Lovin' on Riley Jane

After her initial wave of intense jealousy, Rebekah quickly became Riley Jane's boss.



She finally even let Mamama hold her...as long as she was also in her lap.

All the kids with Mamama and Aunt Becky (yes, Rebekah is wearing my shirt sort of like a Mumu (however you spell that))

Mamama with Lukey
Sweet sleepy baby


Everybody always talks about how lovely Rebekah's eyes are...and so they are...however, I think Luke's are gorgeous, too! Look at that beautiful boy!

Flashback Friday

I am copying my friends and joining in on Flashback Friday. The title gives it away- we flashback to something in the past! Here are some pics of Rebekah at Luke's current age. She was 13 lbs and 26 1/2 in, while Luke is 15lb 3oz and 26 1/2 in. Same height, tho for Rebekah it was over 100th% and for Luke as a boy it is 91st%.

Rebekah (this is a fave of mine!)



Luke


Both kids did great at the dr's visit- her 2-year and his 4-month. While R would not have had a shot in IA, she did get a Hep A poke in TX!! :( We felt bad that we told her she wouldn't have to have one! Luke was really tired (they both took short naps which saved us the agony of having to awaken them at least!) and still was precious until the last 10 minutes which was when he got his 2 shots. Since he was crying anyway, it wasn't really that big of a deal. He crashed at home and both kids have recovered nicely! Rebekah is 3 feet and 29lbs. I have heard if you double their 2nd year's height, you know their final height...yep, that's right- 6 feet! My grandfather was 6'4" and the shortest man in his extended family! Josh has some really tall relatives, too!

p.s. Evidently I was wrong- Rebekah has blocked my pie burglaring from her mind and has not mentioned it. Whew!

The Pie Burglar

This is Josh's new nickname for me. Sadly, I think it will outlive me. So here's what happened:

Out of the kindness of my heart, I made a coconut creme pie for the fam. We started it last night. Rebekah was not interested. Happily, half was left today. Rebekah had her usual ice cream for dessert after dinner tonight and all was well. Mom, Dad, Josh, and I each had our own pieces of pie. They were delicious. Serendipitously for Rebes, she angled for a slice of pie prior to the last piece's disappearance. She ate a few morsels and mostly scraped the whipped cream off the top. We talked about how she NEVER actually eats pie. (you know where I'm going with this, don't you?) Mom starts reaching for the plate and I realize that the last little piece is about to get thrown away. Throwing my diet to the wind, I quickly snatch the plate and stuff the glorious crust and filling in my mouth. My mom was outraged (not really) because evidently that had been her plan, too! She and I were crying we were laughing so hard...crying so much that we were completely unaware of Rebekah...apparently, she was not finished with the pie and she let out the loudest wail I have ever heard (the kind that requires a 10-second wind-up), followed by "I want my pie!" over and over again. Rebekah was inconsolable in every way for the rest of the evening. We tried more ice cream, a cupcake, whipped cream in the shape of pie with coconut sprinkled on top, Sour Patch Kids...nothing replaced her "big pie." Every time she saw me, she (through tears) pitifully asked me, "Pie? Pie? Pie?? Pie??? I want my big pie." I have never been able not to console my child. The worst part was that I was at fault. I am confident that her first words upon awaking tomorrow morning will be "Mommy ate my pie."

Rebekah's and Luke's Dedication

Rebekah and Luke were dedicated this morning at my parents' church, Grace Bible of Dallas. We promised a sucker to Rebes if she could be quiet- mostly a successful bribe. As she sat in the front pew, she picked her nose and stage whispered, "Where's the boogers?" This was during a prayer. Nice. Next, we got both kids up there and as the pastor held Luke to pray for him, she made sure everyone knew, "He's not Lukey's daddy." Awesome. All in all, tho, it was a sweet time and both kids were great!


The process of getting ready...



Yesterday we went over to Billy and Becky's to see Becky's parents and them, of course! Riley Jane was cute as ever, but a bit under the weather. Yes, that monster pic in the back is of RJ.

On the way over...

Poor Riley Jane doesn't have a chance!

Josh blessed me with an Ergo. It has been on my mind since I tried out Amanda's. Since we'll be traveling a lot, we thought it would be great to have. Luke LOVES to be snuggled like this! (funny side note- we were planning on buying the normal black model with green trim. Then, the saleswoman asked if we would be interested in the organic one. On general principle, I said no because I believe organic stuff is a huge hoax. However, the organic model was a soft awesome chocolate color, so I caved....such a sell-out)

Luke with my dad...

Rebekah in her vaca t-shirt and big girl tennis shoes...she aged like 3 years...

Driving Miss Bekah

What can I say? My kids are super-advanced...here Luke is working on sending some emails...

...and giving me "the look"- this is Luke's most common look!

Rebekah always seems up to something!

Family tummy time- I think Josh's facial expression is priceless!

So is this one! We make cute babies!

I uploaded these in a weird order- sorry! We visited our dear, dear friends, Jason and Candice Mayhall in Louisiana. It was an awesome time and we loved hangin' with their 3 kids. My parents were precious enough to keep our 2 for 2 days while we had a great time!

This was a present from Candice...

Mamama with Baby Luke...

Here's our girl- she was crazy-excited to "drive!"

