Smashing, aren't they?

Time to getcher gourds, folks! Pumpkins have arrived at our house. A "Daddy one, a Mommy one and a Reesie one," in case you were wondering. And the holiday season (and decorating, shopping, eating) commences....

Pom-pom-pomp, Pom-pom-pomp-pomp-pano

(Sung to the tune of the Sanford & Son theme song)

Reese and I are back from a great weekend with David. We stayed in Pompompomp, Pompompomppompaano Beach. Sorry, it cannot be said any other way amongst this family. Seriously, we drove through (oh, okay) Pompano Beach all weekend singing our modified Sanford & Son song. And really, it fit the town quite well. Our hotel was just fine [Ocean Sands Resort: (use dramatic voice) "where the ocean meets....the sand"....aka, the BEACH, people].
[(BTW, do you like the use of brackets AND parentheses in one sentence? Is that even correct?)]
It worked out great, we were directly on the beach, as promised by the dramatic tag line, and we had a two bed, two bath suite with a kitchenette (is that spelled correctly? Mac says so but it looks wrong to me--apparently you are my grammar coaches with this entry), plus there was a spa and I got an 80-minute "top to toe" massage. So it was great for us. But I don't think we'll be back because frankly, Delray itself is much more charming. And also easier to utter without breaking into a TV theme song.
So, I like y'all and I have been all heavy duty lately and thought maybe it was, oh, I don't know, time to post some PICTURES or something. Sorry it's taken so long, seriously.
My precious ones, heading into the water. Love how David is "looking both ways"--such a protective Daddy. ;)

"Jumping" in the booms

Really jumping in the booms! And we wondered why she always wanted her Daddy to take her in the water....
.
Coming back from the booms! (Also, my husband is HOT!) ;)

Hey, SAND!

"I'm going to CRYYYYYY" followed by said promise. This happens a lot, so I don't recall what the particular announced episode was about. Oh well, she's 2, after all.

And yet another toddler in the hotel furniture pic. And a pretty dead-on Gene Simmons impersonation, thank you very much. We're so proud. :)

No worries!

Um, hi?
Okay, that dark cloud, gloomy, brooding, bad attitude from yesterday has passed, as predicted. I'm back to my regular chipper self! Thanks to everyone who emailed or called and tried to talk me off the ledge. I am okay, we are okay, it was just a passing state of mind. And lady hormones. It's nice to be back to normalcy!
We had another swim lesson today and R is back to her old tricks and swimming like the mermaid princess she is. I decided we'll cool it with the lessons for awhile and let her adjust to everything else happening, so that will be the last lesson for a little while. We can't really practice anyway, so it makes sense. But in FL, I am sure she's going to have a ball in the pool. Gwen told me we needed to get in the pool 2x a day there. Ma'am, yes ma'am! She is actually about as kind as she can be--just funny to get marching orders that include mandatory pool time. Twist my arm!
(Funny tangent story about Gwen: the gals sitting next to me in my EASB committee meeting today were talking about how their kids took lessons with Gwen, which I thought was really ironic since I was basically heading there right after the meeting....then, as we were wrapping our lesson up, the next "student" arrived, and lo and behold, the mom is a girl I know from grad school--also ironic, but especially so because I just recently reconnected with a grad school friend and it just seemed like such a small world, all of this happening...it also seems like Gwen is a social networking connection for me...it's all too much to be a coincidence, right?)
So, the sleeping disruption was a fluke too, Reese is back to sleeping long 3 hours naps and soundly through the night, bless her sweet little heart.
We're gearing up for our trip tomorrow. I'm getting really excited!
Not much else is new. I'm heading to a Karen Huber fundraiser tonight with Mom. I need to get some work done. I need to pack. I should probably work out considering the getting in a swimsuit issue, coupled with McD's for lunch today. Of course, I am sitting here, blogging instead. Hmm, maybe I should go check Facebook for the 10th time today? Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Toodles, y'all!

