A Monumental Day in the Riddle House

Rynn turns 6 months (well, technically tomorrow)!

Is she not so stinkin cute?! I can’t get over her.

At six months, Rynn is still so happy and so go-with-the-flow.  She cackles at us and smiles always.  Her Sunday School teacher told me today that she is so pleasant.  Rynn talked to her teachers and laughed all morning long.  That’s how she is at home too.  In fact, if she starts getting a little fussy, all we have to do is lay her down and she’s usually asleep within a couple of minutes.  I told the girls at church that I could have ten of her.  🙂

Rynn especially loves her big sister.  Reece gets the biggest smiles and laughs from Rynn, and I LOVE it!  Rynn still breastfeeds and recently began the habit of waking up a little bit earlier (anywhere from 4:30 to 5:30) to do so.  She loves her oatmeal and we can’t feed her fast enough.  She’s also not so content to stay in her bath sling anymore; instead opting to play on her tummy in a shallow tub.  She plays under her baby gym a lot, and likes her jumperoo and baby pod.  I feel bad that she’s not on a better nap schedule since most everything revolves around her sister’s nap, and if I’m to run any errands she ends up taking short naps in her car seat.  Like I said though…she’s so go-with-the-flow.

She also had her first veggie tonight…

…sweet potatoes…

…yum!  She loved them!!

Another something worth noting is that Reece, who up until now refused to dip any of her food into any kind of sauce/dressing (it’s messy, remember?), discovered barbeque sauce this evening.  She heard Scott and I talking about our pork tacos and how they’re better with bbq sauce, so she wanted some.

She was very specific as to which section of her plate to put the sauce…

…but after she tried it she wanted seconds, and thirds, and fourths, and fifths!  We had the kitchen completely cleaned before she finished supper.

We’re having lots of fun in the Riddle house!

Coming soon…a tale of two fishermen…

Reeceisms…Part 1

“Rachel, where are you?  Rach?  Rach?” – as she searched for me in the house the other day

“Miss Rachel, will you read me a book?” –  I suppose with the “miss” added on, it’s a little better.

“I need some t-pants.” – after I pulled out a t-shirt for her

Doctor:  Tell me about your boo-boo Reece...”I just twew a fit and hit my head.” True story…she didn’t like the outfit I picked out for her, and threw herself down on the floor, hitting her head on the door frame going down; all the while saying, “I don’t yike it.  I don’t yike dis shirt, Mommy!”

“Oh, Wynn got my tonsils!” after Rynn touched her tongue

Back from Blog Break

Please excuse my blog break.  Between Reece’s long recovery from her tonsillectomy and two out of town trips, I’m finding it hard to balance my two small children, laundry, work outs, meals, cleaning, sewing, and the list goes on.  I sit down tonight not really knowing what to write about, just knowing that I need to write something so my fans (all two of you) will be pleased! 🙂

I’ll just scroll through some pictures and put some up…that’s always a crowd-pleaser, isn’t it?

This is Rynn’s new thing. Isn’t she CUTE?!

While in Fredericksburg, we met up with the Murphrees and Reece and Ella got to catch up a bit.

They really enjoyed each other!!

Reecer picking flowers at Wildseed Farms

A field of poppies. Sidenote: my Granny sat down one day and designated a flower for each of her granddaughters. I’m her poppy. I’m not sure why she chose the poppy for me (I’m sure she somehow tied in our personalities and features when thinking of our flowers), but the poppy has some sentimental value to me now and I’ve come to love it.

Rynner worn out in Fredericksburg

I think this may be my new favorite picture!

Easter Sunday at Gruene Hall

Reece said over and over, “Where dit go?” as she hunted eggs.

Coming soon: Reeceisms…posts devoted to the silly things that come out of our two-year-old’s mouth!

Whew!

I’m dramatically running the back of my hand over my forehead as I type the title to this post.

It’s been a long week and a half.

