Reese and Julie: Gooooo Irish!

After the enthusiasm Reese showed in singing Notre Dame's fight song (constantly....all week long...), we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and took the girls to campus on Saturday before the Pitt game in order to listen to the band. Campus was busy (of course) but it was really gorgeous out. While Todd got our burgers and hotdogs, I snagged a shaded spot along the sidewalk from which we could watch the players walk by on their way from Mass to the stadium. That double-stroller really marks off a good amount of territory. Reese loved her hamburger (and watering the grass with her water bottle) and drew a bit of attention thanks to her outstanding curls. As the time for the players to walk by drew near, I found out that the blonde woman straight across from me was a player's mom. Then I started looking around and noticed that a lot of people had these white tags hanging around their necks.  We were right in the middle of the football recruits and their families.  The recruit two people to my left was acting very cool like this was no big deal. Then the players came. As they walked by in their suits, being cheered by fans who lined their entire walk from the basilica to the stadium, even he smiled and looked excited. Reese was super excited to see the people she sees on tv every week.  Well, she was excited about the clapping and cheering anyway. She thought it was very silly that they went to Mass on Saturday (we prefer Sunday nights). Julie slept through the entire event. After cheering for the players, we walked over to see the band play while Reese sang the fight song much to the delight of passing fans.  We found an amazing spot really close to the band and in the shade. As we waited, Reese started to fade.  We were an hour past nap time and had had quite the exciting day already. When the band played, Therese wanted to be put down and to eat her chips until they played the fight song, which she greeted with a big smile. At least Julie really enjoyed herself. She was giving huge grins the entire time. Today Reese was telling us about going to see the band when she said, "The horns were too loud. I was listening from people's legs."  People's legs? I asked her if she had wanted to be put down when the band was playing because it was too loud. She said yes. I asked her if it wasn't as loud when she only saw people's legs. Yep. :-)

While Saturday was certainly the highlight of the week, I was also excited to go to Curriculum Night at Reese's school. While it was great to learn a bit more about Therese's teachers, her schedule at school, and the teaching philosophy behind the curriculum, the teachers were wise enough to know that what we all really wanted to hear was how our kids are doing.  Right away the head teacher said something about how Reese is a social butterfly. She immediately recognized the shock on my face. I told her I was glad but surprised - last year every report was marked by how she wasn't playing with other children yet or how she was engaging in a little bit of parallel play!  At some point the teacher was talking about how their class seems to be really interested in math and told a story about a kid who was holding 9 pegs and the teacher asked her, "How many would you have if I added these 2?" and she said, "11."  The teacher then asked, "If I had 8 pegs, how many would I need to have 10?" and the child answered, "2."  Yep, you guessed it - the teacher later told me it was Therese.

Of course Julie is learning and growing quickly as well. She now not only sucks on her fist but on some of her fingers as well. Of course this often results in her gagging herself.  She gets really upsest by this, makes a huge frowny face, and then seconds later is back to sucking on her outstretched fingers. At least she doesn't pull her own hair anymore... In more exciting news, Julie has started laughing.  She just cracks up at the most random things. She starts laughing which makes us laugh which makes her laugh... It's so much fun.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of our big outting yesterday (and a random one from today). Enjoy!