Toddler regression directly linked to Mommy depression

Y'all. Remember how, just last week, I said something along the lines of, "Drop-off has become a non-issue" and "Reese turns around and says 'Bye, Mom!' as I leave without soliciting an emotional reaction." Yeah, ummm. About that.....
We are experiencing some movement in the opposite direction this week. First of all, R had a follow up swim lesson yesterday. As a precursor to the next statement, we have not been able to practice our skillz much because the pools are all freaking freezing all of a sudden. Mid-May, boom! Pool is a lovely bath-like temp. Mid-September, boom again! Too cold to dip your toes in. Anyway, so we went to the lesson, and R was clearly struggling and Gwen told me that she had regressed dramatically. So we are going to squeeze in another session tomorrow before we leave for FL on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully the tropics will give us a break and spare us any bad weather and we can squeeze some more swim practice in. So...regression, strike 1.
Today, I dropped R off for Zoo Day at preschool, a special day when the exotic animal guy brings lots of creatures up to the school and does a presentation for the kids. Awesome, yes? Reese was so excited last night that she was saying she wanted to go to school. No dice this a.m. She whined and worried all morning before we left, then went into a full-on panic attack when we got to the room, crying, clinging to my leg, saying "I want my mommmmy!" So I left her in a state of toddler meltdown in the arms of Ms. Tori. And proceeded to worry all morning long. I had an appointment, then hit the trail to process some of the stuff going on, including the morning's drop-off. Instead of skipping this time, I had the cloud of gloom and doom hanging over my head, following me along as I stomped around the loop.
(In spite of all this to think about, I got so nostalgic seeing all the ACL stuff going up. I am super excited to head to FL and see David and hang out at the beach...but, it's also the first time I will miss the festival completely. I am sad to see all the familiar sites go up and know I will miss them. I am sad David isn't working it this year and we can't fly around on the golf carts. I am sad I won't be in attendance at Base Camp. I sadly will not enjoy a chicken cone, and the list goes on. I hope some of you will give me great updates about ACL this year. Honestly, if you had told me a few years ago that I would not be attending ACL, I would have been in a state of disbelief. I might have smacked you for saying something so outrageous! "Me, miss ACL fest?? Never!" But if I have learned anything this year, it is to expect the unexpected and be prepared for change, sometimes in a major way. So thank you for THAT, 2008.) Where was I? Oh, yes....
I braced myself for pick-up, which went pretty much as expected. Although R was not in mid-wail when I arrived, she was standing by the door, with her backpack on and ready to go. The rest of the kiddos were still sitting, calmly eating lunch. Not Reese, she was ready to get the heck outta dodge. Ms. Tori did not sugarcoat today, saying, "It's been a pretty rough day." While R did apparently enjoy the zoo component of the day (telling me about a snake and a kangaroo), the rest of the time she was pretty miserable. The teachers had to hold her a lot and as soon as she started to relax and maybe even enjoy something, she would catch herself, cry and start saying she wanted me. Regression, strike 2.
I don't know, I'm pretty much at a loss. It seemed like we were making progress last week, but then this week hits like a ton of bricks. On the one hand, I really don't want to traumatize her. I want her to equate school with happy times and positive thoughts. The teachers agreed with this and even made the statement that she is pretty young. They also sort of looked at me blankly when I said we'd try it again on Thursday. I guess I don't know when to call it and decide we'll just try again next year. Or when to push on and see if it just takes more time for her to adapt. Because honestly, even though it's only been a few weeks, I have REALLY gotten used to having these 7 hours a week to myself. Sure, I am busy the whole time and fret quite a bit about what is happening with R, but having the chunk of time just for myself feels like a shot of pure oxygen. Decisions, decisions....gaaaaah. What to do?
Also, regression, strike 3: R has been sleeping so well lately--naps and at night--going right down, staying asleep for loooong periods of time, no complaints. You know where this is going: yesterday, she fought me for an hour before finally relinquishing to the nap. Last night, she woke up at 4 am screaming to come to my bed (I rocked her and got her down again in her crib). She went right down for her nap today, so maybe it was a fluke, but damn, really, the sleeping is potentially messed up??
See what a lighthearted hahaha mood I am in today? I'm not even including any gratuitous fun pics in this post, although if you are still reading this, that probably doesn't surprise you at this point! How's that for a heavy entry? If it wasn't enough for you, I recommend finding the darkest room possible, turning on some Morrissey and climbing under the covers. That should do the trick. Matter of fact, I might go do that, except I do not care for the music of Morrissey (but maybe that's the point?). Don't despair, normal Shelly will be back soon. Just try not to mention the word "regression" to her....

