Lost

Today is one of those days that I feel like the worst mother in the world. I lost Reagan today at Kohles. It was horrible. WE had gone to meet her new preschool teacher (we are giving it another shot at a different school) and then we went to this park that Reagan loves so much. Since the park is right by Kohles I decided to run in and check to see if they had any tennis shoes for Reagan. I put Brody in the Baby Bjorn on me and put Reagan and a bag of goldfish in the cart. Usually a snack will keep her occupied just long enough to do what I need to and then she is ready to get out. Well the carts at Kohls are kind of like strollers, not regular shopping carts and I literally turned around to check for her size in the shoe I was looking at and when I turned back she was already gone. No biggie so far...she likes to hide under the clothes racks but usually she stays pretty close so I started looking for her. I am calling her name being a little silly, saying things like "Ok well mommy is leaving you now" to which she usually comes running saying "Nooooo" but this time I get nothing. I can feel my heart beating faster as I walk back and forth calling her name wondering where in the heck she has managed to run off to. She couldnt have gone that far.
A nice lady obviously can see the panic in my eyes and asks if I need some help. I tell her I cant find my daughter and explain what she is wearing, what her name is, and what she looks like. At this point I have tears streaming down my face because over 5 minutes have gone by and I cant find her. Several other nice women (who were shoppers) start coming over to me and asking if I have let the manager know so they can announce it over the loud speaker and asking questions trying to help. I am on the verge of being hysterical when I hear someone say "There she is." I walk around the corner and there is Reagan with a huge smile on her face with two glittery pink purses on her arm. She looks at me and says "Purse mommy." I walk over to her and literally sit down in the middle of Kohls and start sobbing as I am holding Reagan in my arms. I couldnt even speak, I couldnt even get mad at her or explain to her that she cant run away from me like that, all I could do was cry and hold her. After a few minutes of regaining my composure Reagan puts her hand on my face and says "Mommy cry, sorry."
It was an awful outing and I cant even think about it without tearing up. I dont know that I have ever been so scared. I think for a while, I will save the things I need to do like that for days when I have a babysitter. Thank goodness everything was alright.

The Black Hole

In our house it consumes paci's, hair brushes, hair rubberbands, hair bows and combes, sippie cups, the TV remote, sunglasses and shoes...oh and pretty much anything that belongs to Stephen. Where oh where does it all go you ask...

In the BLACK HOLE!!!

What's in your black hole?

"Like Brody"

Reagan has recently started this new thing where she wants everyone to participate some how in what she is doing. If she puts on a necklace, she gives one to Stephen and says "Daddy too" and then points to her necklace and says "Reagee (that is what she calls herself) too." She does it with everything, her babies, her food, even her booboos. Today Brody was playing in his exersaucer just as happy as can be and becasue he is cutting his bottom two teeth he always has a bib on, otherwise he is soaking wet. Reagan was going about her business playing when all of the sudden she goes running into the kitchen, flings open the drawer with bibs in it and starts searching through the assortment of bibs. Finally she decides on the perfect bib and brings it in the room and hands it to me and announces "Like Body" (pronounced like Brody without the R). And so for the next hour Reagan sported this bib and proudly announced "Reagee too, Body too."

Catching up

Well I havent even had this blog for a month and I am already a blog slacker!!! Its been a crazy week in the Wooten home so let me see if I can catch you up. Oh but my digital camera is in the shop so this entry will be picture-less...sorry.

The School Situation
I pulled Reagan out of that preschool. Now I am not one of those parents that never thinks their child does anything wrong but in this situation I believe that Reagan was being wrongly accused. I went to observe on Monday and what I observed was that Reagan was doing nothing different than any of the other kids except that she was getting caught for it...and no that doesnt make it ok but the way they acted was that Reagan was this out of control child who was tackling kids to the ground and then beating them up. Reagan is just bigger than most of the kids in her class and so when she pushed or hit she made kids cry, which then drew attention to her and made her get in trouble. Reagan is a tough little thing and so on three different occasions I watched a little boy walk right up to Reagan and hit her on the head (with a magnifine glass no less) and Reagan would just walk away. Therefore that little boy was never repremanded and went on his way to do it to other kids. On another occasion I watched a different little boy walk right past a little girl, that happened to be standing next to Reagan, and hit her on the back and walk away so when she started crying and the teacher turned around Reagan got in trouble for it. (That incident took everything I had not to go flying in that classroom and chew the teacher a new one right then and there). Anyway I could go on and on about some of the things I saw but I will spare you all the details. The short of it is that I decided that that school was not the place for her. Next week we are going to tour another preschool...maybe this one will be able to handle my "out of control, wild, like nothing they have ever seen before two year old"... please give me a break...shes TWO!

