Reaganator is 2!!!

What the?  It has been the craziest, best, roller coaster 2 years ever!  And I still can't believe it's come and gone this fast!  This year for the kids birthdays I thought it would be fun to do 12 things about them in 2012.  So here are some juicy tid-bits about Miss Reagan: 

1.  She is a lover!!!  So affectionate with kisses and hugs (real ones with squeezing and everything!) to give out all day long!  I have to say this was not something we knew she would do.  In fact affection isn't even something you can always teach.  And one of the most painful things about learning her diagnosis was the thought of my baby girl not being able to understand or show me love.  It's such a simple little thing, to have your kids hug or kiss you.  But when she grabs my face or squeezes my neck I know two things for sure, she loves me and she knows she is loved!  I'm not sure there's anything else she could learn that will ever be as important to me as those two things!  

2. I don't know if anyone noticed, but she has some hair!  ;)  And while it's also on my dis-like list, it is pretty stinking funny sometimes to see it like this:

She also looks pretty dang cute and grown up with it combed all pretty!  :)

3. She likes to grow things with extras to spare!  hahaha.  There was the toe.  #6 on her left foot.
RIP Little Piggy
Jan. 15, 2010 - July 28, 2011.

There is also an extra tooth.  Front bottom, she has 5 teeth between her canines (or whatever they are called).  It's pretty awesome.  Hey, if you're going to grow extras, toes and teeth are the way to go. 

4.  She has the funniest laugh ever!  It is contagious... and we LOVE it!  So naturally we are always trying to make her laugh! 

5.  She thinks almost everything is funny!  hahaha.  This makes for easy entertainment.  But I don't think she understands the serious disservice she is doing her brothers!  Those 2 think everything they do is hilarious!  hahaha.

6.  She is CRAWLING!  I probably should have posted about this sooner, but my blogging has been hit and miss lately.  She started in the middle of October 2011.  Within a couple of days she was all over the place.  Pretty much how I remember her brothers being!  :)  (Although the kitchen floor posed a slippery challenge, so for a few extra weeks my kitchen was safe.)  She also quickly figured out how much more she could get to with her new skill.  (The pantry and the bathroom are her favorite places.)  Messes followed.  And so did my first ever child-proofing (cupboards).   

7.  She is learning to communicate!  I really wish there was a way to express how extremely exciting this is!  Making actual consonant sounds and trying to repeat sounds!  Watching and trying to repeat facial expressions and hand movements (yep, sign language included.).  She is a very vocal kid, and fortunately she's opinionated, so she's not short on motivation!  hahaha.  She is now even saying "mama" and "dada".  Speech is a complete unknown with her.  But she is understanding and associating words that we say to her, like "go" "eat" "more" "no".  And whether or not she ever builds a sentence or holds a conversation with us seems very unimportant compared to us being able to understand each other!  Although hearing her say "mama" pretty much made my year!  :)  

8.  She hates sunshine.  hahaha.  And we live in the sunniest place on earth!  :)  It makes for interesting outings.  And usually some interesting looks from people.  Don't be deceived by that sweet squishy face, this girl can throw a fit!  And if you ever want to see it, just stand in the sun with her for a minute!  hahaha.

9.  She has about 15 different smiles.  Almost half of them look more like trouble than sweetness! hahaha They all swallow her face!  She smiled within minutes of birth and it sort of set a standard for her.  She has a big cheesy toothy grin.  She has a shy one.  She has a "I'm so cute, I'm just going to ignore you telling me NO and keep doing what I'm doing" smirk. She even smiles at me in the morning when I go in to wake her up and she hasn't even opened her eyes yet!  We love them all!

10.   She has more friends than anyone I know!  hahaha. I'm not kidding, people LOVE her, and she LOVES people!  She makes the little old people down here just giddy because she practically jumps out of the grocery cart at the store to have them hold or hug her!  She will climb over as many pews at church as she has to to get to anyone willing to take her!  It takes us 20 minutes to get out of church because she is people hopping, she has to get everyone in before we can leave!  And if you walk by looking even slightly willing, she's your newest friend!  hahaha.  It's sort of fantastic!  I love being able to watch her with other people.  I love that they get that little taste of what our everyday is like. 

11.  She loves attention!  Loves is actually an understatement.  She lives for it!  hahaha.  And just being held isn't always enough! You need to make eye contact and tickle and play and talk!  She will grab your face and make you look at her when she is feeling ignored.  She gets all sorts of upset when you get up and leave the room without her!  Like the world just might end if Reagan doesn't come along! (And forget that she can actually follow you! That would be like begging, and why beg when you can sob! hahaha.)  But on the up side of that, she loves Nursery!  A confined space where no one can leave, food, music, toys and lots of people!  I think it might be her heaven!  hahaha. 

12.  She IS our blessing!  People like to say to us "You'll be so blessed having her in your family" or "She will bless your lives so much".  I think they usually say it because they are trying to be reassuring or supportive or they just don't know what else to say.  But they always say it like it hasn't happened yet.  Like it's going to be so hard, but eventually we'll be blessed for our efforts.  What they don't seem to understand, is that when I reply "We know", We really do know!  We get those magnificent hugs and kisses at our house.  Those smiles and giggles. We get exited over and appreciate tiny little things. We have had our testimonies strengthened and our family bonded.  We are learning the real definition of perfect.  We get to witness miracles on almost a daily basis.  We are blessed every-single-day because she is ours!    

We love you Baby Girl!  Happy #2!