Fun filled day

Boy, it's been a packed Saturday so far!
We came in from overnighting at the ranch this morning, got ready, and headed over to Cole's fun 2nd bday party. I neglected to grab my camera so I am without documentation, but it was a really great party. Laila and Jordan had so much for the kids to do in their yard and everyone had a blast, plus I really enjoyed catching up with Kleemans and Cord, as well as meeting some cool parents. Fun times!
Then we went and got R's flu shot. Not fun times! But it was so quick, we barely blinked while we were in there. I have a sneaking suspicion that the office staff wanted to head out as soon as possible!
My MIL & FIL, Michelle and Lorne, brought R's awesome cousins to Austin today, so we got to see them for a really fun lunch at Rudy's. Rudy's is a great place to take kids--they have an enormous lawn in the back and the kids just run around and play. It's great. Plus, they think it's cool to eat off of sheets of paper instead of plates. Or maybe that's just me.
It was a really fun visit. The cousins have been out of school all week post-Ike, and aren't slated to return until Tuesday at the earliest. Luckily, it sounds like all of family's power has been restored in Houston, so hopefully things will slowly return to normal.
Reese, surrounded by her adored and adorable cousins, Mary Blake, Bain and Georgia
(they are all wearing stickers from Rudy's letting the world know that they sterilized their hands)

Pretty much the same pic but I love that Bain is hugging her

After this jam-packed day, R had some pent up energy and hit the piano but refused a pic--her she is shaking her head "noooo" in response to my photo request. Looks like she is jamming out Stevie Wonder style.

And then she collapsed into her crib, despite telling Georgia about 5 times that she was definitely NOT tired, and is happily napping away. And yes, she is still wearing the sticker on her back announcing good hygiene practices.
We're supposed to stop by another party tonight but I think we will have to gauge whether we're worn out from all of the earlier fun, or if we still have it in us!

Baby BOOM!!!

It is absolutely amazing to me how many of our friends have had babies (especially this week) or are pregnant! Something in the water here in ATX!
So, within the past month or two, Missy & Charly welcomed their second son (Ian), Reagan & Chip welcomed their 3rd child (Lucas), and my friend from college Becca welcomed their second child (Miller).
This week, on Tuesday, two babies came! Anne & Cord welcomed their second daughter (Tinsley) and Clayton & Andrew welcomed their 3rd child (Helen), and today Melissa & Janna welcomed their new daughter (Simone).
Plus several of my dear friends are expecting. I will update you as those precious bundles come along. It's always so exciting to get that email telling you a new baby has arrived, with all the vital stats, and announcing the name. Speaking of names, every single one of those names I just listed are beautiful, fabulous names--great job, Moms and Dads!
I was going to try to post a funny video I shot of R this morning, as we were getting ready for school. She was unabashedly admiring herself in the mirror and making up the funniest songs as she did so. But I am looking at my video camera and am totally dumbfounded--the A/V plug thing is unlike any I have ever seen. So I am going to try to track down one that will work. Sit tight, kids, we will have A/V at some point.
In the meantime, I'll do a quick preschool update: the drop-off is becoming a nonissue. R saunters in the school on her own, walks right into her room and up to the craft table and starts in, talking to her teacher and the kids, pausing long enough to turn and say, "Bye, Mom!" (which will eventually morph into being embarrassed & ignoring me in 10 or 12 years, so I am enjoying it while I can), and I leave without soliciting any emotional response. The teacher said she did great today--went out on the playground and had a great time (almost like a normal child), interacted, and didn't even cry...until the last 5 minutes. So of course, when we walk in to pick her up, there she is, wailing as she waits at the door. Oh well, she bounced back pretty quickly. I predict next week will be even better because they have "Zoo Day" scheduled for Tuesday. The director told me the guy that brings those exotic animals on the David Letterman Show actually lives in central TX and is going to be bringing some of his animals up to the church for the preschool classes to view. He does an "interactive" presentation and they all get to view the animals and pet some of them too. I think I asked her three times if I needed to be up there, if parents normally attended, etc. She pretty much said no all three times--bummer, I think that sounds so cool! I might have to loiter.
I got a flu shot today and my arm is sore, so I am going to break from typing and try to see if we have anything that matches up with the weird A?V slot in our house....ciao until later!

