First Day of School

Today was Reese's first day at Primrose. Ironically, it was also my first departmental meeting at my new school. I think my experience was much better than hers.

Jason was at home today so dropping Reese off was a family affair. Bailey was so excited about her finally going to school with her. I think the only thing that would have made her happier would have been if Reese would have been in her class.

Bailey wanted to drop Reese off in her new class so we went there first. We went over her schedule with the teachers and then handed her to Ms. Presli. She was smiling and happy at first but that quickly changed. When we saw her bottom lip start to stick out, we quickly evacuated the room.

We walked Bailey to her class and said our goodbyes to her. As we were walking out of the building, Jason and I peeked into Reese's room and she was in full throttle screaming mode. Her face was all red and she was just having a good old fashioned fit. We dropped her off at 9 am and her sheet showed that her first nap was at 9:50 am. If I had to guess, I would say she probaby cried herself to sleep. When I went to pick her up at 2 pm, she had just woken up from her second nap and was being fed a bottle by Ms. Ellie (a floater teacher that we love!). I asked how her day went and they said aside from the first cry fit at 9 am, the rest of her day went really well.

As I type this, she is out. I imagine it was a much more active day than she is used to. Hopefully tomorrow morning drop off will be better. Keep your fingers crossed.

Christopher - Week 3

So another summer with Christopher has come and gone. He left us yesterday. My friend Renee had come into town and was kind enough to drive him back to Louisiana where he was going to spend a week with his mom and her family. The drive back was quite the ordeal. Renee got a blow out about half way to Louisiana and they got to enjoy a visit from Triple AAA. Poor Christopher! His flight here had issues and his ride to leave had issues. We can only hope that next summer the transportation is improved.

This week was another fun week. I got to spend some time with Christopher - just him and I. We went to play Bingo one night. Neither of us won but Christopher was pretty disappointed as one game he was one away from winning when someone else called Bingo. When he looked up to see what the next number was, it was his. He was so close to his first ever Bingo win. Maybe next time! I also had Ms. Stephanie come babysit one afternoon so him and I could go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was a very good movie! And, of course, as our summer tradition, we played many games of Rummikub. This year, I was the champion. Better luck next year, Christopher!

On Friday we decided to take him to eat anywhere he wanted. He chose Buffalo Wild Wings. If you've ever been there, you know it's a sports bar type atmosphere with lots of TVs and action. Apparently, it was too much for Reese as she would not stop crying - loudly! Jason ended up leaving with her while Bailey and I stayed for the goodbye dinner. Later Jason took the boys to play Lazer Tag - which is always a treat.

To add to the fun of his last weekend, we haven't had rain here in our area for about 2 months. Saturday night Mother Nature decided to not just let it rain but pour. The power went out at our house and everyone evacuated to Christian's. Christopher definitely cannot say his last weekend here was uneventful.

We really enjoyed his visit though. As always, it came and went too quickly. We miss you already!!!

Chistopher - Week 2

Week 2 has quickly come to an end. In some ways it feels like Christopher has been here all summer and in others, it seems as if it has gone too fast. Either way - he's having a blast. Bailey loves having him here and he is so great with her. She thinks he came all this way to play with her and he lets her believe it. In addition to be subjected to princess games and other girly things, Christopher also has gone to ride go karts, play lazer tag, see an Astros game, swimming and he usually is spending the night at one of his friends house or they are here. Of course, my favorite activity was when he and I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Not only was it a great movie, we got to spend some nephew/aunt alone time.

As you can tell, it's another busy summer filled with lots of fun. Christopher is having a blast and we are loving having him. As we enter our final week of fun, I realize how grateful I am to my brother for letting him do this every summer. Nine years and counting!!!

Christopher - Week 1

It's that time of year again - Christopher time. He arrived last Tuesday (3 hours late thanks to Newark - yuck!) but safe and sound none the less. From the time he arrived, he's been going non-stop. Wednesday he went to see Ice Age 3 with William and Phillip (boys in the neighborhood) and then later spent the night with Phillip. Thursday we went out to dinner at my favorite - EJ's Pizza. If he's not with us on a "family outing", he's running around with the boys in the neighborhood or playing with Bailey. Or - he might be texting. That kid can text. He's the fastest texter I've ever seen!!!

