

Steve and I also had a date to Skype with the Berrys.  While Steve and Scott were working out some of the technical difficulties, I was holding Reagan and she performed one of the "miracles" of infancy; a dirty diaper effort that would make any truck driver proud, complete with great sound effects from both ends and an "incredible" smell.  Since she is a notorious multiple pooper, I held her a little while longer to see if she had any more to deal with.  Unbeknownst to me, Reagan had achieved a huge feat in her diaper, managing to poop not only out of the back of her diaper but also out of the front of her diaper.  I looked down to see a dijon mustard type substance oozing out of the front of her diaper, all over her clean pj's and Reagan staring up at me with the most content look on her face.  Needless to say, in addition to us fumbling through the Skype issues, we also were up to our elbows in Reagan's mess.  I think she might be Fabick's baby, based on the events of the night...

Just thought I'd be one of those parents who talk about pooping...yep, we've embraced parenthood to its fullest!

Back to work for Daddy

Steve is back on the road, traveling in Michigan this week and my parents are staying with Reagan and me.  It's been a blessing to have a couple extra pairs of hands around to help while Steve is gone.  We've settled into quite the routine, eating about every 2.5 to 3 hours and waking once a night to eat.  She's still an early riser, waking up at 6am-ish to demand food; glad that Reagan and Sammie can coordinate their food demand times to coincide!  

Reagan had her first water bath on Monday night and did not make a peep as she was washed and dried, though she did shiver quite a bit when the water was not being sprayed directly on her.  During her bath, we noticed that in addition to her hair seeming to lighten with each day, that she has the slightest bit of curl to her hair.  We're not sure that either development will be permanent but we're enjoying documenting all of the changes.

Both of my parents are amazed at how much Reagan has changed in just the few weeks since she was born.  My dad gets the biggest kick out of her "smiles".  I secretly think Reagan is laughing at him, as he seems to be having a slight identity crisis and can't decide what he wants to be called.  He goes back and forth between Grandpa and Papa; it's a good thing that Reagan won't be able to call him anything for a little while or who knows what she'd call him!  My mom jumps at any chance to hold her little granddaughter and has been a huge help as I'm still a little slower than my pre-pregnancy self.

We've finalized Reagan's baptism for April 19th so we'll be back to Minnesota the week before.  We'll likely come up for Easter weekend and I'll stay for the week with my parents.  In addition to Reagan's baptism, Steve is finally having a birthday party after 8 years together!  So mark your calendars for Saturday, April 18th for a birthday party celebrating Steve's last year as a twenty-something.  My parents have been gracious enough to agree to host, so get out your GPS and get ready to trek to da 'hood (aka Apple Valley) for some rockin' afternoon birthday partying...come meet Reagan, wish Steve 'happy birthday' and eat Byerly's sheet cake (yeah, you can't get that in Chicago!).

And baby makes three...

After a significant hiatus from my attempts to blog, I'm back and hope to keep up more diligently to record Reagan's first months in Chicagoland.  

Reagan is officially two weeks old as of yesterday at 4:19 pm.  It's hard to believe how much she has changed in just two short weeks.  Steve and I can both agree, parenthood is the most difficult, but rewarding experience we have ever undertaken.  While I will be out on maternity leave through Memorial Day weekend, Steve had to return to work last week, teetering on the verge of exhaustion and euphoria.  Having a baby is the busiest down-time in the world, as we are working to get Reagan on a schedule and acclimated to the idea of day=wake and night=sleep.

There are have been lots of surprises along the way.  In order to not forgot the surprises from these early days, here's our biggest learnings/joys so far:

• I didn't think that we could get sick of pink, as it is one of my favorite colors, however after two weeks, we've taken to dressing Reagan in boy sleep and plays, just to escape the color.  She's currently wearing a little green one that says "Later Gator" and has tossed printed alligators all over it.
• We were skeptical that the 0-3 month clothing would fit her when she was born, fearing that she would be too big for those outfits.  When she arrived, we had to laugh as she was drowning in the her in the 0-3 month clothes.  Both Steve and I have made subsequent trips to Target to clean them out of all of the NB sized clothes that they stocked.
• Despite all of the literature that says babies don't smile at this age, we have been getting a kick out of her ability to roll through multiple facial expressions.  It is as if she is trying out all of her expressions, one after another.  Our favorite is her smile, followed by her surprised face.
• For being the product of two high strung parents, Steve and I are blessed with an incredibly laid back baby.  She eats, sleeps and messes diapers and spends a very small amount of time crying.  It could be that she's still getting used to this big outside world, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that she stays this sweet.
• The sheer amazement that she recognizes both Steve and my voices this early in her life.  She'll turn towards us when we speak or sing.  I just hope she doesn't recall all of my yelling during the crazy Chicago commutes home from Deerfield over the past few months.
• She can sleep through almost anything; she slept through the neighbors' wine and cheese kegger, she can sleep through the dishwasher, washing machine and microwave all at one time...she really is her mommy's daughter!  
• Babies make an incredible amount of laundry.  We do laundry every day!
• Steve passed on cutting the umbilical cord after watching the "miracle" of birth but did get to experience it falling off whilst changing her diaper.
• For a man who had never changed a diaper before, Steve is an expert diaper changer...he also does a fantastic job changing clothes and swaddles like a pro! 
• We've got a little water baby.  There's rarely a cry during the sponge baths (she gets her first water bath today!) and it is almost as if she is smiling when we spray off her head to rinse the shampoo.  
• Her hair is still thick and dark, though it appears that it may be getting lighter as she gets older.  
• She has inherited her mommy's dry skin so we spend a fair amount of time lubing her up with vaseline to counteract the flakiness.  She has already embraced her inner girliness, as she puckers up when I put the Aquaphor on her lips.

We are truly amazed by just how much and how quickly we fell in love with her.  We're hoping to make it back to Minnesota in April to have her baptized at the church that Steve and I got married at and to celebrate Steve's last year in his twenties.  Stayed tuned for more details but I anticipate that we'll be back mid-April.