Back to the drawing board

****Afterschool Update Below******

Well, Reese's story about boys stealing Bunny on the playground tugged at everyone heartstrings just like any good FICTITIOUS story should! So, I was launching into my "let's leave Bunny in the cubby and watch out for bullies" chat with her teacher and Reese looked her square in the eye, cut to the chase and said, "The boys took Bunny away from me." Her teacher looked confused and told me she never saw anything happen on the playground that would upset R, and she had been watching her especially since she had been so sad the past two weeks. She also told me Bunny had not even been going out on the playground with her. At this point in the chat, R knew she had been exposed, so she said, again, "I don't want to go out on the playground!" Ms. Tori said, "But you can swing--remember how much fun you had swinging?" Reese said, "Can Bunny come swing?" She said of course he could, and R looked pleased as punch. Then R immediately became absorbed in the craft project, sat down at the table and turned to me and said, "Bye Mommy!" Tori and I looked at each other, shocked, and R and I blew kisses as I quickly walked out the door. She also willingly walked into the school (first time I didn't have to carry her) and told me she wanted to go to the classroom. So, maybe Bunny's absence was the problem, not some made up tale of mean kids.
We'll see how the pick up goes.
I am off to enjoy these lovely fall temps and try to have some solo QT on the hike and bike trail.
And no more Donnie Darko images, I did get some complaints.....

UPDATE:
I had a lovely walk around the H&B, feeling so happy about the weather and how easily the transition went this a.m. at school, I was practically skipping along singing "la, la, la, la, la"--I must have looked really funny all half-skipping with a goofy grin on my face. I was mulling over how as parents of young children, we are so inextricably tied to what happens in their life. For example, I was simply elated that R had been so content at school, and had been feeling so much sadness and pain about these make-believe bullies. Meanwhile, people were probably jogging and walking by, thinking, "What's with HER? Fruit loop-y, that one..." (I know because I regularly think this about multiple people on the trail--best people watching in town, I am telling you--way better than ABIA)
Well, that balloon of happy face deflated really quickly when I picked R up and she was inconsolably wailing yet again. In all fairness, there seemed to be some sort of nap revolt going on and many of the other kids were angrily crying. But her teacher tore herself away from the pint-size revolution at hand and chatted with me for a few minutes. She told me that playground time went better, Bunny went out with her, she even seemed to have fun....(me, in my head: "Where's this going?")....then she delicately and tactfully mentioned that Reese "just doesn't seem to deal with it well when she doesn't get her way," explaining how she, um, sort of demanded a lot of things and also wanted Ms. Tori to only hold her, crying when she put her down. Also, she told me R did not eat much of her lunch as a result of an OCD freak out because I forgot to put in her princess napkins today (okay, she did ask me to put them in her lunchbox and I completely forgot about it; go, Mommy!). Again, very sweetly stated, as only a woman with the patience of a saint or preschool teacher could say it. But the message is clear: she's acting like a brat. So, we need to work on this one. We also talked about how this isn't unusual from an only child with a stay at home parent--she's just used to be the center of my universe and when she finds out there are (gasp!) other planets in that universe, it isn't pretty. Big sigh.
Also, when we were at Target afterward, Reese starts announcing (right as we pull into the packed check out lines--girl's got a knack for timing), "We don't say OMIGAWD. We don't say OMIGAWD, right Mommy? Mommy?" I desperately tried to figure out how I could act like I didn't know her, but since she was strapped into the cart I was pushing and we have an uncanny familial resemblance (due to DNA and all), all I could do was "shhhhhhhhh" and change the subject. So, I am also wondering if she was running around the Baptist preschool loudly spouting "OMG" after "OMG". Series of big sighs.
Someday this will be easier, yes?

The Case of the Preschool Playground Incident

I forgot to mention that Reese told my parents what happened that was so upsetting last week at school. Except, rather than telling them outright (which I have danced around and even directly upon, with no luck), she instead reenacted the event. They were in the car and she grabbed Bunny and started yelling, "NOOOO, MINE, MY BUNNY, YOU CAN'T HAAAAAVE HIM!" Come to find out (at least the best we can tell), two boys came up to R on the playground and snatched Bunny away from her. It literally brings tears to my eyes to think of scared, sweet Reese standing there in a defenseless state of shock as her precious Bunny is ripped away from her.
Anyway, we have talked about this and it still worries her tremendously. We've come up with a two part solution. The best plan would be for her to take Bunny to school with her but to leave Bunny in her cubby when they go play, and she has agreed to this, at least in theory. I'm not sure she gets the part where he won't physically be with her, but we have told her he will be safe in her cubby. The other part of the plan, in case the cubby thing ain't happening, is for her to yell (much like she did when--and has many, many times since, as "practice"--telling my parents) something along the lines of, "NO, STOP IT, MY BUNNY!" as loud as possible and then to go find Ms. Tori.
I don't know, I don't think sending her to school without Bunny is possible yet. I am obviously going to chat with Ms. Tori and maybe she can help us figure out the right approach.
Short of trying to get Bunny to morph all Donnie Darko on anyone who tries to get between him and Reesie, I am out of further ideas. But can you just imagine? That would be the ultimate ditterent....

