It's a good thing she's so cute.....

Have you met my little angel?

Oh, little girls....made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Sometimes I think the shipment of those things was sent to the wrong place when Reagan went through the production line. Now, don't get me wrong, I adore Reagan! She can be the sweetest thing....and her voice!! It is too much sometimes. She has the sweetest little voice. And, she can be the most hilarious person ever. She is literally insane....in a crazy cute kind of way.

Well, there are times with Reagan that I feel like a first time parent all over again. Jonah has been a really easy kid. Aside from potty issues, he's pretty much been a breeze (I am knocking on wood as I type). Well, Reagan has definitely claimed her role as the strong willed child. She's always been more feisty, stubborn, demanding, and just plain mean. She yells, she screams, she hits, she occasionally bites. Fun times! There are parts of me that hate it as we engage in frequent power struggles. There are also parts of me that love it in a backwards kind of way. This child would totally cut off her nose to spite her face. To watch her sit for 30 minutes through dinner without taking a bite with her "mean face" on to try to prove a point, is amusing to me. To watch her shove a dirty tissue in her mouth to keep Jonah from taking it to throw away (because apparently that would be tragic) is ridiculously funny. Again...funny in a weird way...and perhaps more so after the fact....but funny nonetheless.

I can only hope that down the road, these qualities will serve her well....perhaps a toned-down version of them anyway! I hope that her stubbornness will help her stand her ground. I hope she is fiercely protective of her values (or something other than dirty tissues anyway). Let her slap her mean face on and let everyone in her midst know where she stands...and what she likes and doesn't like. Let them see her for who she is...and know without a doubt what will and will not fly with her. She wears her heart on her sleeve for better or worse. You know when Reagan is happy and you know when she is not. It is really refreshing actually....no games, no questions, just truth. It's hard, it's challenging, but it's awesome. I'll try to keep reminding myself of that. And in the meantime, I'll probably do some catching up with Dr. Dobson. :)