The Princess and The Peas

Reagan has never wasted food before. She always eats anything and everything and she eats it GONE. Yesterday that changed.

So I was washing out bottles and little baby spoons and in general more pastel plasticware than any household should contain, when I heard a soft plop. Then another. Plop.

I glanced over at my cherub, strapped into her high chair just feet away. She smiled her cherub smile and waved her hands around, a sure sign of her happiness in life. Ah, bliss. Here I was, content in my motherhood, loved by the perfect baby, partnered with the perfect husband and all that rot. Then plop.

This time I caught her. My little princess was gleefully tossing her lovely green peas over the side of her high chair tray. She picked them up carefully with her dainty fingers and then sent them soaring to their deaths not unlike crazy people in barrels going over the side of Niagara Falls. She leaned over the side of her chair in order to watch their fall from a better angle. And then she laughed wildly.

It was the laughing that got to me, I think. I said, "No, Reagan. Don't waste your peas. Eat them, Baby Girl." That caught her attention. She stared at me intently, ashamed of her waste and the mess it made. She ate two peas with an expression of true repentance on her little face. There. Point made. I went back to scrubbing.

Plop.

More pictures!!

We're updating Flickr tonight so have a look see when you get a chance. At some point, we'll start uploading videos as well because as hard as it may be to believe, Reagan is even cuter in action than she is in still shots. At least she is to us, her doting parents.

Life With Reagan

Reagan is currently pulling all of the trash out of the office trash can. My favorite cat in the world (who has since gone on to kitty heaven) used to pull dirty socks and underwear out of the laundry room in this same fashion. Reagan is working against my inner Cleaning Goddess. We've gone over the importance of putting trash in the proper place about 100 times...today alone. I'm not sure she's grasping the concept.

In other news, Reagan Ru slept last night. I mean, really slept. We put her down around 8:45ish and she was up at 9:30 and we put her down (finally!) at 10:30pm and did not hear a single peep from her until 8 this morning. I rolled over, all cozy in my consecutive hours of sleep and nearly had a heart attack when I saw the clock. Something must be HORRIBLY wrong! My baby doesn't sleep like this! I raced into her room and sure enough she had just woke up. She rolled over and looked up at me as if to say, "Well, what do you know? This crib isn't a medevial torture device after all. It's actually quite nice in here and if you're lucky, I'll take my nap today, too." And, she did, by the way. She slept nearly two hours and I got all sorts of stuff done and then took my own snooze.

For The Sheer Cuteness of It...

So We're Home...

In case you couldn't tell from my last post, we're alive and at home. I'm heading to bed now because jet lag is killing me. We're forcing ourselves to stay awake as much as we can during daytime. Poor Reagan. She's a wreck but she's powering through with us. My kid is a champ.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to the airport to greet us. I expected a handful of die hards but so many, many people showed up and it was like a little party and made us feel so loved and welcomed. You all rock my world!!

Matt Harader rocks my world, too. Not only has he been one of my most treasured friends for over a decade now, but he handled all our blog problems while we were away and I really appreciate it. His wife and kid ain't half bad, either.

I'll try to write on here when I can. I don't know if anyone will be interested in life AFTER China. If Reagan does something super cool, I'll let you know. You can assume she will because she's my child after all.