A week of firsts

We had a week of firsts here at the Montgomery household. Last week, I had

the pleasure of feeling the baby move for the first time. I tell ya, that feeling will never get old. We also heard Reese sing the ABCs for the first time tonight. She has said Abc before, but never sang the whole song (skipping a few letters here and there.) she caught us by surpise while eating dinner and breaking out in her song. It was pretty neat. She also counted to ten randomly at dinner tonight. Kyle and I looked at each other in shock and then asked her to do it again. She gets one through four and then does six through ten. I guess five doesn't matter :) either way, it was a fun night hearing her count and sing.

We had our first open house this past Sunday and our realator said 15 couples came through (he usually averages 5) so I hope that is a good sign! We were up in the Twin Cities this past weekend for Aidan and Aubreys birthday party and had a great weekend. The kids had so much fun playing with each other and we were all ready for bed last night!

Kyle is in Vegas all week for work, so hopefully I can stay sane enough to make it to Saturday as we have my friend Jody's son Mason's first birthday party!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day to all the Irish out there!

We are not doing much here to celebrate, unless you consider cleaning something exciting :) We are listing the house on Monday, and are doing a final deep clean this weekend to get prepared. I am excited and hopeful that we can sell our house within a decent time frame. So fingers crossed! Kyle and I are getting a sitter tonight so we can go out for dinner and a movie. Now that I am finally feeling all better and have no more spells of nausea, I am excited to get out and enjoy the night!

This past week flew by, as we were outside every night this week until Reese went to bed. We are just loving this weather!!

Here are a few updates on little Miss Reese lately:
-She has many words now (probably up to 30-40 that she can use regularly)
-She has all of her teeth (except the 2 year molars)
-She is a fire ball!! Full of energy and gusto
-She LOVES to be naked :) She asks each night before pajama time to be "nakie" so I let her run around for a good 5-10 minutes. From what I hear, I was a child that liked to be naked too, so the apple must not fall far from the tree :)
-Her favorite activities are coloring, naming shapes, and talking about/seeing animals outside (we have lots of neighborhood puppies)
-She is a very persistent child. She knows what she wants, and when she wants it. We have had to practice and implement many strategies of distraction to help avoid tantrums when she does not get her way.

15 and listing

I had my 15 week appt. this past Tuesday and everything checked out ok. The baby's heartbeat was 155- normal and I am starting to feel much better. I still have little bouts of nausea on and off but not nearly as bad as before. I have been having lower back pain, but that is the cause of my job, constantly bending over and picking up kids.
We are prepping the house today (spring cleaning since it will be 64 out today!) to get it ready to list this week. We have been on the hunt for houses for a while now, and have found some potentials. But, we need to sell this place first. We would like a bigger yard and a better school district (we are currently in the largest elementary school district in Madison- 750 kids K-5, and it is not in a very good area of Fitchburg.) So, now is the time to list. Houses have been selling like crazy in our neighborhood (as Madison never really was affected by the housing crash-luckily!) We won't be moving far- just looking at areas outside of Madison. I still LOVE this city and don't want o get too far away :)

Guess Whoo?

Reese will be! We are expecting baby #2 around August 26th! Much to our surprise, and much of our family's, we found out the beginning of January that we will be adding to our brood. I have not had the same easy pregnancy as I had with Reese. Nausea, a little vomitting, and a lot of exhaustion have gotten the best of me these past 14 weeks, but hopefully it subsides soon so I can enjoy round 2. Reese knows there is a baby in mommy's belly, and one day thinking it is a boy, and the next day a girl :) We are excited for the middle of April when we will actually know the gender!

Fun Family Weekend

My family came to Madison this weekend to visit and have some good ole' family fun. My sister and kids and my parents arrived Friday evening, and we had a great dinner and lots of time for the kids to play before bed. Saturday we all headed to the Madison Children's Museum for a morning on adventure. The kids LOVED it. They even had an ice skating rink up on the roof that Aidan was in "awe" of. He got to skate around and show us his "ice" moves. Pretty neat! Aubrey liked anything that she could build (I think she may be an engineer one day) and Reese liked anything she could get her hands on, moving very quick around the place. She sure does not get stuck on one thing for very long!
Saturday afternoon after naps we headed to our Fitchburg Library for the kids to look at books and play in the kids area. Our library was built 2 years ago so they have some really cool things for the kids to do.
We enjoyed a yummy meal of pizza and subs Saturday night and read lots and lots of books before the kids went to bed. Everyone had a great time, and all three of us took a nice Sunday afternoon nap to catch up on a little sleep!

Totally Tantrum

2 perfect words to describe our week. The tantrums have hit full force in our house. They not only include the ever so common whines and cries when we tell her no, they have also escalated to dramatically throwing her body to the floor, pushing whatever may be in her way far from her body, and then proceeding to do a full head whip all while kicking legs and hands. It's pretty intense (or so Reese thinks). For me, just another tantrum to ignore :) The main cause recently for them has been telling her no when she asks for blankie and nuk (which we are trying to keep in her crib while at home, and she only gets them for nap at daycare.)

She is mainly doing this with me, and not so much Kyle. When we get home at night from daycare it is all on until Daddy gets home. I read an article online about it, and it says that these are totally normal for kids in daycare after a long day of having to "behave" and be in their best shape. Meltdowns with mom and dad are totally normal because they are tired and just can't handle having to hold it all together much longer. It really is a lot to ask for a 1 1/2 year old. She does GREAT at daycare, never a bad report, listens to her teachers, and is nice to her friends. Once Mommy shows up, the whining and tears start and sometimes have a rough 2-3 hours before bed. I am hoping this phase will pass soon and I think it will. She is beginning to get more and more words, which I know can in turn help. Sometimes I feel as though she is just frustrated because she can't always tell me what she wants.

Today Reese had her first "friend" birthday party at Rocky Rococo's. She used lots of tokens to play many games of ski ball and such, and walked away with a twizzler's, sucker, and a small dice toy. She had fun watching present opening and eating pizza, but was not too thrilled with the cupcakes. She is not a big fan of cake, a good reminder for me for her 2nd birthday. She would much rather have a cookie! We have Kyle's "very late" Christmas party tonight for work. He was in charge of scheduling it and thus, it is in the middle of February :) Oh well, kinda nice to have it away from the holidays so we can all enjoy the food without being overloaded.

Super Bowl Sunday

Reese is really starting to catch on to every word that is said around her, and repeat it multiple times. Which in turn means, time to watch what you say around her! She has put together 3 words a couple of times, and it is neat to hear her start speaking in more "sentence-like" form.

This past weekend she visited Nana and Poppa's (my parents) for an overnight stay at their house while Kyle and I and his cousin went to the UW Men's Hockey Game. We had a great time and it was nice to have a night out. Reese on the other hand gave my parents a run for their money, not sleeping very well at all and causing everyone the need to take a Sunday afternoon nap.

Last night we had friends over for the Super Bowl and ate lots of yummy food while the kids danced around to Madonna at halftime. I have to say I was quite skeptical of the halftime show, but Madonna pulled it off and looked good doing it. I didn't get to see much of the game, nor the commercials between the chit chat and the kids, so I caught up today on line with some of the them. I have to say, they were not all that great! A couple funny ones, but nothing over the top. Ahwell, we all had a good time anyways.