I'm the mom of a toddler...what??

As much as I love summer fun, I'm really excited for fall to start.  I love when the weather cools down, the leaves change, and let's be honest...the food! I love being able to use my kitchen without working up a sweat!  I thought I was excited for last year's festivities, I can't wait for this year! Reese grows every day and his funny little personality always makes me smile.  He's about 17 months now...I say the words but it doesn't seem possible that he's that old.  Please tell me time slows down eventually because otherwise my emotions can't handle it! I also can't keep up with all of his milestones.  The most fun has been his talking :) He started talking at 10 months with the normal mama and dada, then bye-bye and hi followed close behind.  He'd wave bye-bye backwards to make sure he did it right :) His next word was puppy, which was so cute because he'd always whisper it, it sounded more like pupp-hee.  Then of course uh oh, baby, ball (his favorite toy), nana (his favorite food), please (one of my personal favorites), yes, no (not so much of a favorite), tractor (Morgan was very proud!), thanks, dog, kitty, touch, ow, pa/papa (for grandpa) and just recently he learned how to say his name when people ask...seriously it melts my heart every time! He also said mommy and daddy funny...it's more like dad-eye and mom-eye, which I guess is how it's said in Portuguese so that's cool! Now I can't even keep up with all the words he says because he'll repeat just about anything.  I'm holding my breath for the first time he says something like "turd" (not my word) in public! Oh he also knows and recognizes "stinky" and "wet", and while he does announce those in public, I'm really hoping it's an early sign that potty-training is coming!  So obviously Reese became quite the chatterbox early on, but he had NO interest in walking until about 14 months, and he "officially" (meaning taking more than 2 steps) started walking on my birthday, which was the best present! Now he runs...everywhere.  And he also discovered that hiding from Mom is SUPER fun! ...So that's great :P Since I'm on a bragging rant, I'm going to continue :) 

Reese loves loves loves fruits and vegetables...and he'll chose steak over french fries any day.  I'm thankful that so far he's not a picky eater.  I'm sure that will change but for now I enjoy being able to feed him whatever we're eating.  Some of his favorite hobbies...getting into everything, throwing balls, snuggling with his "B" (aka stuffed animals, but mostly his bear Santa gave him for Christmas...that started around 1 year and I'm not sure where he came up with it but its adorable), playing with cars, going for walks, swimming/taking baths, making shopping a nightmare, and riding in the tractor with daddy!

Funny story about B...when school started back up again I started watching my friends baby during the day, for the extra income plus I'm hoping it'll help me and Reese when we decide we're ready for another baby :) anyway...tangent...I was laying Reese down for a nap and he burped and spit up on himself, me, and B.  It was quite traumatizing but the worst of it was me deciding that he could take a nap without his B.  He cried for the hour it took to get that bear washed and (mostly) dried.  Once he had the bear back in his crib he fell right asleep...little turkey.

Now that everyone has stopped reading because I went on and on about Reese...let's see what else has happened.  We got a puppy in March...Breezy is a Lhasa Apso and Mini Schnauzer mix and she's quite the spitfire but that's been fun.  Now that Reese isn't so tipsy he likes playing and running around with her.  Ellie needed some time to adjust but I think she likes having a playmate.  

We've also done quite a bit of work on the house...as soon as Morgan was able to ditch the crutches he ripped our master closet out and started building a new one!  Then we put in carpet, new baseboards and crown molding, painted the walls and ceiling and ta-da...brand new room!  Then we got a new bed and now I have a much harder time getting up in the morning :)

Anyway, there's still so much more to come but for now...have a nice day!! :)