Evidently, she is aware of the driver-gets-to-adjust-the-radio rule that operates within our family...

Sharing is never fun!

It's hard going from being the only grandchild to 1 of 3! This look is priceless! Riley Jane is more than happy to share anything, but you can see Rebekah does not share that sentiment!

Happy Riley Jane!

This is much sweeter!
Rebekah loves to mother RJ! She said the other day, "Mommy, I want to feed her! I need to feed Riley Jane!" So began Rebekah constantly holding, feeding, and general care-taking of her cousin. RJ is a great sport!

Rebekah with her other cousin, Olivia- they are a great pair! Both are big sisters of sweet baby brothers, so they compete on who can boss the other more!

A flashback to our second trip to the beach with Nana. R was a huge fan of her floaties!

My sweeties...


My first birthday celebration with Mike and Phyllis


Rebekah is still keeping us on our toes. She has added "I need to __" to her vocabulary, such as "I want to see, no I need to see Mamama and Grandi!" or "I need to eat that."

She can also correctly identify Bluejays and they frequent her imaginative stories.

We have had parties galore this week for bdays, showers, and other things and R has been LOVING it! She is sure we need to sing Happy Birthday at each gathering and it has been delightful to see her social personality emerge!

Luke has been up and down- he has been fighting his bottle at times, which is strange, but I guess if he were nursing, I wouldn't know he took less...he has been better-behaved the past 2 days, but for a couple days her was fussing more. His eyes have been really watery and glassy and he has been sneezing and has had snot- I am wondering if he has allergies that are specific to this house. My brother's allergies flare up here- it's an older home...anyway, just a thought.

Luke will be 4 months tomorrow- crazy! He has a precious smile and laugh and is a sweetie- most of the time!

My Funny Girl

I was thinking I should update on potty training- Rebekah is a champ!!! She now verbalizes almost all the time when she needs to go, especially poop! This is huge progress! However, as she has gotten more and more aware of her urges, she makes me leave the bathroom when she needs to poop. Imagine my surprise the first time she did that saying, "Mommy, leave! Go in another room!" Who knew a 2-yr-old would need privacy for a bowel movement.

Last night at Carino's (my favorite Italian place), Rebekah saw our pizza and saw something she had had once and wanted again- she asked for "Sunglasses tomatoes?" I quickly deduced that she wanted sundried tomatoes...she had only heard the word once, so I was impressed with any recall at all! I'll say it again- my girl has a vocabulary!

The Zoo, the Duck Pond, & Tummy Time

Rebekah, Nana, Papa, and I went to the Texas Zoo here in Victoria. (Josh stayed back with Luke) Anyway, it was a perfect zoo for precious Rebekah- she LOVED feeding the goats who licked her hands! She also loved the bird sanctuary where she got to walk amongst the birds. She even got her first vacation tee-shirt from her grandparents! Oh- I almost forgot to mention that Nana took us to the duck pond, too! At both places, Rebekah would haphazardly throw the food at the animals and command them to eat- "Eat, duck! Eat, goat!" She even asked the duck, "Did you get in the water, duck?" as it did indeed get in and swim away... :)

(side note- there's a pic of R and Mike looking at a bird house- the idea is that something of a cool or distinctive texture is unseen inside and can be guessed at by sticking your hand in and feeling it (a deer's antler or a tortoise shell). Rebekah is sooo my girl! There was NO way she was sticking her hand in something she couldn't see! However, she readily volunteered Papa to do it!)




I get this look a lot, so I thought I would document it before she turns 13 and it's all I get...



Duck Pond- this is a fave of mine- you know a kid's excited when all they do is point!



Baby Luke being entertained by Dad


One of my favorite friends of Phyllis' is Betty- she invited us all over for a great dinner last night- she even set up a slip-and-slide for Rebes...I had my doubts, but as soon as we turned down the water to a dribble :P) and Josh threw her down it, Rebekah was all for it!

Baby Luke chilled with Nana...

Slippin' and slidin' is hard work...


Rebekah also insisted "I want to do tummy time with Baby Luke" this morning- it was very sweet! I forget sometimes how much she wants to be a part of things...yesterday, she carried in his bottle to Nana- she carefully placed her forefinger over the nipple with one hand and shook it with the other- I had NO idea she knew that's what we did to prepare his bottle!


Mike and Phyllis bought us tickets for the local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat" so we had a nice dinner and date night! Of course, Rebekah "borrowed" the heels before we went!

A few other Rebekah tidbits-

I'll ask her to come with me somewhere and she'll realize she "needs" something precious and say, "Let me get my ____ " before agreeing to go- such a female!

When she wants me to do something, she'll ask, "Mama, do you want to hold me? Mama, do you want to chase me? Mama, do you want to hold this? Mama, do you want to open this?"

Her new phrase is "I can not _____." For example, she colored with a pale yellow crayon and it was really light so she squinted and said, "I can not see the yellow" as she scornfully shook her head and discarded the crayon.

HEB grocery store gives out free balloons- this has been quite a hit with R! One time, I said, "Look at that sad balloon over there..." It had been lost by a child and was losing its gas...anyway, now our grocery store visits are defined by how many "happy" and "sad" balloons there are- seriously, that's all we talk about!! Last time, she pulled my arm (I guess she realized I was distracted) and said, "Mama, look! Do you see that sad balloon?"