Bye Bye!

Bye, Bye Baby Food......



Hello Spaghetti!!

Reese is officially on solids and is enjoying peas, carrots, fish, bananas, pineapple, mashed potatoes, pasta, bread, crackers, hummus, cheese, etc. I am so excited to see if the solids help improve the reflux. So far, it has been improving so we shall see. My little baby is all grown up!

Happy Feet!!

This is the new favorite around our house these days! Grace asks for Happy Feet all day long!!!!

Catching up....

There is so much going on that life is passing me by way too fast! I can not believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away. I still feel like it was yesterday we were headed to the beach on the weekends. Now it feels like 10 pm at 5:30 pm because it is pitch black before we even sit down to dinner!

Let me see if I can catch you up on the girls in a few sentences!

After a very long bout of different illnesses (pneumonia, 105 three day fever,& teething) I am very happy that Reese is feeling back to normal. Reese now has 5 teeth, is crawling (army style) all around the house and is getting into everything, has 5 words, waves hi and bye (a different wave for both), can sign "all gone", give kisses, and can hold her own against a very aggressive, hands on bigger sister! I can not believe she is nearly 15 months old. We recently had pictures done and she is a total camera ham! She is our sunshine and we are so excited to watch her grow and meet new milestones every day!

Grace has also had a rough few months. She had strep throat, high fever & cough, this past week dealt with pink eye, and then last night to top it off she fell off the sofa and hit her head on the brick fireplace. She now has a very large cut and bruise on her right temple. She is tough though. Her vocabulary blows me away. I knew Speech was going to pay off and now she repeats everything and speaks in full sentences. She is finally in her big girl bed and every morning comes running in to our room and says "Wake Up Mommy, Wake up Daddy!" If we don't comply she turns on the stereo full blast and starts to dance around to get our attention. What a great way to wake up every morning!!

Baby Adiya will be 2 months old on Dec. 20th. She is super cute with big chipmunk cheeks. She is hanging out at my house as we speak. She was having a rough time with reflux but was recently put on Axid and that seems to be helping. Grace and Reese LOVE her to pieces and I'm so excited that they get to grow up near one another. This will be her 1st Christmas and the 3rd First Christmas in a row for the kids in our family...if that makes sense?

I have been a blog slacker and one of my new years resolution is to get back into it. But for now I hope this has helped to catch you up on the exciting lives of the McClain Clan! :)

Crush

I do believe my little girl is growing up! Isn't 13 months too soon to have a crush???

Reese thinks to herself: "I just want to touch his hair....




...and give him hugs! But what I really want.......




.....is a big kiss!!!"



Jack is adorable so there is no surprise that Reese loves him so much! Thanks Jack for being such a good sport! It's good you are getting use to it now as I'm sure there will be many more girls over the years who will also share Reese's "crush"! :)

Sisters

"A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost"
~Marion C. Garretty

Breath Taking

I love you Grace Brennan! You make me a better person and your strength inspires me! I am so proud to be your mommy! Your beauty is breath taking and your personality is astounding! I can't believe 2 1/2 years ago tonight you were given to me by our gracious Lord!

Adiya Monroe

My beautiful niece, Adiya Monroe, made her way in to this world on Wed. Oct. 20, 2010. She came 3 1/2 weeks early and she came fast! We are so excited and thrilled to add another baby girl to our family. Bethany did AMAZING. She had a difficult delivery as Adiya was posterior or "sunny side up". She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. I had the amazing opportunity to be present at her birth and it is something I will always remember.

Grace and Reese were very excited to meet their cousin. Grace calls her appledye. She was so sweet and giving her kisses. We can't wait for her to come home and love on her some more.












Congrats to Andy and Bethany! May God bless your little family and may you she bring you so much joy, love, and happiness! You guys are awesome parents and she is blessed to have you. God is good!!

My little pumpkins...

October is National Down Sydrome Awareness Month!!

I'm not sure why the Lord chose to bless me with such a happy, beautiful little girl and why she was born with an extra chromosome. However, I do feel like there needs to be more awareness to ensure more acceptance for my daughter in this world.

Please take a few moments to watch this heart warming video that gives some pretty amazing facts about Down Syndrome. Pass it along so that we can educate everyone and make this a better world for individuals with Down Syndrome.

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Method. Click here for more information.

Sweet Tweets from Reese!!!

My baby girl is going to be 1 year old on September 29, 2010! It's hard to believe that she has grown from this....




to this....in just one year!




She is so beautiful in so many ways. If you are able to be around her for a few minutes, all the cares and worries of the world melt away with just one smile from her. She is our angel and a blessing from God.



I had no idea just a little over a year ago that the Lord would choose me to be the mother to a 2nd child with special needs. We were just adjusting and getting use to learning all about Grace's needs and obstacles. I must say that when I found out that she may have Down Syndrome I thought "Why Me Lord?" And now I am still asking the same question but in a different way. "Why Lord have you chosen to bless me with such an amazing little human being? Why have you given me this easy, very happy, very healthy, bundle of joy?" I don't feel worthy of such a pure love. She is constant reminder that God is real and life is good. She is the perfect picture of unconditional love and compassion. I wish more people were born with an extra chromosome so that there weren't still the stereotypes out there associated with Down Syndrome. I wish there were more awareness and more education. I thank God everyday for the people in Reese's life. They love her and I believe are blessed by her.