Luckily, after a full nine days of recovery (with 6 days in a row of showing no improvement whatsoever), Reece is back to her fun-loving, silly self.  I missed her personality so much and now I’m a happy momma watching my girl spin circles ’round the living room, singing to her babies, eating A LOT (guess she has some catching up to do), making Rynn laugh, and yes, even getting into trouble.  Kaleesha reminded me of what Beth Moore said in the Esther study…”a momma is only as happy as her saddest child.”  How true!  I was so miserable the week following the surgery.  I was sad for Reece.  I was helpless as a momma.  I was regretting having the surgery done.  Then I felt guilty for being so miserable when Reece was obviously 80 x more miserable than I could imagine!  On Sunday, the day she really started showing signs of The Reecer again, I was sick…but all I wanted to do was celebrate because we had our Reecer back!!!!!

And now she seems to be pain-free…she didn’t have a drop of pain medication today.  (I thought at one point she was telling me that she was hurting in her mouth, but it turns out there was a hair in her mouth.)  She even went to PDO and participated in the cutest egg hunt ever.  Mrs. Amanda said Reece had a good day.  Didn’t take a nap, but had a good day…looks like our Reecer really is back to normal! 🙂

I got to have a day of much needed momma-time.  Rynn and I spent the morning shopping, ate lunch, and then had my toes painted on.  It was really therapeutic.  Even just to get out of the house for the day.  So nice.

We’re looking forward to the weekend and a little family get-away!

Thanks so much for your prayers for our Reecer!

Please continue to keep baby Stellan in your prayers.  He and his momma are going through a MUCH rougher time than I can even imagine.

Fast-Forward

In today’s time it’s so easy to fast-forward through so many things.  I don’t think there’s a single thing Scott and I watch on live TV besides a sports event.  We always wait for the DVR to record The Office or the news, and begin watching it only after we can fast-forward through the commercials.  Sometimes I’ll reach my hand toward the controls in the car in an attempt to fast-forward the radio, but unfortunately our car doesn’t have a radio DVR.  Sometimes I get impatient when I’m baking a casserole and it doesn’t get warm in the center in the time I think it should, and I end up nuking it for a minute instead of baking it five more.

It’s no wonder that all week long I’ve been thinking, “If only I could fast-forward to next week…”  Maybe then Reece will be back to her sweet, funny, playful self.  Maybe then she won’t be in pain and won’t feel the need to say, “It hurts in my mouth!”  Maybe then she’ll actually eat and regain the weight she’s lost from her already-skinny body (the “mushy food diet” isn’t working so well for her…in our Reecer’s mind, mushy=messy and messy=theendoftheworld).  Maybe then she won’t be completely inconsolable when her sippy cup doesn’t have a diaper on it (yes, that’s right…I said ‘sippy cup’).  Maybe then she won’t scream out at night because one of her ponytails has come out.  Maybe then the codeine will be completely out of her system (we suspect some of her difficult behavior this week can be somewhat attributed to the codeine and not just the pain).

And it’s not just Reece…maybe next week Rynn will sleep through the night again instead of waking up between 2 and 4:00 for a week straight, ready to play.

Maybe then I won’t worry about the parking ticket looming over my head.  Sidenote: Some of you remember my last day of Bible study last semester when I hit a idiot pedestrian as I was leaving.  This semester, on the last day of Bible study, I was running really late because Satan didn’t want me to go (Satan spoke through Reece who tried on 6 pairs of shoes that morning…all of which she insisted were hurting her feet).  I ended up parking in a handicap parking place because, like a idiot frazzled-mom-who-wants-to-park-close-to-the-building-because-I have-to-carry-my-two-small-children-in, I thought they were probably just meant to be reserved for the handicapped on Sundays.  Yes, I really thought that, and now I’m having to pay the hefty price.

Maybe next week I won’t be so exhausted.

Maybe next week I’ll open my eyes to what God is trying to teach me through all of this.

Wait, maybe I shouldn’t fast-forward that part.