Getting to Know Reese

We've been very bad. Needless to say our New Year's resolution should have been to keep up with the blog. Apparently life gets a little crazier when you have two kids. Who knew? Reese is already nine weeks old and we have a ton of pictures and stories that have yet to be shared. Hopefully this post will be a step in the right direction. Believe it or not, we have to start our post way back in 2010.

Only a few days after Christmas we were fortunate to have more visitors. Suzy and Brian flew out to Cincinnati to spend time with Brian's family, and they made a valiant effort to come on down to Lexington for an afternoon. Reese did her best to charm her Aunt and Uncle despite the fact that she was still working through a cold. It was a great visit, and Callie certainly enjoyed getting to play with Suzy and Brian.



When Callie was first born, we loved taking walks in the morning and afternoon in the stroller. Unfortunately, Reese's birth has coincided with one of the coldest and snowiest winters Lexington has seen for a while. However we wanted to get a few miles on the new double-stroller we received from the generous and thoughtful California aunties. We had to bundle up, but it was well worth it.



Callie loved to have Reese sitting next to her. And we loved getting a little fresh air. Sad to say this was the only stroller ride we have been able to take in the two months we have had it in our house. Hopefully this will change soon as spring marches closer. One thing we have been able to do a lot is spend time with both Callie and Reese. In fact, we kept Callie out of daycare for all of January for a month of Team Bowes bonding.



The month was great, but having Callie around also meant that serene moments like the one pictured above were few and far between. The typical day was more of a crazy attempt to multi-task - answering a never-ending litany of questions and changing a never-ending litany of diapers.


Through it all Reese has managed to be mellow and fun. And as happens with babies her age, she continues to grow and change. Her two month visit occurred only a few weeks ago and she is doing well. Her height came in at 22 1/2 inches, which is the 55th percentile, and her weight was 9 lbs 11oz, which is the 22nd percentile. Those are some good Bowes proportions so far. The fine head of hair she had at birth has gone the way of the Dodo and her eyes appear to be grayish-blue. At the moment she is smiling relatively often. But more than anything, she's a bit squirrely. Unless she is sleping her arms and legs are constantly in motion.



John started back to school in mid-January, but has a very good schedule. Because he only teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays he has been able to be home quite a bit and hang out with the ladies in his life. It's been fun, but in the back of his mind he's already trying to figure out the best way to get two little ones ready for daycare each morning once Sarah goes back to work. Fortunately, he'll have some time before he has to do two sets of ponytails.



January also brought some sad news when John learned that his Aunt Mary Gay Peltier had passed away after a year-long struggle with cancer. We were determined to be in South Bend for her funeral to join the Peltier, Malpino, and Bowes clans for the memorial. It took a long drive through a snow storm, but we made it.



The return trip had its share of intrigue. The picture above was taken at 1am at the Waffle House off of I-275 in Hebron, Kentucky. It is a long story involving an oil light, a tow truck, and a taxi driver named Stan. If you have already heard about the Knoebel's water slide incident or Bill the Vietnam veteran who was John's neighbor in White River Junction, than you should just know that the story of Stan makes this quite a trilogy of stories. And if you haven't heard any of those stories, buy John a bourbon and he'll start chattin'. It is also important to note that Callie in particular was phenomenal throughout the whole ordeal.


The end of January brought another welcome visitor to our home. Auntie Gret flew out from Los Angeles to meet Reese and hang out with us. We love having Gret around and her visit meant that she was the first California auntie to meet Reese. This made sense she was the first one to fly out to meet Callie. For her efforts we rewarded her with a beer and a sleeping baby.


Gret rewarded us by introducing Callie to every piece of technology known to modern humankind. Yes, in this picture Callie has on headphones listening to music while playing with an iPad and waiting for a call on the Blackberry by her side. Unreal. Callie now asks to type any time one of us is working on the computer.


There are more pictures and stories to come, so stay tuned. Reese is changing daily, so we will have a lot to share.