A few silly things

We're back to the normal swing of things now that swim lessons are over...You can find us at the pool almost every afternoon...I should mention it's ridiculously hot here. Really...triple digits and freaking humid...not enjoyable....but it's South Texas so I shouldn't expect anything else.
This week Reese learned how to open doors. In fact last night she shocked us all by opening the back door and heading out to the patio while Ryan was out there. She proceeded to run around the patio screaming "Let me in Mommy" which she thought was hysterical. Real piece of work this kid. So now we have to keep the back door locked to avoid her from opening it and saying "Door Open Mommy" like she did this morning to me after I let the dog out.

We went to the Greek Festival last night and feasted on some gyros and greek salad. It's no Niko Niko's (one of our favorite places to eat in Houston) but it was in Corpus and was yummy.
Ryan has been CRAZY busy at work so we've been seeing less and less on him lately. We will get to spend some quality time with him later this week when we load up the Family Truckster and head to Kingwood. It's that time of year the Herbst Family (and Chips) hold so dear...the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest (If you would like to watch tune into ESPN on the 4th at Noon/11 Central). I think Joey "Jaws" Chesnut will win again, but Leslie is hoping Pat Bertoletti will take home the Mustard Belt. We'll all be tuning into watch the most exciting 12 minutes in sports....YES Ryan, Competitive Eating IS a sport....we will keep reminding you of this each year until you accept it. I'm looking forward to seeing the family and enjoying some relaxing time in the Herbst pool.

Reese enjoying cupcakes left over from Ryan's birthday. The icing made me think she had the perfect French mustache thing going on...really she nailed the look.

I don't know whether to be proud of this or to hold my head in shame. Reese obviously watches everything I do...one of which is weigh myself every morning. She now (once a day) carries the scale around the house and weighs herself over and over again. She's loves yelling "Twenty Six" because she knows that is how much she weighs. She also knows to take her shoes off before she steps on the scale...I guess if she's going to obsess over her weight I should teach her how to make sure she gets an accurate reading. It's cute to watch her do it, but I'm not proud...

She also has her baby behind her because she weighs Baby Ty as well.

Playing with her infant toys...she loves them just as much now as she did last year

Thanks for the super cute outfit Patti.....

HI MOMMY!

June video montage

Here's a peak of some of the things we've been up to...I think it's mildly entertaining but what do I know...I'm just the Mom

It's an overload of fun!

My goodness have we been BUSY! Friday we ended swimming lessons and Reese got her first "diploma"....she passed. We were told next year she would be ready for Level 1...which means I don't have to go in the pool with her! Woo Hoo! One less thing for me to pack...Here are some pictures from the last day. Pictures were taken by Ryan who came out to watch the little fish.
Jumping on the lilly pads

Climbing the stairs to the slide

After the dump out

Swimming UNDER water

And coming back up for air

coming out of the water again

showing off her "skillz" with Ms. Marce the teacher

As soon as swim lessons were done and we inhaled some pizza, we hit the road for the shortest trip to College Station ever. We got there at 5 p.m. on Friday, partied, and slept until we left at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Hanging out with Wayland at the party

I can not even believe I am putting this on here...We attended a birthday party for Reese's boyfriend in College Station this Saturday. Man did we have fun. I think I had as much fun as the birthday boy himself. The birthday boy had a water party with this HUGE moonwalk water slide thing. Vicki and I hit the slide for our own fun and before we knew it all the kids were sliding down with us...because we're THAT much fun...As you can see we had a blast. I am pretty sure I'll be celebrating my birthday a few months early next year so I can rent one of these puppies. This was the most fun I've had in a long time. BEST 4th birthday party EVER!

Showing off her "skillz" to the other kids...

Swinging to bust out some candy...Reese wanted NOTHING to do with this...

We hit the beach for some Father's Day fun in the sun. Reese woke up early to greet Ryan and proudly yelled "Happy Father's Day". As you can see as soon as we got there she hit the water running....literally. The entire way there she slept. I kid you not as soon as we turned onto the beach access road her eyes opened and she started yelling "Water Water". Words don't do enough justice to describe how much she LOVES the water.

She could give ten craps about posing for pictures.

And we're blowing bubbles in the Gulf

Just standing in awe of the beach...my kind of kid...can you see how much sand is in her bathing suit???

Today is Ryan's 30th birthday...so we celebrated again. I think Reese sang Happy Birthday to Ryan 300 times and told him over and over again "Happy Birthday Daddy". As you can see by the above photo I had M&M's made with Ryan's head on them. Because I am that friggin cool.

Reese had a bunch yesterday and every time she was done she would run back in and say "Eat more Daddy", which I thought was hilarious.

Oh yeah...because I'm that cool (again)...that my friends is a "30" made out of 30 cupcakes with 30 candles....top thatI wonder what he wished for...

And finally Reese enjoying icing....with her icing goatee

I should also point out that I bought Ryan a kick ass piece of lawn equipment he's been begging to have. I yelled at him a few months ago that he didn't need anymore crap for the yard. He was stunned when I busted out his new toy...he's already used it. I bought him the SUPER fancy hedger so he really loves me now.

I'm off to read more of my book...yes I'm reading...gasp for air now!

A Girl for all Seasons....

She wouldn't keep it on when it was 40 degrees outside, but now that it's 107 we're rocking the fleece hat. At least she matched it to her outfit.

I almost have a two year old! YIKES

I can't believe that Reese is almost 2. Where has the time gone? She's testing the water for the terrible two's...however if the terrible two's only means she doesn't listen to everything I say, then I might get off pretty lucky. She's still a really good kid, but I am missing our three hour afternoon nap sessions. I wish she could understand an hour is just not enough time for me to get anything done and not really enough for her either...I'd settle for 1.5 hours.
We are in our second week of swimming lessons, hitting the pool almost every afternoon and reading lots of books.
Ryan turns 30 on Monday...OLD FART. He might be out of town on his birthday for work, so we might be delaying the celebration a few days. Either way I'm sure Reese will enjoy singing Happy Birthday to him. We'll have an even bigger party if he ever finishes his PhD.

