Grandma

Please keep my Grandma in your thoughts and prayers.

A Child's Prayer

Last night during prayers, Libby prayed:

"Dear Jesus, thank-you for mama, Reagan, and daddy's spankings."

Body Slam

Reagan gave her first body-slam (or bobby-sam as her cousin Maddy use to say) to Libby today.

Tooted

At home, whenever Libby hears someone fart, she yells "I tooted", regardless of whether she did it or not. I always find this really funny, until this afternoon.
Libby, Reagan and I were up at the library and apparently Libby farted, because all of the sudden she starts yelling in her outdoor voice, "I tooted, I tooted". I guess if you supplied it, you shouldn't deny it.

Baby on the move

On Wednesday Reagan started crawling (Beth calls it inch-worming), she is crawling a full two months before Libby did. A mobile Reagan has come as quite a shock to Libby as her toys are no longer safe on the floor.

Finally Eating

Well unlike Rudi's hatred of two way streets, Reagan's hatred of food is slowing starting to subside. What we had to start doing was shoveling food into her mouth, then quickly put the pacifier in, which prevented her from spitting the food out and helped her make the swallowing motion. We did this for a few days and then miraculously, she started eating like a champ. Reagan now eats a container of baby food twice a day, her favorites so far are sweet potatoes and peaches.

Reagan is also able to feed herself. She loves "puffers", especially the sweet potato ones. It is great because now during our dinner time, instead of having to sit on our laps grabbing at our plates, she will sit in the highchair and eat puffs. Not to brag of anything, but a pediatrician I was talking to told me that feeding yourself is a 9 month milestone, so Reagan is very advanced.

Bubbles

The other day I accidentally put way to many bubbles in the tub. Libby and Reagan both had a ball playing in them.

Both girls had fun making bubble beards. Reagan ate quite a few of them also.

Factoid

Here is an interesting factoid:
If you were to only drink bottled water to fulfill your daily dietary needs, it would cost you about $1400 a year, the same water out of a tap would cost 49 cents.

Hats

Libby loves to dress up and recently found her hats that had been put away. She thought it would be cute to put one on Reagan.
At first Reagan wanted to eat the hat more then anything.

But once it was on she as fine with it.

Potty Training

For years my family has loved to playfully tease my oldest nephew about the odd bathroom habits he use to have. While going to the bathroom he use to have to be completely naked, have the fan running or window open, eating a bowl of grapes, while his mother did a Scottish jig outside the bathroom. Apparently I am being punished for all the teasing I did because Libby has turned out to be even odder.

While sitting on the potty, Libby likes to have chairs flanking her, with books on one side, and a snack and drink on the other. She needs to be naked from the waist down (including shoes and socks) and have a blanket covering her and holding her baby. And she also must be watching TV, preferably Hi-5 or Backyardigans.

She is kinda starting to get the hang of going on the toilet. So far she has gone tinkle 4 times and had a HUGE celebration each time. Also she is starting to dislike the feeling of wet or dirty diapers and will tell us immediately after they happen.

New Years Resolution

My New Years Resolution this year really didn't have anything to do with me, but had everything to do with Reagan. Basically since she was born she has been sleeping in bed with us at night and even taking naps in our bed. We would try to let her fall asleep in our bed and then transfer her to her crib, but she would start crying minutes later. After a while we gave up and let her sleep in bed with us. I HATED this, she would wake up at least 2 times a night and would not go back to sleep unless she was fed.
So starting January 1st, I kicked Reagan out of our bed and she did just fine sleeping in the crib in our bedroom. She would still wake up twice a night, especially when we came to bed, apparently we were always to loud for her. Last week while Beth was up in Michigan for an interview, I started sleeping in the back guest room and allowing Reagan to cry herself back to sleep. She has been doing amazing. Since then she has slept though the night almost every night, and the nights she does wake up she only cries for 15-20 minutes (but wow is she ever loud, she really knows how to kick it up to 11).
Reagan is now sleeping in the crib, uninterrupted from about 8 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. Next week we are going to attempt to move Reagan into Libby's room, so that Beth and I will get our bed back.

Awesome

Happy Birthday E!

Happy Birthday to Elvis Presley, today would he would have been 73.

