What is the best way to get two children under 3 to MN?

We tackled this question head on last week as we traveled to Minnesota to visit family and friends. Our last trek back to Minnesota had us arriving in the wee hours of the morning and Reagan not in the least interested in going back to sleep. Two exhausted parents decided we could no long leave after work on a Friday to make the 6 hour drive.

Fast forward to last week...we forgot that we said we couldn't do it again. Leaving shortly after 4pm, we drove to New Berlin to feed the kids dinner and change them into the pjs at Steve's parents' house. Refueled and ready to go, we popped in a "Cars" into the DVD player (thank you Berrys!) and headed out. Jack ate a bottle in his carseat and Reagan watched "Cars" twice before conking out. I dozed in the back seat wedged between two carseats, while Steve played chauffeur in the front. We arrived in Apple Valley after 1am and to our surprise, Reagan AND Jack were not interested in going to sleep and both Steve and I were dead tired.

While our trip began a little rocky, we enjoyed a great week visit. We met Kim and Dave Behrens' new baby, Owen on Saturday. Sitting next to Owen, Jack looked like Baby Huey. Crazy what a difference 6 weeks makes! We spent Saturday afternoon with a couple of Park Tavern Buffalo Chicken Pizzas, a Byerly's sheet cake and some of our besties, The Berrys and Anna Taff & Tony Burton. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed some QT with our friends.

Sunday we spend Easter with my parents and my sister in AV. Reagan hunted for Easter eggs and had "M's" (M&M's) for breakfast. The day was beautiful, allowing for some outdoor play time and steaks on the grill for dinner. Reagan's Easter basket was so full some of the stuff had to sit on the floor in front of it. The favorite item in it was the Cookie Monster pajamas and of course the M's.

Steve flew home Monday morning to work for the week. During the week I saw my favorite hair stylist, Shawn Laske and Uptown Hair District (I know, I should find someone in Chi-town after almost 3 years but I just love Shawn), had lunch with Amy Thie at the Good Day Cafe, met Tara Ann Finn at the 'Bou for coffee and had an awesome playdate at the Gabbey house with the Gabbey boys and Carla, after which Reagan proclaimed, "I like boys". Heaven help us, I'm not sure we are ready for that statement yet! On Friday we headed out to Wayzata to go to the Oh Baby outlet and walk around. Unfortunately my fancy new Phil and Teds stroller was too fancy for me, as I could NOT figure out how to unfold it. Mind you, I folded it up so you'd think I could unfold it but no dice. Then my mom and dad tried. Still no dice. By now Reagan is practically in tears because she REALLY wants to ride in the stroller. Sorry kiddo, you'll have to walk. It took a stop into a bike shop to get the darn stroller open...

On the back end of our trip, we decided to re-strategize the drive. We ate lunch and left shortly after 1pm hoping to get to our house before bedtime. However a 45 minute stop in Tomah, where I flashed a parking lot full of Wal Mart shoppers as Jack had an afternoon snack, caused our ETA into New Berlin to be a lot later than we anticipated. Being the excellent parents that we are, we picked up McDonalds dinners (complete with shamrock shakes) and headed to Steve's parents house. Reagan downed the shake, showed little interest in the chicken nuggets and decided bedtime was OVERRATED. We stayed the night there and headed back to Deerfield after nap on Sunday.

One of these trips we'll figure out the best mode of transportation for a family of four with two little ones below the age of 3. Next up, we're flying to Kansas City with two kiddos, car seats and all of our stuff. Watch out KC, you don't know what's about to hit you!

Inspired

Clearly, despite my degree in English, I struggled with balancing the chores of a working mom and the task of recording the on-goings of our family. Since we've recently expanded our family, I thought that this might be an ideal time to find a little inspiration and bring everyone up to speed.

In the past year, Reagan has done AMAZING things by this parent's standards. She went from

small wobbly steps in December to running (sometimes in a 50-yard dash style across parking lots!!)

this past spring. She moved into the Toddler room at daycare and seems to be ruling the roost.

Lots of "leadership" with the other children, dancing and artwork is a typical day for Miss Reagan.

She's taken an active interest in picking out her own clothes (We hear, "Reagan do it" most of our

mornings) and has a keen interest in shoes. Thankfully, we've stayed one size behind Ashley Berry,

so we are the lucky recipients of adorable hand-me-downs that keep her stylin' every day of the

week. She still loves hotdogs and mac & cheese and has found a new love of ice cream. Last week

we tried chocolate milk, which was a big hit. Interests include football (which applies to all sports

events), the Gophers (which applies to all sports teams), riding bikes, wagon rides, stickers and trains.

Elmo has been bumped from his top dog spot, replaced by Cookie Monster.

February marked Reagan's 2nd birthday. We had family and friends out to our home in Deerfield

to celebrate at her Hungry Caterpillar party. We ate our way through the contents of the

Caterpillar's meals and finished off with cupcakes and cake from Sweet Mandy B's. To mark her

big girl status, we moved her into her big girl room and and big girl bed. She loves her room

and her newfound freedom to get out of bed whenever she wants. We started having to take

away her babies to encourage her to stay in bed. A few weeks into this, we went upstairs to

put her back in bed to see her door fly open and all of her babies fly out of her room, so she

could, in her words, "Take away so Reagan get out of bed". It's amazing how the mind of a two

year old works.

In March, we welcomed Jackson (Jack) Henry Chappell into the world and Reagan took her

place as big sister. Jack has proven to be an extremely easy, laid-back baby. We're still working

on correcting Day-Night confusion but other than that, we have been blessed with a good-natured

second child. He quickly overcame jaundice and eats like a line backer. At two weeks, he'd gained

over one pound, topping out at just over nine pounds. We're quickly approaching 6 month sized

clothes and retired the newborn clothes almost immediately.

.

Last weekend the Berry Family came down for a visit. The kids enjoyed hours of playing together

and skipping naps. We had a great time catching up with Scott and Megan and began talking

about Adult Spring Break 2012. I think Jake is ready for Jack to get big so that he has someone

to play with too! Wings, crowns and high heels dominated the afternoon and everyone enjoyed

dancing with Mickey Mouse.

A gentle nudge to post something new...

New year, new blog post...

Reagan is quickly approaching her first birthday and does an incredible amount of amazing things...or things that are amazing to momma and daddy!

Reagan:

• Walked the first week in December at 10 months
• Eats food like a champ--LOVES hotdogs
• Hugs Elmo on command
• Signs "all done" to signify that she does not want anymore of what we are feeding her
• Has the CUTEST pigtails in the world
• Fully embraces bubble baths (see picture below)
• Does her "cute" face when asked
• Survived her first bout of stomach flu
• Has 3 teeth; 1 snaggle tooth on the top and 2 on the bottom
• Had her first Christmas in Minnesota
• SLEEPS through the night (most nights)

We are gearing up for her birthday party in February and can't wait to see her eat cake!

Here are a couple of pictures of our little diva:

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