11 months? Time is FLYING!

How is it possible that I am one month away from having a one year old and an almost three year old?  Where has time gone?  Reid is 11 months today and boy has he grown!!  He is continuing to explore the world around him, and getting ever so close to walking.  This past weekend he actually stood for periods of time on his own before cautiously sitting on the ground and he even took a couple steps here and there with only slightly holding on to mom or dad's finger.  Sooo close, too soon, and we'll have a walking little boy.  He has pretty much mastered his sleeping at this point and I am extremely grateful for that, as I've realized I can do anything on a decent night's sleep.  We have also seen a much more, shall I say determined? Reid? I fear the word "strong-willed" as we already have one of those boys, and LOVE him dearly, it might be a bit crazy in our household if that's the case, lol.  Reid is quite persistent in what he wants to do and definitely shows his dissatisfaction if we impede on his plans.  He also popped his 5th tooth this month, and I'm thinking he's working on his 6th right now as he's had a fever the last two days and been a bit more needy as well as chewing on what he can get his hands on.  He's growing so much and looking less and less like a little baby - though I know he still is in the big picture of life!

(Pictures will be updated here - poor baby has had a fever for the past 36 hours and was definitely not himself today, though I did snap a couple...I think we will do it again in a couple of days when he's feeling better...)

Things to remember:

• How much you love to play with the kitchen stuff...tupperware, pots and pans, dishwasher, fridge, pantry...you name it, you love it!
• How you have started standing on your own in short increments as well as taking baby steps with barely holding on to a finger...next up, walking!
• How you cruise with your walking toy, forward, backward, sideways...you're a pro.
• How you love to climb the stairs and get such a kick out of me coming to "get you".  You giggle profusely and then continue to climb (as long as you aren't distracted and fall backwards, only for me to catch you, lol!)
• How you have started drinking water from your sippy cup, as well as a bottle before your afternoon nap.  You are now officially down to 2 feedings from Mama and 1 more with the bottle.
• How you got your 5th tooth this month and I think #6 is on its way.
• How you are great at saying bye-bye when you go night-night or someone leaves the room.
• How you started doing "so big" when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and love the attention and praise you get from it.
• How you absolutely thrive on flipping backwards, so much so that we have to be on guard when holding you to make sure we don't drop you unexpectedly.
• How you have finally made it through nursery without getting Mama called out.  3 weeks and counting!
• How you have started eating lunches that mimic your brothers - ie, peanut butter sandwiches and cheese sticks and fruit and veggies...such a big boy!
• How you whimper when you see new people in your proximity...not sure if you think that they are taking you away or that Mom or Dad are leaving you, but it makes us laugh.
• How you are saying "Da-Da" and "Ma-Ma" with much more regularity.
• How happy you continue to be, day in and day out!

We love you sweet Reid and I cannot believe next post will be your 1 year post!  Ah, you are growing up too quickly baby boy, but we are thriving on every second of it.

Hearts At Home

This post is a little past due, but last weekend I had my first weekend away from both boys while Christian stayed back...therefore giving Christian his first weekend to have both boys all by himself.  I have to say, it was a good weekend on both accounts, but we were both glad to be reunited :)

I went to a Christian Mom's Conference called Hearts At Home with 3 of my small group girlfriends, and had a great time.  It was a great getaway to rejuvenate my mom/wife heart as well as get some quality girl time with some good friends.  I was able to attend 8 mini-sessions that were 50 minutes long and came in a variety of topics ranging from boy rearing, to being a better wife, to child rearing , to family living...honestly, I felt like there was so much great information that my brain wasn't able to comb through it all and am only praying the notes I took are enough to be able to apply all that I was learning.  In addition to the mini-sessions, we had a couple of main sessions that everyone attending the conference heard and our two speakers were Jill Savage (creator of Hearts at Home many years ago) and Candace Cameron.  That's right, DJ Tanner in the flesh :)  Full House star and sister of Kirk Cameron, Growing Pains star! So.....all that aside, I really appreciated hearing Candace's testimony and message and thought she was a great speaker at the end of a long but fulfilling day.

