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After watching Mara's video on our website, Reese wanted to see herself on the computer, too.  I thought it was about time for a Reese update.  Reese is a funny, intelligent, loud, little girl.  She is delightful 90% of the time.   The other 10% of the time, we want to sell her to the circus.  She is well on her way to being fully potty-trained.  She is currently taking swim lessons and is enjoying it.  Yesterday she went under the water for the first time.  She did a great job.  Reese's vocabulary is amazing.  There isn't much she can't say.  This morning she scribbled something on a post-it note, brought it to me and said, "I promise, in a few days you will feel much better Mommy."  She picked that up from "Elmo Goes to the Doctor."  I took a video of her this afternoon just for fun.

Mara is already 8 months old and has reached some big milestones in just the last couple weeks.  She can officially crawl with her belly off the ground and pull herself up to a standing position.  She also got her first tooth and just yesterday got her first haircut.  In the video, you can see her tooth in the last few seconds if you are really looking for it.  Time sure flies!

Karl has been saying that he wants to blog about our Colorado trip, but he hasn't had time.  I thought I'd at least get some pictures up, so here they are.

So, Reese announced yesterday,

"I'm going to the potty.  Don't come.  I need my privacy."

A few minutes later, she ran out half naked and exclaimed,

"I went to the potty and I saw the biggest poo poo I've ever seen and then I touched my butt!!"

Obviously, we ran to the bathroom immediately to wash hands.   As I raised the lid of the toilet to empty the contents from her little potty, she said,

"Daddy goes pee pee like that!"  

We have a few  things to report tonight. 

 1)  Mara cut her first tooth!  I was surprised to see a little bit of white in her mouth this morning.  We stuck a metal spoon into her mouth and heard the tell-tale "clink, clink" sounds.  

2)  Mara can also really crawl now.  She is still doing the belly scoot, but she can now lift her tummy off the ground and go quite a way.  

3)  Reese got herself into quite a bit of mischief this evening.  My mom and I were just hanging out with Mara in the living room.  I thought Reese was in my bed reading books.  I was wrong.  She walked out of my bedroom and looked, well, like this:

She got into my mascara.  Thank goodness she didn't put it directly in her eyes.  I'm not sure who she saw doing this.  I hardly wear makeup anymore.  We tried very hard not to laugh, but that wasn't easy.  Who knows what she'll get into next.

Reese has been out of diapers now since Friday morning.  She is on her 3rd day with no accidents and is even sleeping in her big girl "underpants."  I've always used the terms "underwear" and "panties," but Elmo uses the word "underpants."  Whatever Elmo says goes, so we went with that.  We just went out in public for the first time today and we didn't have any disasters!  We are surprised and thrilled at how well she's done.  Our strategy was basically just to throw away all the diapers we had left (which was only 2 diapers) and never look back.  We didn't let her out of our sight for 3 days.  We CONSTANTLY repeated 2 phrases to her: 

1)  Don't forget to tell Mommy or Daddy if you need to go potty.

2) Check your underpants, are they still dry? 

She now goes into the bathroom and goes potty on her potty seat by herself.  She insists that I do not follow her.  She needs her "privaseat."  She is rewarded with marshmallows and stickers.  She has some work to do still with dressing and undressing herself, but she's well on her way to being much more independent.   Hooray Reese!