Reese's Two Year Evaluation

Reese Harper certainly has grown over the past year, and so we have a lot to talk about for her second year evaluation.  Although she is still petite, she packs quite a punch.  Back in December at her annual doctor's appointment she came in at 33 1/4 inches, which was 40th percentile.  Her weight was 23lbs 4oz, for a consistent 5th percentile.  That is quite surprising since she is an eating machine.  A small frame that contains a whole lot of energy and personality.

Reese is a talker.  Sometimes we don't know exactly what she is saying, but she always has a lot of information to share.  She also is extremely expressive, so if she can't get her idea across in words she will definitely deliver the message through facial expressions.  Some of the most impressive facial expressions come at moments of great frustration, or when she is cooperating but still wants to let you know that the cooperation is occurring under protest.  We have also enjoyed the conversations that Callie and Reese have had well before Reese truly spoke words.  Now, there interactions have only become more interesting the more Reese can directly communicate.

From early on Reese has been clear about her desires to control her fashion statements.  Unlike Callie, who would put on any clothing laid out for her, Reese has a strong opinion and her opinion is that she should always wear dresses.  It's amazing that such a small child has such a powerful will.  The great thing is that those dresses are perfect for highlighting the scabs that she constantly has on her knees these days.  Reese lives life at full speed, and sometimes that speed gets her until trouble.  As her current teacher at daycare, Miss Cheri, has reported on the daily note, "Reese fell and scraped her knee, AGAIN."  Fortunately, Reese is very good at dusting herself off and rejoining the fray.  You would think that this indicate that she is not very coordinated.  However, she is very coordinated.  The problem is that she firmly believes she can keep up with her sister and the other big kids.  Very often she's correct.

This year Reese learned her ABCs and enjoys reciting them, and also has fun singing a variety of the basic songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Row Row, or the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Unfortunately she has not begun to identify her colors with any accuracy.  At this point you ask her what color an item is and her go to answer is "Blue?"  She's not right too often, in other words.  But she continues to charm at daycare, and loves to wave goodbye to anyone and everyone each afternoon as she leaves.  And everyone knows who she is.

Before we end on a more positive note, we need to address the biggest area in need of improvement.  Reese simply refuses to go quietly into the night.  Quite frankly, she is a nightmare to put to sleep at this point.  The engine doesn't stop.  It just doesn't stop.  It starts with the kicking and screaming and refusal to brush teeth.  She chooses three books when told to pick two.  And then once the lights are out the evening becomes a giggle fest with her and Callie.  Typically the evening ends with the two being separated and Reese finally succumbing to sleep between 9:00 and 9:30pm.  This makes her especially fun and grumpy in the mornings.

But while she might not want to go to sleep, there are a lot of things that Reese truly loves.  The first one is dance.  She loves following in her sister's footsteps but she definitely has her own signature mesmerizing style.  When Reese dances, it is difficult to look away.  Reese also loves the pool, and is fearless when jumping in.  She loves ice cream and asks for it throughout the day.  She also likes to point out ice cream shops around town just in case the person driving also has a hankering.  Another thing she points out even more often are horse statues.  Needless to say, in Lexington, Kentucky we have our fair share of horse statues.  Reese is in paradise and can't get enough of the thoroughbreds.

When all is said and done, Reese has flourished during her second year and has gained the respect of her colleagues around the office. (Home, daycare, and church)  We are happy to recommend her promotion to the third year.

Callie's Five Year Evaluation (Okay, Five and a Half)

We thought last year was bad when Callie's four-year review occurred five months late.  This year it seems that we are fortunate to post it nearly eight months late.  What can we say, life has been busy.  But our goal this year is for the review to be shorter and sweeter, so let's get right to it.

Fortunately, her annual doctor's appointment was two months after her birthday, so the following stats are only six months old.  Back in early December 2012, she was 44 1/2 inches tall, a.k.a. 3 ft 8 1/2 inches.  This put her in the 82nd percentile for height, her highest since birth.  Her weight was 38 lbs, which put her in the 45th percentile.  She has shown no sign of shrinking since December, so we imagine that the current numbers are higher, but consistent with the string bean look.

Overall, Callie is a great kid.  She makes us proud by consistently using her manners and showing a great deal of care and concern for others.  It's wonderful to see such compassion from such a young soul.  Shyness is certainly still there, but slowly but surely it's getting better.  One area in desperate need  of attention is her propensity to whine at the drop of a hat.  She's also still prone to throwing fits.  Therefore we continue to focus our efforts on learning how to respond better to every day situations.  Her sense of humor is still very evident, and this year she has been very interested in trying her hand at telling jokes.

This past year Callie has also expanded her participation in extracurricular activities.  She is nearing the end of her second year of dance and is very much looking forward to the recital.  And she just finished playing her second season of soccer, which has had its shares of highs and lows.  But she definitely ended the second season much better than she started the first.  And you could not tell Reese that she was not a part of both the soccer and dance.  She had to get dressed for dance class and had to be right there for every soccer practice and game.  And Callie loved it all.  The intense love between the two remains strong.  This year, though, they certainly have had many more opportunities to play together versus Callie simply dictating Reese's life.  However, this does bring the occasional argument or fight over the simplest of things.  Hopefully, however, love will always triumph.

Perhaps one of the biggest developments however, is that Callie is currently reaching the end of her time at daycare.  She has officially made the full circle of rooms in the center and is well known to everybody.  She continues to develop her pre-K skills (like counting to 100, identifying basic sight words, and coloring like nobody's ever colored before)  but is done with nap time.  Kindergarten will be a great opportunity for Callie, and because she will be one of the older kids she should be even more ready than we could have hoped to expect.

And we'll end by trying to sum up her favorite activities of her fifth year.  She loves riding her bike, which is a hand me down from the Abrahams, and she desperately wants to ride around the block by herself.  Callie also loves to spend time in the pool, and hopefully this summer will really learn how to swim.  She has become an expert cat caretaker, and is the go to person for Lily and Lola, Sharon and Chris's cats.  She learned how to play Uno and is a bit of a card fiend with a shady shuffle and a competitive fire that means every loss nearly leads to tears.  This year also marked Callie's first haircut, that resulted in a donation of 12 inches of hair to Locks of Love.

All in all, she has demonstrated remarkable growth in her fifth year as a member of Team Bowes.  She's a solid contributor and continues to blossom into best Callie she can be.