Sick Babies
Reagan had had a cold for a few days (probably something she picked up at her wonderful school) before I noticed Brody starting to sniffle and cough. I was starting to wonder if he had an ear infection. I knew something was up becasue he wasnt sleeping good and he is normally a great sleeper and he wasnt eating all that great either so took him to the doctor and sure enough both ears were infected. They put him on an antibiotic and already he is eating and sleeping much better and his dispositin is much happier so he must be feling better. I hate it when my kids are sick. There is nothing worse to me than seeing your babies suffer and not being able to do anything about it.

Fun weekend
My mom and stepdad came into town this weekend and we had a lot of fun. Saturday we (we being my mom and me, Stephen and Don were at a football game) went to the Gwinnett County Fair and Reagan had a blast! They had a lot of ride for kids (about 12) and she and I went on all of them. She even like the roller coaster! Then we went to look at all the animals which of course she thought was so cool. She kept saying "Big cows...Mooooo" Thare were these baby goats that she kept wanting to hold (she has an obsession with anything that is a baby right now.) She says "Hold de baby, Rock de baby" and then reachers her arms out to hold it. Then we moved on to her favorite....the pony rides. She had the cutest look on her face the whole time. It was priceless. When the first ride was over she started to cry so I let her ride again and then again...at 5 bucks a pop this was becoming an expensive ride. Finally I got her off the pony and she looked at me and said "Buy?" like "Buy me this pony mommy" and I told her she would have to take that up with daddy. Luckily Stephen was not there with us because I fear we might have come home with a pony. (Yet again illustating that Stephen cant say no to her.) Brody was so good the whole day...he just loved watching everything and taking it all in. Then we came home for naptime and then we went to my favorite store...the toystore. I had to pick up a baby gift for my brother and his wifes shower and then we ran all over the toystore looking for something we had to have... and we found a few things =)

This morning we woke up and went to this new park by our house. It is the neatest park! Its huge for starters and there are so many unique things there. Reagan runs all over the place and Brody had just started enjoying swinging so we played for a while and then went to Chilis for lunch. We made it home just in time for naptime and then we are heading to Steve's parents house for dinner. It was a busy but fun weekend.

I would say thats enough for now...oh Go Dawgs!!! (they beat Arizona State this weekend) which is going to make Athens a madhouse for the Alabama game next weekend. We will be there so that will be fun!!

A little bit of Brody

I spent all of my last entry talking about Reagan so I wanted to talk about our sweet little Brody. I always thought Reagan was a good baby (dont get me wrong she was a really good baby) but Brody takes it to a whole new level. He is such a great baby. Maybe since he entered this world with so much drama (8 days in the NICU) he decided that was enough for him and chilled out from there. So without further ado here are some fun facts about our little man.

-He is such a mellow baby... just goes with the flow of things.

-He has been sleeping through the night since he was 5, yes 5 weeks old.

-He pretty much only cries when he is tired or hungry.

-He is a great eater.

-He smiles everytime you look at him.

-He is sitting up now.

-He is already cutting a tooth.

-He loves to be upright in his exersaucer.

-He rolls over but only in his crib.

-He doesnt like rice cereal so far...we are still working on that one.

-At 4 months he weighs 16lbs 8oz and is 25 1/2 inches tall.

-He loves bathtime.

-I can already tell he is going to be tough...Reagan pummels him on a reagular basis.

-His nickname is "Monkey"... dont really know where it came from but now I am obsessed with all things with monkies.

-He has the best baby blue eyes...they are so pretty when the light hits them.