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went to Towne Lake for some family fun and fireworks. Our friends Kelly and Mike (along with their guys Ashley and Megan) joined us. It was really nice. Towne Lake is a neighborhood right down the road from us. They had bouncy houses, face painting, fire trucks, boat rides, and fireworks. Bailey did so great watching the fireworks. She used to be scared but now she says she is brave. Reese was a little scared when they first went off but I covered her ears and she was fascinated after that. Belle only broke our baby gate while we were gone. At least this time it is not window sills or something else she chewed off.

Then today we went bowling. It was Bailey's first time. I thought she'd enjoy it more but after about 5 frames, she was done. In her defense, the lightest ball they had was 7 pounds - which was probably 2 pounds too heavy for her. But she was so cute trying! Christopher had a great time. He is quite the bowler. He even beat me the second game. That's my nephew!!!

I'll post more next week. We have all sorts of fun coming up.

Little Laughter

Reese laughed for the first time tonight. It was precious! Bailey was doing something goofy and I laughed at her. Well, of course, being the performer that she is, she had to do it for Reese. I laughed again and suddenly Reese laughed. It caught me so off guard that I made Bailey do it again. Sure enough, she laughed again. Both of us were so excited. Oh, how cute it was!!! If only you could capture that with pictures. I'll have to be sure to get it on video.

Daddy just happened to have left for London today so he won't get to hear it for 9 days!!! Darn!!! So, so cute!!!

Cereal Time

Yesterday was cereal time! I had gotten Reese some oatmeal cereal rather than rice cereal. I'm not sure why - oatmeal just seemed less yucky than rice. From the time I took the can out of the pantry until we actually started feeding, she seemed to know that was food for her. She got so excited! Once we started feeding, she kept opening her mouth for us to put the spoon back in. She still has to learn how to "eat". She is so used to sucking on a bottle that the reflex is there to use her tongue way more than is needed. She kept pushing food out of her mouth. However, she did ok. She ate 3/4 of the bowl I had made. I think she stopped eating not because she was no longer hungry but because eating is a lot of work. She is not used to having to work much at her food - and our honey loves her food!!! I even had a hard time getting her to take the first bottle after her cereal meal. I really think she wanted more cereal. For now, we are limited to one cereal meal a day. In two weeks, we'll increase that to two times a day. Overall, I'd say that cereal is a success with Reese (unlike her big sister who hated cereal). I'm betting our little chunky monkey won't be quite as picky about food as her big sister. Chow for now!

Busy Week

We've had a very busy week in the Sharp household and it is only Thursday!

Last Sunday was Toby's 10th birthday. To celebrate, Toby and Belle had a birthday Frosty Paws (new Peanut Butter flavored) and a nice bone. Toby got a big bone and Belle had a smaller version. Today, Belle has taken Toby's birthday bone and given him hers. Nothing like a controlling female in the house. Hee, hee!

Last night (Wednesday) Bailey started dance at Abbott's Performing Arts Center (APAC). She loves it! She has decided that tap is her favorite - just like her mom. Although I'm sure that has less to do with genes and more to do with the fact that those shoes make a lot of noise. I had hoped that we'd be able to go into the studio and watch but we were not allowed. The teacher said it distracts the students to have the parents in there. Once a month, she will open the blinds so we can see how our little ballerinas are doing but otherwise, we sit in the lobby watching them on a teeny, tiny TV. She is currently in an eight-week summer session but if she continues to enjoy it, I will put her in for the fall. She really is cute. It brings back so many memories of my 22 year dancing career. I'm totally looking forward to seeing her on stage in a costume next May.

Finally, today is Reese's 4 month birthday. We went to the doctor this morning and all is well. Reese wasn't as happy about being out at the doctor's office after her two shots but they are necessary. The doctor is very happy with her progress. She weighs - hold your breath - 18 pounds, 12.8 ounces (off the chart) and is 25 1/2 inches long (90th percentile). She is doing really well and we will get to start cereal this weekend. We'll do cereal in the morning for 2 weeks, then go to twice a day for 2 weeks, and at 5 months we'll start one serving of veggies a day and one serving of cereal a day. I know she will enjoy having some real food as she was trying to grab my spoonful of jello yesterday. She also has rolled over from her back to her tummy once every day since Monday. She isn't doing it consistently but I'm sure it takes all her effort just to get one roll. She is a little...chubby!