Thanks to everyone who came out to her party! We had a great turn out. I think we counted about 57 people at one point! It will be a party I'm sure she will talk about for many years to come. It is already a memory engraved on my heart for the rest of time!

Potty Training Diaries....

We are now on day 15 of potty training Grace. I must say I didn't really know what to expect going into it. I had a lot of advice and suggestions from mom's who have been through the process successfully and for that I am very thankful.

Day 1

9:00 am- I hear "uh-oh" coming from Grace...guess telling her not to tee-tee on elmo didn't work. Guess we are going the bare butt route!

11:30 am- another "uh-oh" as she sits and watches sissy during her Physical therapy! That's pee #2 mommy has cleaned up....thinking potty training is for the birds by this point!

7:30 pm- Grace pees on potty for the first time!! We clap, jump up and down, she picks out as sticker to put on her elmo potty training chart, we dump, flush, wash our hands and Grace gets two M&M's. Then we call mom-mom and poppy to tell them the good news!!

Day 2

Almost exactly similar to Day #1. Guess she likes to wait till daddy gets home to use the potty!

Day 3

Vast difference from Day 1 & 2. Grace potties four times today on potty! The instant I knew she was getting it is when we were having our nightly snack and she says uh-oh mommy. I pick her up running her to the potty, thinking I'm leaving a trail behind me. Much to my surprise, Grace pee pee's on potty and we go back to the original scene and there is nothing..no puddle, no drops, nothing!! I see the light at the end of the tunnel!!

Day 4

Grace pee pees on the potty several times. Guess the stickers and M&M's are working

Day 5

No accidents and we have now made a game out of going potty. Her dolls have to go too!

Day 6

This is the first day we have to leave the house. We head over to Uncle Andy's and Aunt Bethany's so daddy can finish painting baby Adiya's room. We take the potty, the stickers and a sticker book, and can't forget the M&M's. We have now put on Pull-up's for the first time. She manages to keep it dry and even tells uncle Andy two times that she has to pee pee!! We are very very proud and glad to know we can leave the house with out messing up her schedule.

Day 7

We are on the last day of the first week of potty training so Grace decides to assure us that she is growing up and very ready to use the potty!! Today Grace pee pee'd and poo poo'd on the potty a the same time!!!!

Week 2

Some accidents but for the most part she does really well bare butt or with pull ups! When we put the panties on she must feel a false sense of security because she will pee on herself fast!!

We are now in week 3 and are very pleased with how quickly she has adjusted and grown. I am very happy as I am now down to two diapers a day for her. One for nap time and one for bed time. I have no idea how to break her of that habit when she is sleeping but I'm sure we will figure it out soon enough! Stay tuned for more entries from the potty training diaries!

Road Trip!!

I am super behind in my blogging these days but wanted to share about our road trip down south last month. We packed up the kids, two pack-n-plays, four suitcases, two bags of diapers & wipes, etc, etc. and drove south to Greenville, SC. We decided to break up our 12 hour trip to TN by stopping in SC to visit Chad, Chadd, and Sommer. This was officially our first real road trip as a family of four and had no idea what to expect. We left around 11:00 Sat. morning and got in around 6 pm. Not a bad trip at all! The kids slept, watched Elmo, and seemed almost as excited as mommy and daddy to be on vacation.

Our reunion with Chadd was an emotional one. We hadn't seen him in over three years so it was the first time he was meeting the girls! We had a good time in Greenville. Chadd and Chad met the girls for the first time and they fell in love!




We went to the most amazing park in downtown. I so wish we had a park like that here in VA Beach, because we would be there every day!










Our time was short but we enjoyed seeing them. Matt even got a free haircut out of it as Sommer is in hair school and needed a willing participant to volunteer. You did a great job Sommer! We love you guys and hope to see ya'll again soon!




Our next destination was Nashville, TN or as some like to call it Nashvegas!! Most of you know already that this is home of my alma mator, Trevecca Nazarene University. It had been over 3 years since we had been to TN and we were excited to see our friends. We stayed with Joy and Ethan in their beautiful new home. The only thing is they live about 20 miles outside of the city in a direction that I wasn't familiar with so we spent a good amount of time driving around lost! The GPS wasn't the best to rely on and by the end of the trip I was ready to throw it out the window! :) Gotta love modern technology!

We went to visit Kristen, Brant, Rylee, and Jackson.....



Trying to kiss the boys already....oh man!




We went to the park.....





We went to the zoo....






We played dress up......








and we all got sick.....that's right...we caught a stomach bug and on our way home Grace and Mommy were making daddy pull over every 30 minutes. Needless to say, we were happy to be headed home and glad we didn't get sick till the end but I will say that a sick toddler and mommy makes for a very LONG trip home!! By the next week I believe our friends we stayed with all caught it as well as Matt and my mom (she had to come over and take care of the baby because I was out of commission for at least 24 hours! However, at a recent Pediatrician visit our Dr told us it has been going around here as well!

Thankfully we made it home safely and it was a great 1st McClain southern Road Trip! We had so much fun and really had some quality time together and with friends!