It is also my sister-in-law Errin's birthday, she is 28 and not related at all to Elvis Presley.

Cheetah Girl

Beth was cleaning out her closet and getting rid of clothes from as far back as high school, when she came upon this little number. Since Libby had just gotten off the toilet, she put it on her. Libby improved the look by adding the boa. She danced around singing her crazy little made-up songs for hours.

Rockin' Roll Princess

Libby is turning into quite the musical bean. She got this guitar for Christmas and whenever she sees one of the characters on TV play a guitar, like her favorite Jack, she has to hurry up and put it on and dances around playing it.

After she figured out that the pants-less thing wasn't working, she decided to throw on her princess skirt and boa.

Libby is quite sick in these pictures, as is the whole family, that is why she looks a little more disheleved then normal.

Makin' Coffee

Libby got a very realistic looking coffee maker for Christmas this year. You can actually put water in it and have it percolate into the carafe, that seems like it would make a big mess so we don't do that.

Each morning before Beth leaves for work she makes coffee. Libby loves to help make the coffee, by getting out the filters and the coffee. Now Libby runs and grabs her coffee maker and sets it up next her the big one.

Taco short of a combo meal

My brother Dave thought Reagan's middle name was Rose.

Sisterly Love

People always ask how Libby is with have a new little sister. This video shows how much they really do love each other. I chalk it up to my great parenting that both girls are so well adjusted. I only wish that Beth and her sisters, Laura and Errin, would get along so well.

NorthWorst

I have invented a new name for Northwest airlines, I now call them NorthWorst. Here is the breakdown of our travel up north to Michigan.

• We arrive at the airport at about 5:15 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight. We figured since it was a busy travel holiday we wanted to allow enough time to get through security. The airport was deserted and we got to the gate by 5:30 a.m. There were about 10 pilots milling around the front desk, which seemed kinda odd. By 6:35 a.m. we were all still sitting around because there was no gate agent. Finally one of the pilots made a phone call and 15 minutes later someone came over to let us on the plane. Luckily it was a small plane and it didn't take long to board. We took off around 7:30 a.m.
• Our flight was going well, they even offered free alcohol on the flight because of their screw-up. Even though it was only 8 a.m. since it was free I felt obligated to have a vodka and orange juice. They told us we were going to arrive only about 15 minutes late because of a tail wind we were catching. This was good because we only had a short time in Detroit to catch our connecting flight to Lansing. After the time we were suppose to land had come and gone by 20 minutes, the pilot came on to tell that the flaps were stuck (up or down, I'm not sure which) and we were going to have to land fast. They said it wasn't a huge safety issue, but that there would be firetrucks meeting us at the airport in case there was any trouble, how reassuring. The plane finally landed, 10 minutes after we were suppose to take off for our connecting flight. It was a FAST landing, but luckily everything went ok.
• Beth took Reagan off the plane and RAN to the gate for our connecting flight, hoping we could still catch it. Because they were waiting for pilots our flight had been delayed only 15 minutes, so we were still ok. I waited for the car seat and met Beth down at the other end of the airport.
• A 15 minute delay turned into an hour, which turned into 2 hours, before they finally said it would leave at 2 p.m. We had had enough waiting, so about 12:30 p.m. we called my brother Dan to see if he could pick us up at the airport and lend us a car to drive to Lansing so we could still make Beth's family Christmas in Grand Rapids. We got to Dan's house around 1 p.m. where we called to find out about our luggage, they told us that the flight had since been canceled and we could pick our luggage up at the airport in Detroit. Since Beth didn't want to be without luggage, Dan and I went back to get it.
• By the time we got to the airport the flight had been canceled, because of computer problems on the plane. They also told us that they would not be able to give us our luggage and they had re-booked us on a flight for the following day along with our luggage. We went to the luggage office and they told us that we could spend $50 per person to pick up clothes and toiletries and our luggage would be delivered to my Dad's house in Lansing sometime the next day (probably). Then we went to see a ticket agent to make sure the rest of our booking hadn't been canceled because we were skipping a leg of our trip. They assured us it wouldn't be and after receiving a lot of attitude we also got $30 worth of meal coupons that were only good for the next 24 hours. Since the only place to spend the coupons outside of security was Caribou Coffee, we went there. I gave $5 to the person ahead of me, $5 to the person behind me, then spend $20 on coffees and chocolate covered pretzels for Dan and I.
• By the time we got back to my brother's house, we knew we would miss the Christmas party in Grand Rapids, so we hung out there and to let Libby and Reagan nap. They had both been such troopers the entire trip so far. We borrowed a car and drove over to Lansing, stopping at the Howell outlets so Beth could buy some clothes, she spent about $125 on new sweaters and shirts, then we stopped at Meijer and bought $25 worth of toiletries. By the time we arrived at my Dad's it was almost 8 p.m. We could have driven to Lansing from Memphis in less time and saved about $900.
• Our flight home went a little bit better. Since we still had Dan's car and needed to find a way to get it back to them, I called NorthWorst and asked if I would be able to skip the Lansing to Detroit leg of the trip and drive the car to Detroit. At first they said no that wasn't possible, but after a bit of explaining about the trip out there, they acquiesced. They told me everything was all set and that our flights hadn't been canceled. We left Lansing about 15 minutes before a big snow storm hit shutting down the Lansing airport. Luckily the storm didn't hit Detroit.
  