"Evacuation complete!"

So, Ike. Thankfully everyone I have heard of is doing okay, some property damages, but all of my loved ones and my friends' loved ones seem to be accounted for and doing fine (at least I haven't heard otherwise in some cases). It remains to be seen how Galveston fared but hopefully with some major clean up efforts they can bounce back. It sounds like my friend Blair's family's beach home was in a pretty perilous predicament: you know the picture the media kept showing over and over of the beach house in Galveston completely up in flames? Well, her grandparents' beach house was directly next door to it, and the wind was gusting towards their house. They aren't sure yet if it sustained fire damage or not.
Somehow I caught the News 8 report on Friday that basically lied to everyone and said, "The storm is making a strong westerly turn! The eye of the hurricane will pass within 60 miles of Austin! The projected models are shifting and bringing it towards us! Save yourself! Run for the hills! (But not "The Hills")" It probably only was on the website for 15 seconds, but I caught it and told my parents. So we evacuated, literally running for said hills. We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the ranch, and while evacuation was, um, a little bit unnecessary and all, it made for a fun weekend.
Speaking of fun this weekend, we had the super fun couples shower for Baby Mehta! And her parents too. :) After coming out of evacuation and braving the 15 mph winds and cloudy, rainless skies, I had a blast at the party, visiting with everyone. So much so that I only took a picture of Erin's piece-de-resistance, the block cakes. Did I really not take other pictures, people?? I feel like I remember taking lots of pictures. But somehow this is the only one that made it onto my camera. Sneaky camera. Aren't the cakes fab?

Then we took some pictures of Reese yesterday, contained within a larger than life pot in the cactus garden. I guess that's the best place for her to be in the cactus garden....

See how SCARY the weather is in the Austin area?

Life is just a bowl of Reesies....


Here is our young maestra at work. She's clearly a talent of epic proportions, a child prodigy, much like Pablo Picasso. Instead of blue, however, she favors "pink" (which Ma Pam masterfully re-dubbed the otherwise "red" paint) and purple.

So, the lower right corner consists of "hearts", the upper right is "'mingo" (aka flamingo), and the upper center section is "high-fives," which are completed by slapping the brush on the canvas. Definitely abstract. Definitely expressive. Just not sure if it's abstract expressionism or not. No worries, it was fun!

That's all I got right now. Hope everyone's week starts off well....
(I am copying the Mehta blog and using a movie reference as the title--hopefully someone will get it!)

Something to do besides obsessively watch Ike....

...because all I seem to be able to do is cycle between weather.com and chron.com. This hurricane is really freaking me out. It's like a burgeoning train wreck that moves about 10 mph. If that makes any sense. Anyway, I am worried about everyone I know and love in Houston, worried about the destruction to Galveston, worried about the general well-being of everyone along the coast. All there is to do is watch and wait. But, in the meantime, I REALLY need to take a break from my OCD attachment to weather coverage. Which is something I normally have anyway--it just reaches a fever pitch when there's a "weather event"--and this is like an extended two week weather extravaganza, but not in a good way--obv.
So, let's talk about something else, shall we?
Oh, my dears, do NOT let this picture fool you.

It has not been an easy week at school for Reese. Lots of tears upon drop off and pick up both days, and the teacher told me R adamantly refused to go out to the playground on Thursday. This is shocking and confusing because she adores being outside, going to the park, and had even talked about the playground a lot the first week. I'm trying to get to the bottom of it, but my sleuthing is falling flat so far.
For consolation, we often go get a "pink" milkshake (I really wish she was as obsessed with the color brown as she is with pink because I would SO rather mooch off a chocolate shake than a strawberry one) and fries. I think she likes this new tradition.

