QUESTION & ANSWER

I was inspired by my friend who asks these questions to her kids. I didn't think I'd really get any real answered out of Reagan but she totally surprised me. Her vocabulary is above and beyond where Finley was at this age and it's amazing to see how much she really understands. They both answered without any prompting from me at all.

FINLEY - AGE 4

1. What's your favorite color? Pink, purple, & yellow
2. What's your favorite toy? babies
3. What's your favorite thing to do? To help
4. Who's your best friend? Lyla
5. What's your favorite movie? Rio 2 (she saw it for the first time yesterday)
6. What's your favorite food? Pizza
7. What's your favorite treat? Rice Krispie Treat
8. What's your favorite thing to do at preschool? Help people when they don’t know what to do and when they don’t remember what the teacher says (I think she's talking about church, because technically she's not in Preschool right now).
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? married
10. What's your favorite animal? Bianca (her stuffed dog)
11. What's your favorite thing to wear? Piggy pajamas
12. What 's your favorite song? The one about Heavenly God (A Child’s Prayer)
13. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Blow bubbles
14. What are you good at? dancing
15. What do you worry about? my new school (she starts preschool in a few months)
16. Who is the coolest person ever? Reagan, because she’s funny
17. What does your mom always say to you? "Don’t make bad choices."
18. What does your dad always say to you? "Don’t look over the edge by myself." (She’s talking about the half wall looking over our second floor into our living room. It's a big rule in our house that no one can look over the ledge or throw things over the ledge, and a few times lately she's snuck out of bed trying to look over and see what Brad and I are doing after her bedtime.)

And Finley wanted to add: “Those were funny questions, I like flowers too, and I love all of the things that I like!”

REAGAN - AGE 2

1. What's your favorite color? yellow
2. What's your favorite toy? puppy
3. What's your favorite thing to do? Play babies and say “pupize!” (surprise)
4. Who's your best friend? Logie (Logan)
5. What's your favorite movie? Ariel (Little Mermaid, obviously)
6. What's your favorite food? Pizza
7. What's your favorite treat? blueberries (this is false, she likes blueberries but her favorite treat is any kind of candy or dessert, she's a sugaraholic)
8. What's your favorite thing to do at preschool? n/a
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Because I’ll grow up! (don't think she understood this one)
10. What's your favorite animal? Kitty cats
11. What's your favorite thing to wear? Nighttime dress
12. What 's your favorite song? Twinkle (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
13. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Wrestle (I'm not sure about what this means, or even if that's what she was saying, she likes to wrestle with daddy but I've never seen them do it outside?)
14. What are you good at? Joni’s house (I’m guessing she thought I was asking about how I always tell her to be good when we go to other people’s houses?)
15. What do you worry about? She didn’t understand this question
16. Who is the coolest person ever? Mommy!
17. What does your mom always say to you? “Bad choices”
18. What does your dad always say to you? “Quack, quack!” (I'm not sure about this one??)

SWIM SUIT SUMMER

I didn't realize this but when I started editing photos for this post they were all of Reagan! But it truly represents Finley's interest in posing for pictures. She can not handle looking at a camera. Reagan is starting to get that way, but no nearly as bad as Finley. Most pictures I have of Finley looking at the camera involve her making some very strange faces with her hands contorted weirdly. Hopefully she'll regret her non-compliance when she's older and realizes she has no normal pictures of herself at age 4 because it's so frustrating to me right now. Anyway, that was not the point of this post!

Lately we have spent every day in our swim suits, and I'm not complaining! It means a lot of sunscreen and washing of towels, but it's worth it. The girls love the water (Reagan even pushes us away when we try to hold her now - thank goodness for puddle jumpers!) and the water is hard to avoid when Birmingham has so many water options. We've got the lake, the pool, our own backyard, the splashpad... And all these places will become infinitely less crowded once school starts at the beginning of August.

About half the pictures I have of Reagan are of her eating. She's going to love that when she's older. She is a good snacker, she loves to graze like her mama.

 And here is the obligatory belly shot. This is me at 30 weeks. This little guy doesn't have a name that we can agree on. He moves so much I actually did an online search for, "is there such a thing as too much fetal movement." Turns out there isn't such a thing. But when I brought it up to my doctor he said over the years a few women have described movements as seizure like (exactly the words I used to describe them to Brad) and he said I shouldn't be concerned. So we'll see. It probably just means this little guy is going to be feisty and never sleep. Hooray. So my poor nameless third-born child, please get your wiggles out now.
 

OUR MISCHIEVOUS PAIR

 

These two have become really great friends and I could not be happier. They go to bed each night with dramatic hugs and wake up each morning excitedly running in to each others rooms. If they are apart I swear they are more happy to see each other again then they are to see me. But honestly I love it. My first thought when I found out I was having a second girl was relief that Finley would have a life long best friend. They don't always get along - believe me - but if it's just the two of them they are always by one another side.

Reagan is feisty and  opinionated about everything, but she usually wants to be doing whatever Finley is doing. She talks in full sentences which I'm assuming she did out of necessity so she could start bossing us all around. So far it's working and it's too late. We've definitely had to figure out a different method of parenting for this one. Finley has always been a dramatic child with lots of personality. Reagan doesn't always love to be the center of attention right away but once she warms up she likes to steal the spotlight from Finley. They both love to command our attention while repeating over and over, "Watch this!." Usually it's a dance or jumping from couch to couch.

Finley loves to make people laugh. If she says something (joke or not) that's funny, she WILL repeat the "joke" over and over for weeks hoping to get the same reaction. She also likes to retell funny stories from movies or recount the story of her saying something funny to someone else. On the same note she also has a hard time reacting to when people find her funny. She usually just awkwardly jerks her body around trying to hide her face in embarrassment. We are working on teaching her to be "in on the joke," and laugh along with everyone.

Even though Reagan is a little shyer she is very loving and once she likes you she will be your best friend. Which she shows in snuggles and hugs. Her favorite thing to say right now is, "Guess what?" before every statement or question she makes. It's hilarious. But not so hilarious when she says it over and over but doesn't have a follow up. Usually she does this while I'm driving until I distract her with something. KIDS.

Finley has gotten in to trouble more than once for secretly telling Reagan to do naughty things. This secret was about splashing me (five seconds prior I had explicitly told them not to splash when I was holding the camera.) They certainly are a mischievous pair but I wouldn't trade them for anything.