• We arrived at the Detroit airport with plenty of time to spare, which was a good thing. After checking our luggage at the ticket counter, the agent told us that our seats had been canceled because of missing a leg of the trip. She read in the notes how it had been ok'ed, so she was able to go in and re-book the tickets, but that took about 30 minutes. After that we had to go to the luggage office to turn in our receipts for the clothes and toiletries, the line there was outrageous. After waiting for almost 45 minutes we turned our receipts in and they cut us a check for $150 right there.
• The flight home was only about 30 minutes late, that was because as they were backing the plane out of the gate, they discovered there was a broken down plane behind us that couldn't be moved. After they got it towed we were able to back out and take off.
• When we arrived at the airport we called the parking company we used to come and get us and take us to the off site parking. They arrived almost immediately and greeted us with cold bottles of water for the 3 minute bus ride to our car. When they dropped us off at the car, we found the car dead. Nothing on it worked, from the car locks, to the rear gate, to any light. After using the key to open the driver's door and having the car jumped by the bus driver, we were able to load the luggage up and leave. While we were sitting there waiting for the battery to recharge and Beth was reading the owners manual, I some how knocked the parking ticket into the dash and it was un-retrievable. Luckily they were able to pull up our reservation and issue us a new ticket, great service all around from ParkIt Here. Later on we figured out what had happened is a passing airplane probably set the alarm on the car off and it went on so long that the battery died and the car went into "immobilization" mode.

Needless to say the Kurt's are glad that we won't be doing any traveling in the near future and look forward to being closer to family for the next holiday season.

Twistars

On Christmas Eve day, my sister-in-law Laura had the brilliant idea to go the local gymnastic facility called Twistars. It is located in Dewitt in the old outlet mall, it is about a 12,000 square foot building with trampolines, uneven bars, parallel bars, a ball pit, climbing walls, climbing nets, playground equipments, climbing ropes, and a multitude of other things. The best part of it was there was no supervision and we were the old people there, so we could do what we wanted to without getting yelled at. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids.

Here is a cute video of Libby and Elise jumping on one of the trampolines:

Here I am ROLLING around on the mats:

Beth bouncing on a ball:


Dan made this video of Beth and I performing some of our gymnastic routines:

Santa Baby

I finally got around to downloading all the pictures I took during Christmas, much to Beth's chagrin, our battery died on Christmas Eve, so I am still waiting for pictures from my brother-in-law Paul.

Here is a cute one of Reagan with a Santa hat on her head:

Then here she is chewing on a snake and a wooden block:

Silly Dan

My brother Dan brought mojitos to the annual Kurt Family New Years Eve Party at Dave's house. But instead of using mint, he accidently used basil instead. Silly Dan.

Potty Training...Again

We decided not to start potty training Libby again until she asked about it (or she turned 18). Well 2 days ago she asked about her potty so we got it out of the attic. Last night she asked to sit on it while I was changing her diaper, so she sat and watched Dora the Explorer. Today she did the same thing, except this time she had a juice box and some pretzels to help pass the time. Nothing has happened yet.