an apple a day

Reese has never met an apple that she didn't like. And until the other day, she had only every tried applesauce, apple juice and freeze dried apples. Whenever we get apples at the store, she always wants to hold them and sometimes gets frustrated when I don't give her a whole apple to bite into. But this week Aunt Lili was in town...and Reese saw her window of opportunity! After dinner was over and I was trying to get Reese ready for bed, Reese went into the kitchen, where Lindsey was cleaning up the dinner dishes (LOVE HER!) and pointed to the bowl of apples. And once Reese got her hands on that apple, she was not letting go!

I know that apples can be baby choke food, so not to worry, we were watching very closely to make sure any bite Reese did actually bite off was not too big. Her teeth aren't quite big enough yet to dig in and get a big bite, but she can shave off little strips. Mostly it was just the juice (and her slobber) that was drenching the front of her shirt. Next time I'll be sure to have a bib on her.

Mothers' Day 2009

This Mothers' Day was a lot more real for me than last year. Although I did get to celebrate last year for the first time as a mother, Reese was too young to spoil me. Also, I was visiting my own mother that week, so I was still in the habit of being in the daughter role. (I guess from here on out I will celebrate Mothers' Day as both a mother and a daughter...an interesting thought for another post.)

This year, Reese is 15 months old (and so fun!) and has such a sweet and loving personality that when I ask her for hugs, she will gladly give them. But lately Reese has turned into a Daddy's girl. It really is so sweet to watch, but it was Mothers' Day!! C'mon. For example, Reese picked out a book that she wanted to read and I told her to come over to me so I could read it to her. She said, "No. Dada." and handed the book to her dad. Michael told me that actually Mothers' Day means you get the day off. Yeah, right. (I guess the day-off part came after the 7am wake up call.) Pretty much all day Reese wanted to sit on Daddy's lap, hold Daddy's hand, and follow Daddy around...I tried not to take it personally.

But, for about 3 seconds that day Reese was all mine. Michael took Reese to nursery with him at church so that all the women who normally work in nursery could go to Relief Society for a special Mothers' Day program. Afterwards, I was chatting with a few people and I saw Michael and Reese walk up close to where we were standing. Then Reese, in her cute purple sweater dress and sparkly clippy, walked right up to me, in the middle of about four women, and handed me the card she made for me in nursery that said, "Mom I luv U" in big foam letters. I swear it was the sweetest thing she has ever done and I nearly broke into tears right there (and then again when I recalled the story to my mom!). I didn't care that she wanted her Dad for the rest of the day--those three seconds melted me. It may not sound like much, but I don't ever want to forget it.