Reese loves to wear my clothes, even if they are dirty. I change into my bathing suit once we get to swim lessons (as we have Stroller Strides before swim lessons). She grabbed my SUPER sweaty shirt out of the pool bag and wore it like a dress. Of course she got it on backwards but either way she was happy.
Reading her book, yes Mom, she's in JUST a diaper. Against everything I find holy, I've raised the temp in the house in an effort to be more efficient. It's hotter than hell (to me anyway) come 5 p.m. so I sit under the two fans in the family room and let her wear just a diaper. She shouldn't have to suffer because I'm trying to cut costs. I don't like being hot inside an air conditioned house...it's just not right. If I could I would run the a/c at 75 everyday of my life.

Not wanting to pose for pictures...water is WAY more fun

Playing with Grampy

Playing in the water with MiMi

This bird, reminded me of an old man, on a walk, just taking in his surroundings. He didn't care that we were super close to him, and he just slowly walked around, checked out what we were doing and then left.

Reese LOVES Kobi. Loves might be a slight understatement, but I can't think of a more grandiose word to describe it. Funny story, Kobi ALWAYS gets stuck in Reese's room at nap and bed time. It never fails...it's cause he follows us all in there and then doesn't leave quick enough when we close the door. So Saturday we put Reese down for a nap and Mom and I relaxed while watching some TV. Reese cried for about 30 minutes without stopping (unusual to say the least) as I got closer to her door I could hear what she was saying...over and over again she's crying "Come Here Kobi (only she says "Come Ere Kobi"). I open the bedroom door to find her sitting on the crib bumper, hands smashed as far through the rungs as she could get them, and begging Kobi to come let her pet him. Poor Kobi was stuck in there listening to her plea for half an hour, but never barked to leave or anything (which is why he gets stuck in there). He was not really affected by the whole thing, but it was so cute (and sad) that for 30 min. she desperately tried to get the dog to come closer to her.

Kissing Kobi

Getting in some good Kobi hugs.

Hello All! We enjoyed a nice weekend with Leslie. Hit the pool a few times, hit the beach and even cooked s'mores on the fire pit. It was a LOT of fun. Leslie arrived late Thursday night so Reese didn't know she was here. On Friday a.m. when she heard Leslie talking in the kitchen, Reese ran in screaming "Sister here, Sister here". She was SOOOOOO happy to see Leslie. Reese also devoured two, yes two, slices of pizza on her own Friday night. My kind of kid.
We also had a visit on Sunday evening from Oma and Opa Bading, who are camping out at the beach. Reese was happy to keep everyone entertained.
Reese found her headbands from when she was a wee baby bun. She's been wearing them as necklaces every chance she gets. She also used it properly, however, I think her head is just a snidge too big for the headbands.

Ready to go swimming!

I am sure Reese was thinking "Quit taking pictures and get in the pool!"

Swimming all by herself (with the aide of swimmies of course, and yes an adult was in the pool to assist if need be...Thanks Leslie)

Proof she was supervised.

Swimming again all by herself.

A juice box and bag of cookies. She needed to refuel before Round 2.

We forgot the camera when we hit the beach on Sunday...however the kid refused to get out of the water. As soon as she got there, she jumped right in, then played in the sand for a long time and also just floated in the shallow waters. She stayed in the shallow water while demanding we not leave the beach. MiMi and Grampy are coming this weekend so I am sure we'll have some beach pictures to put up next week.

Nana...is the new black font better???

Nothing too exciting!

Not too much going on lately. Leslie is coming back this weekend for another visit...and Reese couldn't be happier. The past two weeks have been very slow. The neighborhood pool opened up full time, so we've been hitting the pool each afternoon (after nap time) with our friends Emily and Ella. Reese mastered the use of the swimmies and wants to swim all by herself when we get in the pool now. She figured out how to blow bubbles, Ella taught her how to jump in the pool and Reese finally keeps her mouth closed when she's swimming. (The first few times we took her she had her mouth open the whole time, because she was so excited she couldn't stop laughing...which also meant she swallowed a LOT of water).
Other than that no news is good news. We're happy summer time is here, because we love the pool, but we could do without the extreme heat. I obviously don't have pool pictures because taking pictures of Reese in the water would mean I was not in there with her and that would be bad mommy skills...so you'll have to wait for someone else to take pictures of us in the pool.
Reese starts swim lessons next week so we'll be busy from morning until night. Reese also have been enjoying her own little nightly summertime treat...ice cream before bed. It's a good way to round out the hot summer days. This weekend we're going to make S'mores when Leslie is here. Should be LOTS of fun.
Reese on the scooter...She'll sit on it, and say "Bye Mommy. See you Tomorrow" and then take off...only to come right back and repeat the whole process at least 10 times. She got a new Barney toy today after Stroller Strides. She really LOVES Barney and is so happy when she pushes his hand and he sings to her.

Ryan bought some Stargazer Lilly bulbs off the Internet for my Valentine's Day present. After much anticipation they are FINALLY blooming and my house smells so pretty...I wish they could last forever

Last week it rained (GASP!!) so we finally got to try out Reese's new raincoat. It came in handy, however, taking her picture in it was not as easy. She loves to take the coat off as soon as you put it on and then she'll try and put it on herself...so here's our attempt at a picture in the raincoat. Looks more like she's flashing her cash, or a future career selling fake Rolex watches on the streets of NYC...

Well while the little lady continues napping I'm off to watch some TV....one of my favorite activities