The Reynolds-Hales

london - part one

so vere had a last minute business trip to london this month and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage and fly to london for a week with a two year old and a three month old. i knew cole would be tough on the plane and that it would be difficult sleeping with both of them in the same room, but i did not anticipate cole being so jet lagged. they were both totally out of whack for a few days. cole more than stella since stella will sleep pretty much whenever and wherever.

stella was a rock star on the plane. she slept 7 hours on the way there and 8 on the way back. she only woke up because i woke up her up to feed her, otherwise she probably would've slept the entire way. i think people around us didn't even know we had a little baby, they just thought we had a crazy toddler with us. for some reason it is so hard for cole to fall asleep. we had a red eye on the way out there so i knew we were in trouble. and cole did not disappoint. he basically slept 2-3 hours that night. we landed at 2 p.m. the next day. cole fell asleep around 7:30-8 p.m. and woke up at midnight thinking he had just had a very long nap and then didn't go back to sleep until 5 a.m.! and when cole is awake, everyone has to be awake to entertain him :) the following night he went back to sleep around 4 and the 3rd night he went to bed at 3 a.m. Finally on the night four we had cole going to sleep at 10 and waking up around 7-8 a.m. which was the best it ever got. but we did manage to have fun and do some cool things with the kids that we haven't done before.

arrival day: a walk through hyde park

day two: my kids in a london cab on our way to kensington gardens. stella in the carseat on the stroller just sitting in the cab and cole no seatbelt on vere's lap. so ridicuously dumb that i had to take a picture.

so happy to find these big sticks!

princess diana memorial playground, kensington gardens

swing! it never gets old.

cole and stella at the princess diana playground

day three: london zoo - locusts

up close

totally into the cockroaches. he was obsessed with the bug exhibit.

upside down jellyfish - who knew they existed?

aardvarks - who knew THEY existed?

where's cole?

driving a red double decker bus

us on the carasol

not giving me a sip of MY milkshake

day four: london eye - our souvenir pic

view of westminster palace from the london eye

stella on the london eye

view from our room at the marriot county hall

cole and stella

it's been so amazing watching cole and stella change the last few months. cole has been doing some seriously cool and funny things and stella has been doing some seriously cute things so i wanted to share:

COLE:
he has a british airways set that consists of an airplane, a van, a bus, some trucks and luggage. the other day i had the blue suitcase and i asked him where the yellow one was. he looked right at me and said "black truck!" i just figured he didn't care about the yellow suitcase and wanted to play with his black truck. then he dug though his entire truck box until he found the black truck, held it up and said "here it is." then he opened the truck's door and the yellow suitcase fell out. for some reason it seriously amazes me that he's got a little brain in there and it's working!

later that day i had lined up all his british airway vehicles - there's about 10 of them. and cole kept saying white man, white man. i didn't know what he was talking about until i realized he was saying white van - the only one missing from the group. he really knows his toys. we searched the entire house and finally found it in my car.

everytime he's coloring with markers he has to have the cap on the back of the marker. and if i'm coloring with him and i don't have the cap on, he will put it on for me.

he is talking so much now. i'm really starting to understand him. but for some reason every word that starts with an "f" or an "s" cole pronounces it with a "p". even though he can definitely make the "s" sound when he says truckS. so fruit is poot. fire truck is pire truck. star fish is par pish. spoon is poon and fork is pork. socks are pocks.

he is also so efficient with the ipad that it's ridiculous. he can totally maneuver his way through it and play all his games, watch videos and switch from movies to tv shows. growing up with all this technology is crazy.

STELLA:
this girl can smile. and now she's starting to laugh so much. i'll give her kisses on her cheeks or her belly and she will burst out laughing! it's the cutest thing ever.

she is a total self soother. she is already sucking her thumb like crazy. and sometimes she will just put herself to sleep. i'll lay her on a blanket or put her in a swing and she'll be awake sucking on her hand or thumb. then fuss for a little bit and by the time i finish what i'm doing to pick her up, she'll be asleep. it crazy! crazy good :)

she can also roll all the way to one side and just hangs out there sucking her thumb.

here are some current pics...

watching tv on their cool matching chairs - thanks haraguchis!

after kalia and maya left, cole wanted to hold stella just like they did.

smiles

stella :)

playing on the ipad

with his trucks and cars (i did the organizing although now i'm wishing i hadn't shown him that)

just hanging out on her side sucking her thumb

being nice to his buddy, the gorilla and setting him up in the chair in front of the tv.

not being nice to his buddy.

me and the kids :)

kalia and maya visit

after the welcome stella party, kc, erik, kalia and maya came down for a week of fun with cole and stella. we went to legoland, the legoland waterpark, sealife aquarium and the safari park. it was a busy week but cole had so much fun with his cousins.

legoland!

on his favorite train at legoland!

thanks for the lift uncle erik!

driving an ambulance with auntie kc

kalia's driving was amazing! she was stopping at red lights and stop signs and going when it was green. she could seriously pass a driving test!

maya cruising in her blue lego car

watching tv way too close.

morning time with the girls!

backyard fun!

with his favorite auntie kc!

at sunset park

cutest dancers at obon!

stella 2 months/welcome stella party

geez, i'm behind again since stella is now 3 and a half months old. but here's what happened last month. (i don't know how kc does it with 2 girls, work and writes in her blog every few days?... i seriously need to get my act together...)

anyways, stella had her 2 month visit at the beginning of june. i thought she was HUGE and would be off the charts like cole. but she was only 11 lbs, 10 oz (72%) and 22.5 inches long (56%). she is so different from cole as a baby. she is so smiley and just hangs out. she also sleeps great. i only have to wake up once in the middle of the night to feed her and she goes right back to sleep. i read this book called babywise before stella was born because some of the moms in our moms group swear by it and i couldn't have another baby that didn't sleep. but it turns out i didn't need it because she loves to sleep! maybe it's the luck of the draw and not which method you use. she is just a sweet sweet baby :)

here she is at almost exactly 2 months old.

tummy time!

cole also likes to participate.

really likes to...

he's a good big brother!

on june 23rd, my parents had a party at their house for the family to meet stella. thanks mom and dad :) and thanks everyone for coming to meet her!
here are some pics...