Uncle Chuck's visit during Labor Day Weekend

My brother, Charlie, came with my mom, Susan, aka "Booze" from Wisconsin to visit Reagan during the Labor Day Weekend.  David's sister, Caroline, wins the award for "1st Blood-Related Aunt to Visit" when she traveled to Tennessee two weekends ago, and Charlie is the first uncle to visit.  We're eager for her to meet other family members this fall/winter!!!

Grandma Susan helped me to bathe Reagan yesterday. It was the best bath session yet!  Reagan hardly cried and seemed to actually enjoy it!

Reagan is beefing up!  She graduated from her “newborn diapers” to her “1 diapers”, and the newborn clothes are getting tighter on her.  I can tell from the deepness of the indentation marks that the diapers make on her thighs every time I take them off.  These are things that you notice these things when you change 10-15 diapers a day. 

She also hiccups just about every day.  That seems like a lot for an adult, but apparently that is normal for a baby to hiccup every day or every other day. Below is a quote from parents.com that gives more insight: 

"Experts aren't sure why young babies hiccup so much; some say it's due to a miscommunication between the brain and the diaphragm, the abdominal muscle that controls breathing. Regardless of their cause, hiccups are a harmless part of babyhood."

We went to a "house-welcoming party" for our good friends, Amy and Chris B., in Knoxville.  This is one of the Amy's after whom we named Reagan's middle name.  It was great to see their 1-year old, Jude, and get out of the apartment to socialize with our nearly 5-week old baby.  Their house had a beautiful yard, great porch for summer evenings and wonderfully spacious rooms, including a "man cave" with a movie screen downstairs that we all enjoyed as we watched the Wisconsin-LSU football game Saturday night.  All in all, it's been a great Labor Day weekend in Knoxville so far!

Reagan is getting a little older and more mature, so we feel that we need to do a little more parenting with her as she is becoming more aware of her surroundings, instead of just leaving her in her Boppy chair or bassinet to sit for a few hours a  day. We need to teach her, stimulate her, and interact a little more!  I can't believe that we're supposed to do "tummy time" with her just yet, since it's still difficult for her to hold up her neck, but we've exposed her to more toys and "equipment" given to her from our baby showers, so that she is at least observing and grabbing at toys and trinkets, if not "playing" with them yet.

We're so used to her acting like a dog, in terms of being a breathing being and not having the ability to communicate verbally yet.  However, it is my goal to continue to read my short stories in French to her and carry her in my arms and play with her more than having her sleep in her bassinet all day long.

I began attending cross country practices this week to fulfill my coaching responsibilities this fall before I return to school after my maternity leave ends in mid-October, and the most frequent question asked by my athletes was, "Will you speak to her in Spanish or French?"  I want to try speaking at least one of these "foreign languages" to Reagan while David speaks English to her as we raise her, because I think it's so vital to be bilingual in today's growing global economy and world.  We'll see how it goes, since this is my first experience like this, but how can it go wrong?  I'm going to speak in French with her and see how she develops as a bilingual child, if I can stay disciplined to communicate to her this way.   Of course, she's is such a mixed communication bubble with my Wisconsin accent (which she will never hear if I stay disciplined enough to speak strictly in French to her!), David's neutral Indiana accent and the strong southern accent down here that she'll hear from peers in Tennessee. It'll be interesting and fun at the same time to observe Reagan's communication patterns!