These are pics from earlier today--R is wearing a dress that used to be mine! We are trying (collectively, as a family) to determine which relative made this. I thought it was Kathy, but she said no, so maybe Grandma Margaret? We're going to dinner with her tonight so hopefully we can re-debut the ensemble to the proper designer.

It fits R so well and I think she looks absolutely precious in it. But I could be biased.


Well, back to team coverage for me. I hope those of you in Houston are ready to hunker down and get through the night. I am very much looking forward to phone calls tomorrow assuring me that you are all okay. Not that any of you are going to have the time and desire to read my blog at this time. Off to watch, wait, watch, wait. Everyone take good care.

One upon-ce a time....

...Mommy decided to blog about totally random pictures.
Reese is saying "One upon-ce a time" all the time these days, usually diving right into some babbling, partially coherent interpretation of a story she's heard. It's really quite amusing, although I'm not sure that's what she's going for.
And continuing in the vein of partially coherent, here is my blog entry! Mainly consisting of random groupings of pictures. Yes, Reese is napping and I am trying to avoid doing other stuff, namely cleaning up the house.
Here's Miss Thang, strutting her stuff with her sunglasses perched on her head...

In an oddly manic turn of events, I found Reese rocking this piggy on the floor of my office while singing every last word of "Rockabye Baby" (which is a truly frightening song, if you stop and think about the lyrics)

Then she decided they needed a change of environment

And she ended up putting Piggy in time-out. It all came together when she yelled, "You need to go to time-out! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." I still haven't been able to determine exactly what the pig did to go from lullabies to punishment so quickly.

Then I turned my back for a few seconds and she scaled the changing table, clearly without remorse

Reese has been feeling particularly feisty (slash naughty) today. Her new thing is announcing when she is misbehaving, as in, "I throwing A FIT!!! I throw a FIT!!" This is often accompanied by pulling all of her books off the shelf, or, as seen here, tossing crayons and markers randomly around the room.

Clearly, I have a strong-willed child.

So that's pretty much the dish on what went down so far today. We dropped David at the airport and were sad to see him go, but I know we will get down to FL again soon for another visit. I warned you, random blog entry! Not much continuity today. Anyway....
And everyone lived happily ever after, the end.

Cool cousins

We went to Union Hill Farm in Burton this weekend and had a blast with the Bain and Williams families! Reese adores her big cousins--she talks about them all the time, but we haven't seen them nearly enough this summer. She was ecstatic to spend some time with them. Which basically consists of her following them all around, wide-eyed, absorbing every cool big-kid thing they do.
First, David was reunited with Samson, who is officially a farm dog and loving life. He was happy enough to see us, but not overjoyed at the reunion--I think he was worried we might take him away from the good life. How trim and handsome does he look? And the lab isn't bad looking either.... ;)

Reese runs in the grass with some help from Georgia and Bain

I love this shot--who knows what they were talking about, but I can guarantee this: Reese was thrilled to be part of the conversation!

Pretty girls--Reese and Mary Blake in pink princess crowns (coincidentally, they both share a passion for the same color) and Georgia posing before dinner

Bain teaches an eager Reese about video games

Chopsticks are fun!

So are ribs!

Some TV snuggle time before bed.

We're planning to see everyone a lot more this fall. We had so much fun!

The reluctant preschooler

This morning was perhaps more difficult than Tuesday--Reese knew what was coming and started protesting/sniffling at home. It crescendoed by the time we got to school and she was wailing when we (calmly, at least on the outside) left her. Beloved Bunny was by her side the whole day, and that seemed to help quite a bit. I know this because I drove by mid-morning and saw her class out on the playground, and there was R, clear as day: clutching Bunny and waiting in line for the swing. WHEW! Huge sigh of relief followed by a guilt-free morning of shopping!
When we went to pick her up, Ms Tori said she was finally relaxing and starting to play. There were no signs of tears stained onto her face, and while she was CLEARLY glad to see us, she also didn't seem distraught. The tomato sauce spots covering her face and clothing led me to believe she enjoyed the Thursday pizza day ritual at school and felt good enough to eat. And it seemed like she had a little friend, a cute little girl who was commenting on how pretty R's picture turned out. Plus, she gave the class and teachers a very exuberant "BYE-BYE" with lots of waving as we were leaving.
Happy Daddy and daughter leaving school today.

