Showered with love.

Susan and Kara threw a shower for Reese and I a couple weeks ago. It was so great to see our family and introduce Reese to everyone. She loved all the attention! Thanks to everyone's generosity, Reese now has an amazing book collection. We feel truly blessed to bring Reese into such a loving family. Thank you all so much for coming - it was great spending time together!

Mackinac Island

We have had a very busy month of June so are a little behind on posts. We took our first family vacation to Mackinac Island for a long weekend to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. It was also Daddy's first visit to the island so we had lots of fun exploring together. We were lucky the rain held off until the day we left so were able to get in lots of walks and even biked around the island twice. Reese seemed to love the burley bike trailer and was fast asleep shortly after taking off. Daddy was in charge of pulling Reese since Mommy opted for the single speed beach cruiser. Naturally, we sampled almost every flavor of fudge before coming home with 6 slices. It was the perfect first family vacation!

Fun at the park

Since the weather has been so nice this week, we've tried to get out and enjoy it as much as possible. We took Reese to a couple different parks in our area and she loved roaming around pulling (and trying to eat) the grass, swinging, and sliding down the slides. We had fun too!

7 months

It's hard to believe Reese is already 7 months and past the halfway mark to 1! She has changed so much in the past month. With mastering crawling and trying to pull herself up on almost anything, we are constantly chasing after her. She loves being on the move and exploring anything she can get her hands on. Still loves to put most or all of those things right into her mouth too. People keep telling us she's teething but I still don't see or feel anything just yet. Speaking of 'eating' things, she seems to like everything we've offered and is now eating quite a variety of fruits, veggies and some meat. She loves her puffs and is getting good at picking them up off her tray and getting them in her mouth.

We've taken her to a few Gymboree classes here in town and she seems to like exploring the new environment and the fun toys and games they offer. She's also spent an hour here or there at the daycare in the gym when Scott and I both try and get a workout in. She certainly doesn't love it yet but hope she will get used to it soon. It's only a couple times a week and is a good way for her to get used to not having us around 24/7.

She really is such a happy little baby full of smiles and that seems to be the comment we get the most from passersby. Even if they often mistake her for a little boy. Guess we will have to up the level of pinks in her wardrobe!

We are filled with pride watching her master new things but it seems to happen much too quickly. Our little beaner really is growing up before our eyes!

First tastes...

Reese has recently started eating solid foods. We started with rice cereal and are now doing fruits and vegetables too. She was more interested in the spoon at first but now seems to enjoy what's on it as well. It's still a bit hit or miss but she seems to be actually eating more and more. Sometimes we get an awful face after a first taste but she opens her mouth for more so it can't be too bad!

Here are a few pics of some first tastes and testing out the sippy cup. That still needs a bit of work as she really has no clue what to do with it yet, other than chew on it like a toy!

Home, Sweet Home

Welcome home poster from Grandpa
Uncle Eric and Chandra
Lots of Easter goodies from Grandpa Lewis

Easter treats from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dickers
Stealing Mommy's seat on the plane

Playtime in Schipol Airport
Digging for toys during our last dinner out in Finland

I'm so happy to be posting from home once again. We are more than thrilled to finally be here and are enjoying every minute with our friends and family!

Reese did so great on the long journey home. She slept great in the car, on the plane and waiting at the airports in between. She adjusted to the 7 hour time change better than we did. Only had to start our day at 4am the first morning. Then she was back to her routine and sleeping right through the nights. What a huge relief and pleasant surprise for us as I was sure sleepless nights were awaiting us.

It was great catching up with everyone and introducing Reese to her family and friends. Thanks for putting together dinner parties in both Port Huron and Mt. Pleasant!

We are now getting settled in our place in Kalamazoo. It takes a bit longer to unpack and organize with a little one in tow. We're just about there!

Here are a few pics from our travels and first few days home.

Happy 1/2 year Birthday Reese!

It's so hard to believe Reese is already 1/2 year old! Where does the time go? It seems like we were just taking our little beaner home from the hospital, and now she's already 6 months old. She is most definitely not that helpless little baby anymore. She sits up without our help and if she topples over she can get herself back to sitting with little or no help from us. She hasn't started any real form of crawling at this point but rather flops like a fish or rolls and rolls and rolls to get where she wants. She still loves to stand on her feet and always flashes her great big smile (now mostly with tongue hanging out) anytime you pull her up. Diaper changes are becoming a real challenge and a lengthy one at that, flipping over every chance she gets. She still LOVES to eat anything within her grasp- books, toys, clothes, blankets, shoes, socks, you name it!

To celebrate her 6 month birthday we started giving her a little rice cereal and she did okay with the new form of food. She mostly just wanted to 'eat' the spoon and didn't care much about what was on it. We will start trying fruits and veggies once we're stateside again!

Sleeping issues are a thing of the past (yay!) as she has been sleeping like a real champion these days. Going down great for naps and sleeping through the night without even a peep for the last couple weeks straight. We really need to celebrate this now since sleepless nights are probably in our near future with the big move home.

Here are a few pics from the last month or so.