That's all the happenings for now. I'll update for our cereal adventure soon!

Little Hands

Reese has officially discovered her hands. She is realizing that she can actually use them to put toys in her mouth, play with toys on her activity mat, or grab her feet. It is so cute!

Last Sunday (5/31) we were eating lunch at Casa Ole when I handed her a fruit keys toy. I never expected her to hold it long much less do anything with it. All of a sudden we all stopped eating as we realized she had put them in her mouth. Bailey jumped up and down saying she had taught her that. Big sister was so proud of her little sister. Reese put it in her mouth over and over at lunch but not again once we got home. I thought it was just luck and assumed she wouldn't do it again. Then Monday she did it again once or twice. Tuesday it was a little more often. Wednesday morning I went upstairs to get her out of her crib and she was holding her feet and looking at me like "Did you know I had these?"

From then on, she has been putting anything she can get her hands on in her mouth. She is so proud of herself. Of course, I make a really big deal out of it every time she does it. She just smiles like she moved a mountain. It is precious!

I can't believe our baby is going to be 4 months old on Thursday. It goes so quickly. I miss her being a newborn already. (Ok - I don't miss our middle of the night newborn visits but I do miss our little, bity baby (and I use the term little loosely).) I'll post an update after our doctor visit on Thursday. Shots - yuck!!!

Vegas, Baby!

Monday, May 11th
We left for Las Vegas around 11:30 am. The flight was pretty uneventful so we arrived on time and got a taxi to the hotel. We were staying at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. We had never stayed there before and were excited about staying in the pyramid. Of course, when we check in, they have no king beds ready in the pyramid so they gave us the option of staying in 2 queen beds in the pyramid or a king in the tower. We initially went for the king in the tower and then realized half the fun was staying in the pyramid. So we decided to be "wild and crazy" and stay in the pyramid and even sleep in separate beds! :)

After changing our room and dropping off our luggage, we were starving so we decided to grab a bite in the hotel cafe and then check out the Luxor since we'd never been there before. The Luxor is connected to The Excalibur and Mandalay Bay so we walked between the three hotels and decided it was time to lose some money. I found a machine I liked and it obviously liked me as I won $200! We played for about 2 hours - winning enough to stay steady - and finally I cashed out with my $200. It was almost 8 pm (which was 10 pm Houston time) and we were ready to call it a night. Plus, we figured we had two more nights to be losers so we might as well go out on a win streak tonight. We went back to the room to watch the season finale of House - during which I drifted in and out of sleep.

We were dosing peacefully in our separate beds when all of a sudden at about midnight the fire alarm went off. I thought I was going to have a heart attack it scared me so bad. It lasted about 15 minutes before they told us they had a "minor incident that had been contained". Luckily, I had no problem getting back to sleep. I just prayed that our hotel wouldn't catch on fire the remainder of the night.

Tuesday, May 12th
Today we got up and decided we had to have the breakfast buffet at Paris. If you ever go to Vegas, it is a must! We called to make sure that we wouldn't miss it and was told breakfast was over at 11:00. We got down there around 10:20 and had about a 20 minute wait. This actually turned out to be the best time to go. They transition to lunch was right at 11:00 so our first trip to the buffet was breakfast and our second (much smaller) trip was lunch. It was the first time we'd had a glimpse of their lunch buffet and it looked so yummy! So we got the best of both worlds at the breakfast price (lunch was $3 more per person).

On our walk down to Paris, we noticed they were filming a movie entitled "Going to the Greek". Jason saw the star of Superbad but I missed him. On the way back down the strip, they stopped traffic to film a star running after a vehicle. It amazes me they are closing the traffic on Las Vegas Blvd. (which is super busy) to film this at 12 pm but they are. I had no idea who the guy was and we were trying to figure it out as he was walking towards us when someone yelled "Diddy". You got it - it was Diddy (or P. Diddy or Puff Daddy or Sean Combs or whatever you chose to call him). This would be our first of two star sightings.