-He has this dopey face that is so cute

Its funny how worried I was when I was pregnant with Brody about being able to love two children and divide my time between the two evenly. I quickly learned that the love in your heart is not divided btween the two it is suddenly multiplied and just when you thought you couldnt possibly hold any more love in your heart...you do and it only grows. I am so thankful everyday for the addition that Brody is to our family. God has blessed us with amazing children and everyday I am amazed that Stephen and I had a part in creating them.

School Happenings

So Reagan started school last week and I was so happy when the very first day drop off went so well. I was expecting crying and all kinds of stuff when they pulled her out of the car from carpool line but she did great... She blew me a kiss and walked away with her teacher...I on the other hand started bawling. What can I say, she is growing up so fast and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I cant believe 2 years have gone by so fast.

Well fast forward to when I picked her up in the afternoon...her teacher pulls me aside and tells me that Reagan was pushing kids all day. Great...my child is the bully. I couldnt believe it. She is generally so sweet with other kids and especially with Brody so I was a little surprised to hear she was so rough.

I really shouldnt be surprised though...Stephen plays so rough with her and she is tough as nails. I guess in our quest to make her "tough" she maybe has become a little too tough. So we spent the next couple of days talking about how pushing is mean and a "no no" and I thought she was getting it. If we said anything about pushing Reagan would say "No No...Mean" so i thought we were making some headway but when I picked her up on Monday her teacher said she was still pushing. Then this Wednesday I had to pick her up early because she was being so misbehaved.

Where is this child coming from???? She is such a sweet little girl at home and I am so sad that she is having such a hard time adjusting to school. Her teacher thinks it is just a reaction to her separation anxiety (instead of crying she is pushing). I dont know what to think. I am going on Monday to observe her class through one of those windows where I can see the class but they cant see me. Maybe then I can get in her little head and figure out what is going on with her.

Reagan is strong-willed to say the least but that is one of the things that I love about her and I dont want to break her spirit so for now we are just trying to figure all this out. I guess if nothing else oneday I can have one of those bumper stickers that says "My kid beat up your honor student".

Go Dawgs!!!!

Well I bit the bullet this weekend and decided to get a sitter for the kids (which I rarely do) and go with my husband to watch the University of Georgia play Central Michigan today in Athens. It was a blast. We got there around noon, got some lunch and then spent way to much money on UGA merchandise for the kids and then went into the stadium for the game. It started out hot but then the clouds came and covered the sun and it was great. It wasnt the most exciting game ever...there were a few really cool plays including Knowshon Moreno hurdeling a Central Michigan player. Georgia won 56-17. We left in the middle of the 3rd quarter to miss the traffic and made it home in time to put the kids to bed.

I have never really cared much about football or had a "team" until I married Stephen and now I am totally into it. Its more fun when you have a team to follow and root for. Because it is important to Stephen it has become important to me. Now I dont get the whole watching 5 other games the same day so you can see how it affects "your" team but I am up for at least one good game a weekend.

Stephen already has Reagan trained...if you say "Go Dawgs" she raises up her arm and says "Woof Woof" and she can spot the Georgia "G" anywhere. I am sure it wont be long before he is working on Brody. If it were up to him Brody would wear nothing but Georgia red and black. I mean I had to convince the man that a Georgia nursery might be a little much.

Anyway I am rambling...we had fun and most importantly the kids survived a day without me (which I knew they would... Thanks Sarah G). I need to be better about letting other people watch my kids every so often...its good for them to be around other adults and it is good for me to have some alone time with Stephen.

Figuring this out

Well I have been reading other blogs for a while now and finding that more and more people I know have them....so I am going to take a stab at it. I am not very computer-savy but I will try and give it a shot anyway. I am sure most of what I write about here will have to do with my children since I am a stay at home mom and that is what I am surrounded by everyday. Reagan is now 2 and Brody is 4 1/2 months. They are great kids and I love being their mom- I couldnt imagine doing anything else with my life. It is so much fun watching my babis grow up. Here they are...the one of Brody was taken when he was less than 3 weeks old but it is one of my favorites. Anyway I will slowly figure this all out and maybe someone will enjoy reading it but for now...both kids are napping so I should get some things done.