Brynn Reese | Cuddlebugs

Cassy Fiano

Hi everyone! My name is Cassy Fiano. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida. My husband and I met when we were twelve, at a birthday party where he fell on the pool deck and broke one of his front teeth. I worked in several different fields until I got married. My husband and I knew that we wanted to have a family and that when we did, I would be a stay-at-home mommy. Last July, we found out I was pregnant, and on the day of my first doctor’s appointment, he deployed to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, during my pregnancy, I ended up with preeclampsia. Luckily, my husband returned the morning of my scheduled induction, so the day he came home from Afghanistan was the day we went to the hospital. 16 hours and a c-section later, we had our beautiful little boy, Benjamin. Being a parent has changed my life. I’ve learned to be more patient; that it’s possible to operate on two hours of sleep, and I’ve also learned that I never really knew what stress was until I experienced a baby crying inconsolably for four hours straight. I’ve learned that looking at my son sleeping in my arms can move me to tears, that I never really loved anyone the way I love my him, and that all of the hard times can be completely wiped away with one little smile. The last four months have been an incredible journey, and I can’t wait to share the rest of it with you!

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I grew up in here in North Carolina and attended Duke for my undergraduate and UNC-Chapel Hill for my master’s degrees. I moved up north to Boston after completing school and worked there for five years as an inner-city middle and high school history teacher. While in Boston, I met my husband, Chad, who was there for school, and we were married the summer of 2004. 2007 was a big year for us – we welcomed our son, Nathan, Chad finished school, and we moved to Jacksonville for a great job opportunity for Chad. Nineteen months after Nathan was born, our daughter, Emily, joined our family. Twenty-two months later, Joshua came along. I’m now a stay-at-home mom to my little brood, having “retired” from teaching after Nathan’s arrival. When I’m not busy feeding, cleaning, dressing, and keeping up with Nathan, Emily, Joshua, and their dad, I enjoy reading, quilting, and going to the beach. I also still cheer for my beloved Blue Devils whenever the opportunity arises and thoroughly enjoyed last season’s national championship. Go Duke! Life can be a little busy around here (hello – three kids under the age of four!), but I’m looking forward to sharing life with three active little ones with you.

Languange Explosion

May 19th, 2012 Brynn Reese

My kids generally aren’t the first of their friends to do much of anything, other than talk. Sometimes I think we’re so slow just to make everyone else feel better about their kids. I mean, seriously, Emily walked at …
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The (Not So) Fun Mom

May 16th, 2012 Brynn Reese

I’ll admit it – I’m not The Fun Mom the vast majority of the time. My to-do list is always longer than I’d like to admit. I also don’t like dirty or messy, and with little guys, dirty and messy …
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Charts In Action

May 14th, 2012 Brynn Reese

Suburban s'mores before the campout

(Read here to find out why we started the charts and here to find out how the charts work)

Nathan and Emily started their charts with a …
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Getting Ready To Go

May 11th, 2012 Brynn Reese

(Read here to find out why we started the charts)

Emily's chart

Monday night, we introduced the new responsibility charts to the kids. First, we explained to them all their new responsibilities. After some online researching, Facebook posts, …
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Frustration

May 8th, 2012 Brynn Reese

Over the past few weeks, life around the Reese household has been less than pleasant. The nightly toy-picking-up had almost become an out-and-out fight between me and Nathan and Emily. I found myself yelling and spanking way more than …
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Soccer Season Ends

May 7th, 2012 Brynn Reese

This past Saturday marked the end of the spring soccer season. Nathan’s team had their last game (at the last possible time slot) Saturday, and they won! We missed one game due to scheduling problems, but I’m pretty sure they …
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