Nothing says girls' trip like food, right?  Homemade larabars (coconut cream pie and cherry pie copycats) and Nutella Cookie Cups.  Yummy!

 

 

The girls!  My friend's Laura, Carrington and Kate.

 

Can't tell, but this is the best I could do with a Candace Cameron picture, lol.

It was a fun weekend, Christian survived his time with the boys (which is great, considering Reid's not been a bottle taker and I am still nursing 3 times a day) and is definitely something I could see becoming a tradition.  My friend Kate has gone for 11 years, I think?, and is always looking to bring people with her every year.  I feel fortunate because it's a national conference, but only a 2 hour drive for us!  Seems like it'd be a shame to not take advantage of the opportunity, right?

Big Kid Hair

Christian decided that it would be fun to style Reid's new do up, and I swear he looks like such a big kid!!  And here's Reid, new styled do and all, doing what he does best...eating :)

Kitchen Krazy

Yes, that's what Reid is these days.  This kiddo loves to get into whatever drawer isn't protected by the childproof locks...so on any given day you can find tupperware being put in and out of the cabinet, or pots and pans being scattered around the kitchen.  I try my best to keep him out of those cabinets, but some days it's just not in my capacity to do so easily...I know, consistency, consistency...

Regardless, here's what I found in my kitchen while bringing in groceries and trying to get lunches on the table for the boys...

 

Micah wanting to give Reid a hug, and help him get out of the pots and pans...

 

A very satisfied, happy little boy!

And it was this sequence of pictures that inspired the pictures below...

I could no longer handle the length of his hair.  So, literally, when Reid woke up from his nap I had Baby Beethoven ready to go and the hair cutting station all set up.  I know this means I'll probably have to cut it again before his party (my baby boy turns 1 year in a month from tomorrow!!) but I just had to give him a haircut.

So here is Reid right before bed, playing in his favorite place upstairs...big brother's kitchen.  I swear, both our boys love their kitchen play :)

Scary Daddy

I was looking through old videos from my phone tonight while Reid was in the bath, and he started smiling after hearing Christian and Micah in this video (pick the first video on the post).  So, I had Christian do it again when he came upstairs to see if I could capture Reid's smiling with the real thing...

Ah, sweet smiles from my sweet boy. 

Marathoning Map

I've run 17 marathons.  That sounds like a lot.  It is a lot, I know.  And I have another marathon in April, which will make 18.  I also have 10 states that I've run in.  It sounded like a lot to me as well.  And then I did a project that had been in my mind for awhile, and I realized how few marathons I've actually completed in a very few amount of states with regards to my ultimate goal.  I have lofty goals of becoming a 50 stater...ie, running a marathon in all 50 states...and while I don't know if I will actually reach that goal, that is the reason I'm running each new marathon in a different state.

My project was putting a flag in each location I've run my race with the date/time of that race.  In the future, I'd love to have it displayed in an office (or another appropriate space) along with my medals and bib numbers from those races, but currently the map is placed inside our closet wall :)  Oh well, at least I can see every morning I go to get dressed, haha.

So the picture you see literally shows you every race I've run.  I have 3 colors for specific time ranges, and I'm excited to continue to be able to put flags on the map.

Fridge Love (and more)

Reid loves climbing in the fridge.  He cries when we close it before he makes it there, and takes advantage of every opportunity to climb in ;)  Reminds me of when Micah was fascinated as well, almost at the same point in his little life!  Funny thing is Micah loved the bottles on the side of the fridge, while Reid actually loves climbing inside the fridge, lol.  I really think he would climb up and in if there weren't food in his way.

 

In searching for the food post, I found the one where Micah learned how to climb down the landing step literally at the same age that Reid is now.  And while Christian and I were watching it we became teary-eyed thinking about how quickly Micah has grown and how quickly Reid is growing now!!  We were also taken aback to seeing how much Reid and Micah looked like each other at this age.  While we definitely know they're brothers, seeing videos of Micah at Reid's current age puts things in to perspective.  Man, I sure love my boys.

The below pictures are just a few more of Reid - I just can't get enough :)  He really is our little man...