On the way back up the strip, we stopped in the Coke store and got a glass bottle of coke as a refreshment. (There is nothing like Coke in a glass bottle!) Then we explored the M&Ms store -which is so fun! After, we decided to see a movie so we went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It's ok. I wouldn't pay money for it at a theater but it's cute enough to rent. (I'm sure Jason would disagree! This would be the first of three shows he saw for me! I love my husband.)

After the movie, it was time to go get ready for Cher. Not wanting to risk being late, we took a taxi from Luxor to Caesar's for the show. The show was fabulous! I loved it. (Again, I'm not sure Jason would use the same descriptions.) Cher was beautiful and she put on a great show complete with all the costumes, wigs, etc that we've come to know and love from Cher. The show was 90 minutes (too short for me) and seemed to be over as quickly as it began. We decided to grab a few drinks at the Shadow Bar in Caesar's and then called it a night (and we didn't even gamble!).

Wednesday, May 13th
Today was my massage day. It started with Krispy Kreme donuts (provided by Jason) so I knew it was going to be 80 minutes of pure bliss - and it was. When I got back to the room, Jason had surprised me with tickets to the Phantom of the Opera which was playing at the Venetian. This began our never-ending walking adventure. Jason had gotten the tickets from Tickets 4 Tonight (which is a great deal!) but what you receive is actually a voucher and you have to go pick up your tickets from the box office. This meant going to the Venetian first. We decided to take the monorail which you could pick up at the back of MGM. What a mistake....it took us 15 minutes to get to MGM and another 15 minutes just to get to the Monorail station. (We did see a cute lion playing along the route.) After an hour, we finally had our tickets!

We decided to head back up the strip and go eat at PF Chang's which is in Planet Hollywood. Again, we trek back to the monorail and get to the restaurant about 30 minutes later. (As you can imagine, we are beginning to realize this monorail thing is not a great idea!) While at PF Chang's, we see our second star sighting - Holly Madison - who I later learned was there to lead the world's largest bikini parade. Darn! It was the day we left and missed it. :)

After eating I could not bear the idea of walking anymore so we went to the Hoops Hall of Fame Exhibit and planted ourselves on a few slot machines at Planet Hollywood. After losing our money very quickly, we decided to start walking back to the Venetian and made a pit stop to lose more money at Paris. (Well, I lost money but Jason won about $100.)

Finally, it was time for Phantom which was so great! The theater was beautiful and the actor portraying the phantom was fabulous! After Phantom, I wanted to walk the strip to see the Volcano at the Mirage and the fountains at the Bellagio. We then went once more to get a coke in a glass bottle and rode the roller coaster at New York, New York. Finally, I was ready to call it a night. Jason wanted to spin the reels one more time so we kissed goodbye in the Casino of the Luxor and separated. I hadn't been in the room 15 minutes and Jason walked in. Apparently, the spinning of the wheels was not kind to him.

Thursday, May 14th
Time to go home. We got up, checked out, and headed to the airport. The flight took off on time and we arrived a little early. We had a wonderful time in Vegas but it was good to be home. I missed our girls and I am sure Grandma was a little ready for some help. There really is nothing like home, sweet home.

Happy Mother's Day

Ok...so I know it's been more than 6 weeks since I've written. But I have a good excuse. Our computer crashed so for the latter part of April/early part of May I have been having to use an out of date desktop that takes 30 minutes just to boot up. But....I'm now back in action and will make more of an effort to blog - at least once a month or so.

Today is Mother's Day and I was lucky enough to have my mom here to celebrate. Jason first cooked breakfast for us and then for dinner cooked my favorite - spincah tomatoes & kabobs. He's done the dishes (with a little help from my mom) and the laundry. It has been a wonderful day! As I celebrate this Mother's Day with my mom, I realize how lucky I am to have three generations sitting in my living room. My girls are beautiful and my mom is my best friend. I hope my fellow mothers out there have had as great a day as I have had. Whether you are a mom or not, take a moment to remember your mom and enjoy being her baby once again.

I'm off to pack for Vegas....Cha-ching!!!