Here is our budding artist with her masterpieces from this week: a glitter hat and chalk drawing. She's a bit modest about her talents and did not want to pose for the camera.

For some reason, Reese came home from school today TALKING REALLY LOUDLY. I don't know if her congestion is plugging her ears or if she has to holler to be heard in class, but I spent most of the early afternoon saying things like, "Shhhh" and "Not so loud, honey." She told us (several times) how she played on the playground today. We didn't get many other details out of her but at least she wasn't the completely fragile, wounded child who came home on Tuesday. Just a slightly disheveled girl with volume control issues and food smeared all over her. Hey, I'll take it over the alternative.
David took her to a Girlstart event at the Shiflets' house so I am blogging in utter and complete silence and peace. It's making me a little jumpy and nervous quite frankly, all this quietness filling the house.
For those who are not Project Runway fans or do not want to know what happened on last night's episode (SPOILER ALERT), you may be excused from the table (another thing we are working on--without huge amounts of success--at our casa lately. It usually goes like this--us: "Reese, you need to ask to be excused from the table if you are done with your meal. Say, 'May I be excused?" " Reese: blank stare as she wanders into another room).
Back to PR, and also let me throw out the fact that I can't BELIEVE I am blogging about a reality TV show, despite the fact that I am a dedicated reader of the Project Rungay blog. This peace and quiet compels me to ramble on and on...anyway, can those of you who are still reading (Ashley, maybe?) believe that Stella was auf'd last night? Okay, her outfit was kind of ugly, but what WAS that thing that Joe sent down the runway? And isn't he a complete snooze compared to Stella? I mean, she totally insulted Rachel Zoe on the show last night and then head-on defended her put-down when Tim tried to tiptoe around it? I love her and am sad she is gone. I also did not love Leanne's winning design, mainly because the jacket was heavy, drab and basically hideous. Korto was robbed. That's all I am going to say about that, at least for now.
Off to face an empty house without the distracting aid of the internets. Hope you all are having a great day.
Oh, and we got a new Mac for our home office so expect some videos and maybe fancier blog entries. Maybe.

Bunny saves the day! (Or at least makes it slightly more bearable)

Well, it was R's first day of preschool. We really did try to explain that we would be dropping her off, leaving her there for a while, then picking her up....and she repeated that back to us several times. When we got there this morning, she refused to walk in on her own. As soon as we stepped in her classroom, there were a few other kids who had fully comprehended the "dropped off" part at that point and were in full-wail-mode. This did not help things--Reese started crying immediately. And clinging to us. And screaming "Mommy hold you! Daddy hold you!" We got her stuff situated, said a few words to the teacher over the chorus of frightened cries, told her bye and we'd be back and ducked out. We didn't realize we'd be back so quickly--the school called, told us she had been pretty upset and asked if we knew what Reese was referring to when she repeatedly asked for Bunny. Well, anyone who has briefly encountered R has met dear, precious Bunny.
Here's an old pic from 2007

Bunny has literally been with us from the beginning--we got him at the baby shower my girlfriends threw me the weekend before R was born. On multiple trips, my dad has remarked, "As long as we have Bunny and a credit card, we're fine." And it's the truth--he's irreplaceable. We even located a similar lovey, by the same company, but R knew the difference and wouldn't have any of it. So, there I was, on the phone with the school office and amazed at my ignorance for not including the number one most important comfort item in R's bag on her first day of school. David volunteered to rush Bunny to the rescue and when he arrived, many of the office staff exclaimed, "It's Bunny! Thank goodness!"
Of course I fretted about how she was doing for the next few hours, and probably with good reason. When we got there, she was calmly eating her lunch, clutching Bunny and sitting by herself, but with a very blotchy red swollen face. She told me, "I cried and cried and cried." But this is to be expected: it's the first time we've really just left her with people she doesn't know at a place she's only visited twice. Hopefully it will get better each day. Hopefully she will have little friends to sit with during lunch. And never again will I forget to bring Bunny to school with Reese. They are clearly a team, not to be separated.
Before the reality of school kicked in, heading out the door. Mom, what is in this bag? It's really heavy!

With her backpack and lunchbox, insisting on holding both of them.

She also insisted on wearing a pink dress today, even though I had other clothes picked out for the occasion.

Since this blog has turned into an extended account of all things Reese, rest assured that there will be a follow up report after her second day of preschool on Thursday.