The McCool's took Kristen and Brian to Hawaii this year for their family vacation. They took Grayson but knew that Reese would be much harder to take. She still takes 2-3 naps a day, can't walk on her own, and wouldn't be able to do all the fun tourist things that the older kids could do. It worked out pretty well because we were able to stay at their house and have a mini vacation while we watched Reese.
Day 1: Reese is happy to see us!
Harper was seriously excited to go stay at Kristen's house. They have a ton of toys, stairs to climb, a new dog to play with, and sweet Reesey Reesey. Harper loves Reese. LOVES her. She wants to hold her, hug her, feed her, change her diaper, and do everything with her. Everything except share her toys and share her mom. But she really does love her. When I got home in the afternoon on the first day with Reese (from school) and not Grayson, Harper started crying so hard because he wasn't coming home.
Harper wanted to dress Reese everyday. She kept showing me all
of Reese's clothes that were "cute".
We are in the process of thinking of having a 2nd kid. So Kristen and I had decided that this would be good practice to see how I did with 2 kids. It seemed like it wouldn't be hard, but as the week wore on, life got a little harder. Harper had to get used to me holding Reese more than her, having to be quiet because Reese was sleeping, and having to share toys because Reese was younger and didn't know better. I think she did great, it was just definitely a learning experience.
Bathtime
Reese is a little slippery sucker
Having two is definitely more work and takes a lot more planning. I am so glad Cody was there to get some practice too. He pretty much took care of Harper while I dealt with Reese. Considering that Reese decided to stop being perfect angel baby this week, I did pretty good. Reese napped pretty well during the day, morning and afternoon, but woke crying every night and sometimes took up to 2 hours to go back to sleep. Thankfully it was 5 hours behind in Hawaii so I could call Kristen at midnight and she would still be awake to talk. The second night Reese was up from 12-2:30 and then woke up at 5am for the day. That one was brutal.
Getting a little too tired to crawl after Harper
7:05 on the 1st night - out.
The best part of staying at Kristen's house was the pool. We hadn't really gotten a chance to swim much this summer, so we took full advantage. We swam every day in the afternoon. Harper got really good at swimming with her puddle jumper. She would just climb in the pool and jump off the stairs and float around the pool. Eventually, she would ask to be pushed back to the stairs, so she could jump again. When she got back to the stairs she would say, "Yay! Good Job, Parper!" (yep, we are talking in 3rd person for now). She loves swimming, running around naked, and jumping in the water.
Reese likes to be outside, but isn't as in love with the pool. She liked to be at her water table instead or being held. It was kinda nice that swimming time coincided with her bottle because I could just bring her high chair out and let her drink her bottle in it while we swam.
Harper wanted to watch a show one day while we were swimming.
Love that their backyard patio makes this happen!
We were there for 9 days and were busy almost every single day. Our friends, the Rhode's came over one day to swim and have dinner. Kara came over one day to swim and relax. Taylor and Carleigh came over 3 days to swim and sleepover. And Cody had to go to Denison 2 days to check on the house. We only had one empty day to hang around Frisco.
Swimming with Kara
Shopping at Target one day while Cody was in Denison with both girls.
That was an looong experience.
Harper and Reese played well together. They both seem to like playing with other kids. They also both didn't mind going naked alot. Reese was just starting table food and was so dirty after every meal. And Harper was only on week 2 of potty training, so she liked being naked so she could run to the bathroom anytime she wanted.
Reese wanted to climb the stairs so bad after Harper. She is quick too, so
if you aren't watching, she is gone in a flash.
Eating table food with Harper
We sent Kristen and Brian pictures of Reese a few times a day, showing them all the fun things she was doing. But she is such a happy baby that she seems to always be smiling!
Carleigh and Taylor came over for 3 days to hang out. They swam each day, played with the girls, and watched movies with Cody and I. We went shopping one day in Plano, ate at In & Out Burger, and hot tubbed one night before they left. It was nice to just relax and enjoy the days.
Hot tubbing
Swimming
Laying out
Harper's new swimsuit was too tight already and her right check
seemed to always be sticking out.
Reese in the water
Carleigh got to dress Reese one day and she looked SO cute.
Plus, this is pretty much all she did in the evenings, crawled around and held onto the back of your legs.
She mostly just wanted to be held. :)
TayTay, Harper, and Cody spent 2 hours throwing Grayson's balls on this ledge above their staircase. They got 15 balls of all sizes up there and it only took Grayson about 10 seconds in the house to find them. He thought it was funny!
After dinner one night, Taylor was carrying Reese and just set her down on the sidewalk to leave to go get in her car. I wasn't paying attention and was so surprised to find Reese just sitting alone on the sidewalk. We had to have a little talk with Taylor about why that wasn't really appropriate to leave a baby and walk away. Poor Reesey.
Telling McCools good night fro Frisco.
Pretending to be in Hawaii with her fam...
We had a great time and it ended up being a relaxing week. Reese was SO excited to see Kristen, Brian, and Grayson when they got back. We left to go to Denison for a few days to do some work on the house and Kristen and Brian went to sleep for awhile (when they got home at 6am they hadn't slept for the night yet).
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