Kumquats and such

The weekends are getting away from me as I play blogger catch-up, so I'll just say this was one Saturday in April.  Reagan tagged along with me to the Old Town Farmer's Market (another one of my favorite Saturday activities:) where we got some whole wheat bread, pastured eggs, and a few seasonal veggies.  Reagan enjoyed a little freedom (usually I keep her in the stroller because it's always so packed, but that day wasn't so bad). She loved the fact that they finally filled up the fountain again! Once we were finished at the market, we returned to the house to find Gary Mike, Papa, and Daddy in the backyard. These two were looking at a map and trying to figure out where a camping spot from 50 years might be:)  Reagan was testing out my new hammock! Grandma found this at Costco, sent me a picture and offered to pick one up for me. Only mistake I made was not asking her to get two. This thing is awesome and super easy to put up/take down. Plus, it

I don't buy Reagan a lot of new clothes. The new ones come from Grandma (or other relatives) and the rest come from friends who have older girls. But since she was in need of a new rain jacket recently, I ended up ordering her one from Kohl's. It was a cute ladybug coat. So when Grandma, Papa, Reagan and I went to Costco a couple weeks ago and happened to spot ladybug boots and a matching umbrella, I ignored my usual impulse to "see if I could find it used," and just buy it.  Totally worth it...

Someday Reagan is going to grow up and be really upset with me for posting this, but since I'm the mommy, I'm doing it anyway:)  I seriously love this girl!!! The picture below is from the other day when it was just the two of us at home. I was getting some things ready for dinner, and Reagan went outside to play with Tommy. I poked my head around the corner and saw her with her pants and undies on the ground. Naturally, I grabbed the camera. See, this is my doing. I taught her to pee outside when we still lived in NC because I was doing long runs and got tired of dragging the potty around. She had to go, so she dropped her clothes and took care of business. Needless to say since the picture tells it all...she was a little embarrassed when I broke out the camera.... And the other night, Daddy taught Reagan to wash her own hair (and body) in the bath!! Managed to grab this shot of her "rinsing" her hair!  What a great girl we have!! Love her!

One beautiful Saturday morning, Gary Mike swung by to pick us up, and we all drove into DC. We were hoping to see some cherry blossoms, but due to the chilly weather, they were a bit delayed. Oh well, we had fun at Eastern Market and the fish market on Maine Avenue anyway.  Reagan was in quite a mood at the beginning (she had fallen earlier and scraped her finger...world ending catastrophe for a 2.5 year old!).  We grabbed some coffee & tea at the shop across the street while waiting for Eastern Market to open up. Reagan got a bandaid from the barista, so she finally started feeling better. Once it was 9am, we wandered over to the flea market part and I got a new bag! Then we all walked through the market (inside and out) where I got a giant bag of peapods, some black peppered bacon and Jason got enough pork belly to feed a small country! Just before we left, Reagan scored a hotdog!!! After Eastern Market, we hit up Maine Avenue fish market -

The day after Easter, Grandma, Papa, Daddy, Reagan and I headed into the city for the White House Easter Egg Roll (at my behest). This may go down in history as one of my worst ideas ever! The weather was brisk (to put it nicely) and windy, the lines were innumerable, and the Egg Roll left lots to be desired, but hey, we got the wooden egg at the end:)  Ok, that's a lot of complaining out of the way. Here's the truth: it wasn't awful, but we will NEVER do it again. The event started with lots of circling blocks around the White House in search of parking, and was quickly followed by enough walking to fulfill a 3-day breast cancer walk. Papa and Jason were kind enough to park the car while we got a head start toward the entrance... Once Papa and Jason met up with us, we got into the first line... Daddy played with Reagan to keep her happy. And I made friends with a squirrel:) After we made it into the first corral, we got into another line.

My new camera (that I got for my birthday) came in handy on Easter Sunday when Reagan donned her fancy dress (courtesy of Grandma and Papa of course!) for brunch: I love these pictures. Her personality comes through. Thanks to an open door (for great lighting) and Daddy holding the backdrop, we'll have these memories forever!

Growing up with traditions is a wonderful thing. When two people get married, they are forced to select which traditions they will follow. Luckily, we seem to be able to compromise on these things. In our house (when we were kids) the Easter Bunny used to hide our baskets and create an egg trail. In Jason's family, the baskets were sitting on the table waiting the next morning. I had my heart set on sticking with my family's tradition, so the Easter Bunny set up a trail for Reagan... She had a great time picking up the eggs (and checking out what was inside the plastic ones!) and eventually found her basket which she loved: