Baker Blog

Fun at the Park!

2012-01-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

We have had some very unusually warm weather this January so I decided to take advantage of it and I picked Reed up from school early so we could head to the park. Ashley had just picked Deacon up from school too and they had the same idea so the 6 of us met at the park!

It was a little crazy to say the least with 2 infants and 2 little boys that both prefer the baby swing! We had a great time and the boys took turns swinging in the baby swing!

Here is Reed waiting his turn! There were only a few tears shed by Reed, he is STILL learning to share, but we made it. These 2 really are best friends! Even though Reed spends the majority of time away from Deacon with other kiddos at his school, he still ALWAYS says, "Deacon is my best friend!"

Reed was standing on a hill in this picture, it looks like he is taller than Deacon, but he really isn't! :)Deacon wanted to swing with his baby sister. How sweet! Then Reed wanted a turn, unfortunately Finley wouldn't fit with Reed! :)

I hate that I didn't get a picture of Graham, he slept the whole time in a carrier on my chest! I just can't wait for summer when he can swing too!

Projects with Daddy

2012-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Lately Reed and Daddy have been doing some fun projects together! A couple of weekends ago Josh thought it would be fun to put up a squirrel feeder in the back yard. Something they could build together and then enjoy watching the squirrels out the window.

Josh and Reed gathered up the scrap wood they needed out of the garage and put the feeder together. Then it was time to paint! We have TONS of paint samples (due to me taking 4 to 5 options every time we pick out a paint color). Reed picked out green and blue! We laid down some plastic in the kitchen and Reed and Daddy went to town painting. The idea was for half of the feeder to be blue and half to be green, but had you will see Reed had a different idea and enjoyed painting a little to much! I think it turned out great! Now if we could just get some squirrels to come eat the corn, maybe eventually! :)The next project, was painting and assembling this little car Reed got from Gigi for Christmas! This is a Melissa and Doug set that comes with the paint, brush, glue and all the car pieces. Reed loved it! He loves painting as you can see, unfortunately we don't do it much because it is so messy!
He was really in to it and so serious the whole time he was painting!

Daddy helped very little, just there to supervise!

Once the "colorful" car dried, Daddy glued the wheels on!The finished product! Reed loves this little car and carries it around every where! Thanks Gigi for the great gift! :)

Graham is 2 Months Old!

2012-01-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this precious baby boy is already 2 months old! He has brought SO much joy to our lives and I honestly I can barely remember life without him.
This month has definitely had its ups and downs, but it is ending better than ever. Week 5 Graham was so gassy all day long and just seemed miserable. I felt so bad for him and at that point I thought I was in for it. He would just scream every time he had to burp and was so restless while he was sleeping. But the gassiness finally past and then he started getting a stuffy nose. I had been sick for a couple of weeks with a sinus infection, so I was afraid I had gotten him sick and decided I would go ahead and take him to the doctor just in case. Well, lucky for us I made the right decision because poor little guy had RSV. I couldn't believe I had a very sick, 6 week old! This was my worst nightmare come true. After Reed had RSV I was so nervous about having a baby during cold and flu season. We caught it very, very early and no intervention was needed at all. We just quarantined him to our bedroom with a humidifier for 3 days, used lots of nasal spray and nose sucking and he was pretty much all better. Josh and I also took turns holding him at night for 4 days, so that he was more upright and could breath easier. He had a little trouble nursing and I pretty much fed any time he whimpered for 3 days just to make sure he was staying hydrated. Honestly, those days were nice because it forced me to be at home and I had time to just stare at this little face and thank God for him, a little RSV was nothing compared to what some go through! He was a little trooper and every day since then as just gotten better and better. During week 7, Graham started only getting up once a night normally around 3 to 4 am and this routine has continued. Week 5 was also tough for me because in my mind he should have already been only getting up once a night like Reed did, but it just took him a little longer and being sick didn't help. Graham also didn't like going back to sleep after he ate. Sometimes I would be up for 2 hours feeding and then rocking back to sleep. Finally, just in the last 3 nights this has begun to change! He is still spitting up quite a bit. We will have several days where he doesn't spit up at all and then we will have several days where he spits up every time he burps. You just have to be ready, sometimes it is nothing, sometimes just a little bit and then sometimes one of us is changing clothes even with a burp cloth there. I think the spitting up has also played a factor in Graham not going right back to sleep after he ate. He is a tummy sleeper for sure! Through all the gassiness we had going on we finally just decided to try him on his stomach to sleep. I had days where I had to keep him up on my shoulder all day so that he had pressure on his stomach, so we thought that sleeping on his stomach might help. I was super paranoid about doing it, but we were desperate. He had enough head control to turn side to side and he did great and slept so much better and quieter! :) He has continued to sleep on his stomach and loves it. He even takes great naps during the day, something Reed never did. I have had to wake him up several times this week to eat, because he is just sleeping away. I am a huge tummy sleeper, so I just say he gets it from me! It is so cute because he doesn't even curl up in a ball, he just stretches out flat.

Smiling more and more every day and getting more vocal every day too. You forget how expressionless little ones are, but it just makes every smile that much more special. I live for a smile and a little "coo" every day! Still wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 to clothes, I have put a couple of 3-6 month clothes on him, but they are so big. I just keep thinking they should fit because Reed only wore 0-3 for 2 weeks, but he was 14 pounds at this age! When we were at the doctor Graham weighed 11 lbs and he was 3 days shy of 7 weeks. We don't go to his 2 month check up for a couple more weeks. I am very interested to see what his percentiles are like. I think we say every day, "He is so little" because we are still so used to having an above average child. I think the lowest percentile Reed has had for height or weight has been 85%.Holding his head up great and supporting more and more weight on his legs. He is a little kicking machine. If he is awake, his little legs are moving! He has started making lots of noises (in the picture below he was talking) this week and the drooling and slobbering is also starting. He loves to chew on his fist. Sometimes I will pick him up from a nap and his hands will be completely soaked from him laying there chewing on them. No signs of him rolling over yet, even with all the tummy sleeping. The blue eyes are still hanging on! Some days they look lighter than others. So we will still see if they turn brown or lighten up and turn blue like Reed's did. Still has tons of hair. It as thinned a lot since birth, but what he still has seems to be getting longer. Reed lost all his hair by 2 1/2 months, I'm pretty sure Graham can't lose all this hair any time too soon! I love it! He also finally lost his tan around 6 to 7 weeks! He is now white like the rest of us!Still loves his paci and bath time is probably his favorite time of day. It is crazy how relaxed he gets. At night time he is wearing all sleepers now, because he got to long for the gowns around 6 weeks. We are also using sleep sacks and they have been great because they still make diaper changing easy with a zipper and keep him warm without a blanket.Starting to get on more of a set schedule and we moved him to his crib this week at 8 weeks and 1 day. Right now he is waking up around 7 to 8 and then eating again around 11 or 12 and then usually 3, 6 and 9. We normally lay him in bed by 10 and then he is waking once around 3 or 4 and then it starts all over! :) After he eats in the morning he will normally sleep until the next feeding and then kind of cat nap here and there between feedings the rest of the day. He really has become a very easy baby. He is our cuddle bug. If he is fussing the second you pick him up and cradle him he is asleep. Reed always had to face out, so I am loving being able to cuddle! So far he has been very different from Reed and that has made it very fun for us! I love how God creates your children to be what you think are the cutest kids on the planet. During my pregnancy I seriously was worried that Graham may not be as cute as Reed was (I can't even believe I had those thoughts now), but now I think Graham is the cutest, most precious thing ever too!

Click here to see what Reed was up to at 2 months! As you can see in the picture below Reed was our chubby little man, oh how I miss those chubby cheeks!Today I woke up and had the 2 month photo session all plan out to take during Reed's nap time. I also had several other projects I wanted to get done today as well as the usual weekend cleaning routine. To my amazement I was able to get everything done, I was so proud of myself. While Josh was cooking dinner, I went to downloaded the pictures onto the computer, formatted the camera disk (BIG mistake) and then began organizing the pictures on the computer. Then my favorite 2 year old walks up and bangs the computer and well Graham's face looks about what mine looked like!To my complete sadness and disbelief the pictures were GONE! Some how he had deleted one of the pictures in the folder I had created and the folder of pictures keeps saying it is corrupted! I was devastated! We had taken so many adorable pictures, 188 to be exact! I live for pictures and get incredibly sad when I lose them. Right before Graham was born I lost 6 months of I-phone pictures and videos! So I have tried to be much better about downloading pictures immediately and now this happens. I should have never formatted that disk, but we also had a whole disk get corrupted last summer and had to pay to get the pictures off of it. Their advice was to always format the disk after every download. I can't win for losing!Anyway, I tried for a couple of hours to Google how to uncorrupt the folder without any luck so at 8 pm. I got Graham all dressed up again and started over!

Luckily as you can see, Graham was a good sport and but on another good show for the camera and smiled away again! So I am officially over it (I think)! At least they were pictures I could retake.

I kind of went crazy adding pictures to this post, but I couldn't stop! He is just too sweet!Look at that hair sticking up!Talking to the camera!His very favorite place to be, talking to Mr. Elephant in the picture! Do you see that grin?

7 weeks!

2012-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

The other night when I was getting Graham ready for bed I saw these pajamas and I immediately thought about this picture of Reed and remembered they were about the same age and decided to do a comparison. If you haven't already noticed I am a little obsessed with comparing them, it is amazing to me how similar and how different they are at the same time!

My 2 Cutie Pies!

Reed at 6 weeks and 3 days

Graham at 7 weeks and 2 days

Graham's Baby Dedication

2012-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, was baby dedication at our church! This is a special time for parents to dedicate their children to the Lord, promise to raise them in a Christian home and pray for the day they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This time was extra special for me because Reed was the exact same age when we dedicated him! 2 1/2 years ago dedicating Reed. Now a family of 4
We were excited to have Gigi, Gran and Aunt Amy there, unfortunately both Grandad and Papaw had just had back surgery and weren't able to come and Uncle Branden couldn't get off work.

Both Grandmas with their 2 boys! Apparently, something was funny and Reed wanted to hold Graham's hand.It was also a special night because we got to dedicate Graham with several of our friend's kiddos. We hope and pray these babies are friends for life!These 2 precious babies are exactly 2 months apart! We can only hope they are as good of friends as their big brothers! Speaking of big brothers! Here they are, Deacon & Reed! Deacon's Mommy got this adorable picture of the 2 of them!

And we ended up with these two pictures! Although this one is adorable.......This one shows their true personalities! Silly Boys!

Brotherly Love

2012-01-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

I get asked all the time, "How is Reed adjusting to being a big brother?" I can honestly say I think he is the BEST big brother ever! He has not been jealous for one second. If anything he wants to be right beside Graham the whole time he is awake. He has never asked for me to put Graham down and hold him, he is happy just to cuddle beside us.He always wants to help put the paci back in or cover him up with a blanket. He even frequently shares his "Bye-Bye" with Graham (his comfort blanket that he goes to sleep with and NEVER shares).
We are constantly telling Reed that he is a great big brother and Graham loves him so much. We tell him how much Graham looks up to him and wants to be just like him. I think little things like this have really help Reed realize how special he is and what role he has in our family.
He loves him to death and we talk a lot about what games they will play when Graham gets bigger. We also talk to Reed about what he was like when he was a baby. He understands that he was little once and did the same things that Graham does. We think this has also helped Reed understand that we did all the same things for him and that Graham will soon grow up and be big like him.

Reed has made being parents to two very easy and Graham has been such a great baby! Josh and I love these little boys more than we ever imagined possible! They are so precious and it is so special to see the bond between them that is already forming! Our little gifts from God!

Christmas with Papa & Gigi

2012-01-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

We ended Christmas Day, with Josh's parents & Uncle Branden. We had a great dinner and opened LOTS more gifts.

Family pic, before the present opening began!

Uncle B, Reed and Branden's new puppy Kobi
A couple of weeks before Christmas, Reed stayed at Gigi's house and helped her decorate for Christmas. One of the things he helped with was setting up the Nativity scene in the picture below. Reed really got into the manager scene this year and would frequently point out the Shepard and wisemen at our one at home. He even asked me one day, where is the manager? My nativity set just has Mary holding baby Jesus. He learned a lot at school this year about the real meaning of Christmas and what happen the night Jesus was born, it was really amazing to hear him tell us stories about what they talked about at school.

In this picture he is showing Branden baby Jesus.

And the next thing we know....Reed is feeding baby Jesus!! OMG, we all died laughing! It was even more funny to me, because this came out of the blue, he has never even tried to do this with one of his stuffed animals. I guess he just thought baby Jesus wanted some milk!
Present time.....the first thing Reed opened was this giant castle that has over 70 pieces! We haven't tackled putting this together yet.
This isn't the best picture, but Reed & Graham got these cute stuffed animals from Branden. You press their hands and they play recorded messages from Branden. Reed loves hearing his Uncle Branden through is camo bear.
More legos! This is a Cars set that has Mac, Doc & Lightning McQueen. It is definitely a favorite right now. Reed loves legos, I feel like we have almost every set you can buy.

Reed also loves camo. Gigi got him a new pair of camo pants and before we could blink he had his pants off wanting the camo pants on! Crazy kid!

Reed got this cool road mat to drive his trucks and cars on. Before Christmas he was always asking us to build a road for his cars, so this has been great to have! He also got an ambulance and a tow truck the light up and make noise.

Dress Up time! Reed got a policeman & fireman outfit. He is constantly telling us we are under arrest and putting hand cuffs on us!

Reed made Papa be a policeman while he was the fireman.

A great ending to a great Christmas! This year was so much fun! Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a 2 year old is the best and being able to hold a precious one month old at the same time is priceless! We are truly blessed with amazing families! I just can't wait to see what Christmas 2012 will look like!

Christmas at Gran & Grandads

2012-01-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Next up was Christmas at my Mom's house! We had a great lunch together and opened up gifts. Again Reed always knows right where the toys are at each house and he is always the center of attention! This silly hat is one of his favorites at my Mom's house, along with the legos that he dumps out everywhere! :) This little bear, rocking chair is something I was played with as a kid, Reed had fun playing with it.
In the playroom, Mom & Steve had a big choo-choo train set up around another tree, Reed loved it and spent a lot of time in there with Grandad.

Present time, we all set back and watched Reed open up all his gifts. Amy got him this adorable dog sleeping bag, with his name on it. Another Mater truck! I think he was looking at all the pictures on the box. These little trucks and cars are really neat. They are a great size and the more you shake them the faster they go. Reed is constantly playing with them.

I think Reed's favorite present of all, or at least it got the best reaction was this Olivia set. I don't know why or how it really started but this is Reed's VERY favorite cartoon (a cartoon about a family of pigs)! He loves having the whole family and their car to drive them around in. He usually runs to get them when he is watching them on tv. Graham in his little Santa outfit!Gran, Reed & GrahamReed got lots more I didn't get pictures of and Graham got clothes and some great toys he will soon be able to play with. With had a great time spending the afternoon with Mom, Steve & Amy! If you can't tell Reed and Graham are to very spoiled and loved little boys. We are so thankful for great family that takes care of them.

Christmas Morning

2012-01-14T09:10:00.001-08:00

Before Graham was born I spent SO much time trying to find matching pajamas that I loved. Their sizes are so different right now I didn't have luck finding matching ones, but I found coordinating ones and I think they turned out pretty cute. Reed decided he would hold Graham for a quick picture and I was so excited to get a cute one! I am sure they will both hate me one day for taking this picture! After this we were off to bed so Santa could come. We talked to Reed a lot about Santa and how it would all work and he seemed to understand, and for weeks he had been saying, "Santa is bringing me a helmet (football helmet)!" That is all he wanted he said! On Christmas morning though Reed seemed to be confused (maybe just overwhelmed)! He kept saying, "Who bought this?" Which is one of his favorite questions right now. We had to keep telling him that Santa came. I know if he totally got it this year, but it was so fun watching him get excited about every gift!

Reed's gifts!

Everyone else's gifts!
Reed was super excited about his 4-wheeler! He got one just like Daddy's! He already has a jeep to ride outside, but it doesn't go very fast a we are constantly helping him get unstuck because it doesn't have good traction. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on another big toy, but I was super excited when I found this on Craigslist (it looks brand new & we saved $100)! It has a turbo speed and goes up to 5 mph. Reed loves it!
After running over all of his gifts and ramming into the dining room table across the room! Reed decided to open his stocking first. Toothpaste, bath crayons, movies, candy & more.

Next up! Santa brought a Razorback helmet and a whole razorback outfit including pads!
Can you see that smile? He was so happy to finally have his helmet!Our little football player (and crazy dog, that had to be right in the middle of the action).A toolbox! Josh's parents started a special tradition with him & his brother where they bought a nice tool for them every Christmas. So Josh wanted to do the same for Reed & Graham. I love the idea, it was so nice for us to have so many great tools when we got married. This year we got them each a small tool box to start off with and Reed also got a set of screwdrivers. Fishing game! Which by the way is the best $3.88 I ever spent, thank you Black Friday! Reed loves this game and is really good at it! It is actually kind of hard and makes me dizzy.
Graham hung out in my lap while Reed opened his gifts and then woke up just in time to watch big brother open his! Watching big brother open his new cell phone he will get to play and chew on in a couple of months (can I just say it is REALLY hard to buy for a 1 month old). Santa couldn't not bring him something though!

Watching very intently! So cute!

Me & my boys Such a special day! I love Christmas at home, just the 4 of us! Something I always dreamed of, but still can't believe I have 2 kiddos!

So Reed made it through opening gifts, but could not wait to get outside and ride his 4-wheeler, no matter how cold it was!

Graham took another nap while Reed played with all his toys and we ate breakfast

This is how Reed ran around all morning! He loves being a football player and tackling Daddy!

We had a great morning together as a family and then we packed up and headed to Sheridan for the day for Christmas lunch at Grans and dinner at Gigis!

Christmas Eve at Papaw's

2012-01-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve we headed to my Dad's for Christmas #2. It was just us, so it was very laid back and simple. As soon as we got there Reed went straight for the toys!

Then it was time for presents. Reed got a Mobigo, which is a small computer, gaming type system. He loves it and I was amazed how well he could work it, considering he is not a techie kiddo. He also got a Cars game to go with it!He also got a play computer that he likes to get out when I am working on my laptop.Showing Aunt Amy how to work the Mobigo.Graham in his little elve shirtAunt Amy & Graham
Another attempt at a family picture

Papaw & Reed

Nina & Reed

Aunt Amy & her favorite nephews again! :)

Did you notice Reed always has a normal, cute face with everyone but us! He always has to make his cheese face! Silly boy! We had a great time with Dad & Donna, it was nice to have a relaxed night before the big day!

Christmas Eve....more family traditions made

2012-01-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

First up a Happy Birthday Jesus cake. I felt like this would be one good way to help Reed understand the real meaning of Christmas and something we can do every year together as a family. Reed helped me bake the cake. He loves anything he can spray, so lets just say there was no way this cake was sticking to the pan! :) I decorated the cake while Reed took a nap and Reed help add a few sprinkles (or a lot)! I am not a professional cake decorator, so don't judge.

I think the cake turned out great and Reed loved it. He was so excited about singing Happy Birthday to Jesus...so sweet!

Reed blowing out the candle for Jesus

Christmas Eve morning, along with baking a cake, we also prepared cookies for Santa. I took the easy way out and bought the pre-made ones, but it worked out great because Reed could really do them all by himself.

In true Reed fashion I turned around and he was eating the cookie dough!

Placing the cookies on the plate, I won't mention how many got eaten...Reed loves cookies like his Mommy!

All done!
Having another cookie....he didn't want to smile with the cookies
A few cookies & milk for Santa!

Christmas Eve Eve

2012-01-11T12:57:00.001-08:00

Let the Christmas post begin! Since the 1st of January life as been a little crazy because I had to close the books for year end, along with lots of year end projects that I had to complete. Graham and I spent several days at the office and Aunt Amy was nice enough to come over and help out a couple of days. As of today I am done...finally, so I am going to try to catch the blog up.

For the last several years we have had the Baker/Sites/Witherow Christmas at our house on Christmas Eve. Our church has a wonderful candlelight service that we all attend and then come back to our house to exchange a few small gifts and eat of course. Well this year we decided to attend the service on Christmas Eve Eve. I think it worked out great, we got to spread out the fun and not cram everything in, in such a short period of time.

Family picture at church.....the best we got!

Back at the house, Reed helping Gran decorate a snowman cookie cake

All the food, at one point I was afraid we weren't going to have enough....umm I think we had plenty for 7 people! We decided just to do appetizers since it was so late and everything was SO good!

Present time! I didn't get many pictures at this point, but this is Reed opening up is Hungry Hippo game, that he loves playing.

Playing Hungry Hippo with Grandad

Graham & Daddy hanging out

Gran & Reed.....everyone always says they look a lot alike. I definitely see it!

Graham & Gigi

Aunt Amy & her favorite nephews!

Sisters...I did have heels on and Amy already had her shoes off (I am really not a giant)

Mom & her girls (I took my shoes off before this one)

1 Month Old

2011-12-28T21:17:00.001-08:00

How is it possible that Graham is already a month old? Time as flown by! He is such a sweet little guy and already spoiled rotten by everyone. We can't imagine life without him!

At birth we thought Graham looked completely different from Reed, but the older he gets the more similarities we can see. They have so many of the same features, but still look different. They have the same nose, mouth and chin for sure. Right now we think they have different eyes, Graham's seem to be more round like mine, but right now they seem to be getting lighter like they may be blue like Reed and Josh. They also have different hair lines and of course Graham has quite a bit more hair than Reed did. The verdict is still out on whether he will lose it or not like Reed did.
Some of the pictures I took are kind of blurry. I am not the best at taking pictures of a squirmy infant. But this one I had to post to show the chubby double chin. He looks so big here, but when you see Reed at this age, Graham looks skinny! Reed was CHUBBY! Graham is getting very strong, holding up his head and bearing some weight on his legs already.
He is wearing size 1 diapers. I moved him up maybe a little early around 2 1/2 weeks, but I learned with Reed how fast they grow and I didn't want to open another box of newborn diapers. Wearing all 0-3 clothes, I have already cleaned out the newborn clothes! Reed was still wearing newborn clothes at this point, although he looked bigger, I think Graham is longer.
Still getting up mostly every 3 to 3 1/2 hours at night. He as had a couple of longer stretches between feedings but he either hasn't been sleeping during the longer stretches or I have been holding him. By this point Reed was only getting up once a night, so I am doing my best to tell myself it won't last forever. The biggest problem right now is he doesn't like to go to sleep after he eats at night. So a lot of times I just have to end up holding him to get any sleep. Graham and I sleep in our bedroom and the couch as become Josh's bed so he can get good rest to go to work. Thankfully I function pretty well on little sleep and its a good thing since I normally get at most 4 to 6 hours of broken sleep....it soon will pass!

During the day he will go longer than 3 hours a lot of the time, but I usually wake him up. I don't go longer than 4 hours during the day. I really think he still has his days and nights mixed up. The last few nights we have purposely kept him up after 8 o'clock or so and I feed him at 10. He has still be staying awake until midnight or so, but going back to sleep after the middle of the night feedings better. So far EVERY day has been different, but we will get to a schedule eventually!
Just starting to see a few smiles in the last couple of days! I caught a couple, but the pictures are blurry!
The biggest difference for me so far is that Graham spits up WAY more than Reed ever did. I literally barely used a burp clothes with Reed and never had to think about packing extra outfits. However, I always have to have burp cloths and extra clothes on hand with Graham. He doesn't really projectile and it is not really a lot, but if you are not ready you might get wet. It also causes quite a bit of fussiness, but I have learned when to make him burp. I now know what the fussy sounds are when he just needs to burp.
Loves bath time. As long as the water is warm he doesn't fuss at all and will just lay there. We have been bathing him ever other night with Reed and Reed loves sharing the bath.
Loves the big Mam paci like his brother. I tried every kind again and he liked the 6 month Mam paci right off the bat like Reed. It took me 10 weeks to discover it with Reed and only 2 with Graham! Becoming more and more alert and staying awake a lot longer during the day. He turns his head towards our voices and will just look at us with his sweet little face.
And of course I had to add a picture with the bear, just like we did with Reed!

Now for the Graham, Reed comparison! As you can see Reed was our little chubby, white guy! Graham has stayed more olive, not sure where he gets that, because Josh and I are as white as they come! :) So fun to see how much they look alike, but still so different (eventually I will learn how to but the pictures side by side maybe)! You can see Reed's complete 1 month post here for more pictures. Two of the most precious faces I have ever seen! Adjusting to two boys has been pretty easy so far and of course Reed being an amazing big brother is really what as made it so easy! He is crazy about Graham and hasn't been jealous for one second. We are so BLESSED and can't wait to see what the future holds for our family of 4!

2 Weeks Old

2011-12-28T19:33:00.001-08:00

I will do a more formal update on Graham's 1 Month Post, but I wanted to post these pictures so you can compare how much he grew in 2 weeks! I have these Picky Sticky Numbers I will be using each month to document, new fun stuff they didn't have when Reed was born!

Already pulling his head up!

So little!

Phone Pics from the first few weeks!

2011-12-28T17:23:00.001-08:00

Second night home

Outfit that Gran got me, only wore it once! :(
Such a sweet face (not an i-phone pic, but had to slip it in).
Deer Hunting Shirt, Daddy bought!
First time in the bouncy seat, holding his own paci.

Paci face, this paci didn't last long.

This paci is the favorite, just like big brother.

Reed wore this same outfit, you can compare them here.

Getting his hair done by big brother!

Another one of Reed's outfits!
First time at church only 6 days old.Funny Face Sleeping on the couch

Sleeping in Mommy's arms

After bath, can you see how curly his hair is when it is wet?

10 seconds later and he is out!Kind of a smile, cutie pie!All ready to go shopping with Mommy on a cold day! Hanging out with Daddy!

Hanging out with Big Brother in front of the tree! Reed loves him SO much and always wants to be right beside him! Makes my heart melt! Worn out after the Christmas Eve Service at Church!

I picked this outfit out just for Christmas before he was born and it looked cuter than I ever imagined!

School Christmas Party

2011-12-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Reed had a fun Christmas Party at school a couple of Fridays ago and the parents were invited. This was my first time to attend anything at his school during the day! Let's just say WOW the patience involved in being a teacher of 12, 2 1/2 and 3 year olds is beyond me! But it was a ton of fun and really neat to see Reed interact with all of his friends. First up, a craft to glue hay around baby Jesus! When his teacher passed out glue bottles to every child, I almost died! What they all use glue, by themselves? Reed did great, with very little help from me.
Next up, cupcake and juice time! Reed's favorite as you can imagine!

Showing off his snowman that was on top of the cupcake! :)

Then it was time for presents! They all sat down and drew numbers.

This is not the best picture, but Reed got a bug as his gift! I had never seen these things, but they are little battery operated bugs that run across the floor super fast and turn around when they bump into things. Reed loved it; however, I haven't seen the bug in several days....I think it is already gone!

This is what I made for Reed to take to the party! Rice Krispy Reindeer! I thought they turned out pretty cute! I kind of combined several recipes I found on Pinterest, so I can't take full credit for them.

Everyone in the class brought treats for each other and instead of them all having a bag of goodies to go home with his teacher just made it a free for all and passed EVERYTHING out in front of them. There was candy and cookies everywhere and they were all going to town.

This is Montgomery, Hulse and Olivia. 3 of Reed's best friends in class. Montgomery goes to church with Reed and her Mom and I met in Aqua Moms when we were pregnant and they were born on the same day. Hulse and Olivia are twins and they live in our same neighborhood so in the summers we run into them a lot at the park. Hulse and Reed are buddies for sure and lets just say Olivia is the first girl I saw Reed kiss!

I had to add this picture! Any time they go any where outside of the class room they all line up and have to walk with their hands behind their back. It is so cute!

It was a very fun morning and I can't wait for more parties to attend!

Gingerbread Train

2011-12-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

This year I really tried to focus on starting our own family traditions. I felt like this was the first year that Reed would be able to really participate, so first up a gingerbread house. However, when I saw this gingerbread train I knew this was more up Reed's alley.

Cutting the pieces and preparing them to be ~~glued~~ frosted together. I saw on a blog the day I bought this a family that had hot glued their gingerbread together.....so glad I saw that trick, it saved us a ton of time drying and a big mess of icing!

All ready to be decorated

In true Reed fashion WAY more candy went in his mouth then on the train! All we could do was laugh! He kept saying just "one more piece!" We hear that a lot when it comes to candy! :)

Oh why not, a little icing too!

Graham hung out in my lap while we decorated!

Eating MORE candy!

And more icing!

No, not the train! He was really going to eat it....crazy boy!

This is the "just one more piece" face!

The finished product! Reed continued to sneak pieces of candy off the train until we got rid of it!

Only one piece left!

2011-12-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

My Mom got Reed this cute Christmas Train to count down the days until Santa comes! There were 24 doors on the train and each door had a piece of candy in it, so of course Reed was all about it and most days he was barely out of bed before he was saying my "choo-choo train candy!"

This morning we opened the last piece! Reed is so excited for Santa to come!

Breakfast with Santa

2011-12-24T13:03:00.001-08:00

Last year we had such a great time going to Breakfast with Santa, I was so sad when I realized while I was still pregnant that this year the event was the weekend after my scheduled c-section. I kept it in the back of my mind and held out hope that we could still possibly go. I know, I know a 5 day old out in public, especially around a million other kids, but I was determined for Graham to be able to meet Santa this year! Children's Hospital puts on the event every year and it is very popular, but lots of fun with crafts for the kids, fire trucks parked out front and of course Santa himself!

So after we got home from the hospital on Wednesday, I started asking Josh if he would be willing to let us go! We had our plan, we would try to get there as early as possible and keep Graham in his carseat covered up and have someone else stand in the Santa line for us. I am happy to say that everything worked out perfectly! We were running about 15 minutes late so my Mom got there and stood in line and when we got there we sat down and ate breakfast with Reed and shortly after it was our turn to see Santa. Reed was so excited and couldn't wait to ask Santa for a helmet. That has been his request every time you ask him what he wants Santa to bring him, a Razorback Helmet.

So getting up early and getting 2 kiddos ready and out of the house by 8:15 was ALL worth it for this picture! I was so excited that we got such a good picture! So even though Graham didn't wake up to see Santa we will always get to tell him that he was 5 days old the first time he sat on Santa's lap.

We also tried hard to get a family picture and this is the best we got, not so good!

But this picture of all of us turn out great, thanks for all your help Gigi, Aunt Amy, Gran and Grandad!

After all the fun inside we moved outside to let Reed see the fire truck.

Then he wanted to sit in Santa's sleigh, he loved the reindeer! He has a little obsession with "Bucks" because of all the deer hunting Josh did this year. So to him reindeer are bucks!

Reed and Daddy being silly!

Doctor Check-Up

2011-12-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

When Graham was 8 days old we took him for his first pediatrician check-up! When we left the hospital on day 3, Graham had lost down to 6 lbs 14 oz, exactly what Reed was when he came home! When we took Reed to his first check-up on day 12 he weighed 7 lbs 9 oz, so I was totally prepared for Graham to still possibly be below his birth weight. However, to my surprise Graham weighed 7.12! I was shocked! He gained 14 ounces in less than 6 days!

We got a perfect report from Dr. Duke and won't see him again until Graham is 2 months old.

Me & my baby boy waiting on the doctor

Doctor Duke checking Graham out

Graham's First Bath

2011-12-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Although Graham's little belly button had not fell off we decided to give him a quick sponge bath, needless to say he didn't enjoy it! These pictures remind me so much of Reed's first bath . Now that his belly button has fallen off and he can be submerged in water he seems to enjoy baths and Reed loves sharing the bath tub!

I die laughing every time I look at this picture, Graham's face is too funny! Proud Big Brother (cheese face) after helping with Baby Graham's bath. All clean and happy!

The Rest of our Hospital Stay

2011-12-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Morning we woke up and I couldn't wait to be told I could get out of bed! My doctor came in around 8:30 and the nurses came in around 9 to get me up. A shower has never felt so good! Graham was in the nursery getting checked out by the pediatricians so Josh and I walked the halls for a little while and went and got Graham. When we got back to the room a photographer was there to take pictures. The hospitals now have professional photographers from Bella Baby take pictures of all newborns. For pictures taken in the hospital room I think ours turned out great! Below are my favorites.

Right when we were finishing up Big Brother was back! He couldn't wait to see his little brother again. My Mom, Aunt Cara and Amy came by for a little while.

Graham & Aunt Cara

Tuesday was a pretty laid back day, we spent most of the day just the 3 of us. Graham got circumcised in the late afternoon and it was so sad. We had never heard him cry the way he did when they brought him back to the room. He just wanted to be held! That night Josh's Mom and Mrs Vicky & Mr Mike came by to visit, unfortunately we forgot to take a picture.

Wednesday Morning Dr. Cockrum came in and told us we could go home! I just needed to get my staples out from my incision and Graham needed to be released by the pediatrician.

Dr. Cockrum & Graham

Getting ready to go home!

All ready to go!

We made it home safely and we were so excited to finally be home! The 3 of us enjoyed a couple of hours together and then we went to pick up big brother from school!

Hanging out with my little man AT HOME for the first time!

Reed was so excited to have Graham in the car and we were so excited to finally have our family of 4 all together!

Reed & Graham watching cartoons together when we got home! Reed's request was for Graham to sit right beside him!

Graham's First Day

2011-12-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

So once we had a little family time, just the 4 of us, everyone else headed back to the room. My sister made this adorable wreath to welcome everyone!

Aunt Amy & Gran holding Graham for the first time!
Gigi's turnand Uncle BrandenHe was just so precious and everyone agreed he looked so different from Reed when he was bornI stared at his little face as much as I could, you just forget how amazing it is! One second they are in your stomach and the next second they are in your arms! How does anyone not believe in God?Seeing all his hair up close for the first time, we just thought Reed had a lot! I am a believer that heartburn means hair! :) I had it so bad this pregnancy!We decided to uncover him and see all his little parts, probably not the best idea! A nurse came in shortly after to take his tempature and it was to low so I had to do skin to skin with him to warm him up! Oops, we learned our lesson!
He was SO PERFECT! The longest little fingers and toes and a cute little nose and lips! Big Brother taking a look at Baby GrahamShortly after delivery the spinal I had received started wearing off and we were moved to another room. By this time it was just the 3 of us. Reed had gotten up very early so my Mom and sister took him to school so he could have a nap and play with his friends for a while and everyone else left for a little while to go get lunch. Shortly after everyone left I started getting sick. Every time I moved it seemed like I would get sick. I also started itching like crazy! The morphine in the spinal makes me itch when it starts wearing off. I think I am allergic to it, because even after receiving a shot of benadryl I was still itching like crazy and it lasted until about 4 am the next day. Needless to say I was very uncomfortable! By late afternoon, and several gown and blanket changes later I was feeling better and able to eat. Daddy changing the first diaper!Harry was nice enough to bring us lunch and Sherlyn, Joy & Kristie came to visit too. Unfortunately they got to watch me itch like I was a crazy person and when I sat up to hand Graham to Harry I got sick! Later the Barnards came by to visit! Some how we only ended up with a picture of Ashley, but Bryan, Deacon and even Baby Finley were there!After school Big Brother came back and he couldn't wait to give Baby Graham some more hugs & kisses!Then he announced to the room and Baby Graham that he was going to read him a book! He wanted to sit with Baby Graham ALL. BY. HIMSELF!Gigi had gotten Reed the coolest Truck book and he wanted to read it to Graham and that he did! It was so sweet!My 3 boys! Love them to pieces! Aunt Amy came back!and Gran!Look at the hair! Graham was born with a little mullet! He has hair about 1/2 inch over his ears and it hangs over his shirt in the back! Reed lost all his, so I am enjoying every inch of it for now and hoping he doesn't lose it all!Papaw also came back to visit! We are blessed to have all of our immediate family here and such amazing friends to love on us during this special time!

Welcome Graham Scott Baker

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Monday morning we were up bright and early and ready to go, but not before one last belly picture!

Just like with Reed, we were a few minutes late so the nurses were waiting on us when we got there and I was quickly into a gown and in the bed!

Then the fun began! First it took literally about 10 minutes to find Graham's heartbeat with the monitors. He was moving around so I knew he was fine and it had taken my doctor several minutes to find his heartbeat at my last couple of appointments so I didn't get to nervous. Next, it was time to get my IV in. The same nurse that did my IV for Reed's birth came in. I showed her about where my IV was last time and she started. Next, thing I knew she was pulling the needle out and trying again. Then that attempted failed, that is when I started panicking. I have only had two IVs and my veins have never been missed, not fun. A second nurse came in and tried again in the same arm and missed for a third time. By this point it was getting late and we were starting to run behind. So the third nurse, that was to be my nurse through the c-section came in and tried for a fourth time in the side of my left hand. It hurt like nothing I have ever felt before. It was a horrible spot for an IV, but due to the time crunch they said they had to do what they had to do.

Here is a picture of my arms. You can count the red dots on my right arm. Now just imagine my whole right arm black and blue.

Big Brother arrived! He was so excited and very curious about everything that was about to happen!

The last picture just the 3 of us!

Last sister pic!

Over the weekend I had told Reed I was going to have a big boo-boo, so we thought it would be fun to buy Reed a doctor's kit so he could help take care of me. He loved it and one of the nurses even brought him some real doctor stuff to add to his kit.

Playing with Papaw!

Josh and I ready to go! Shortly after this picture I completely broke down! I was so nervous about getting the spinal and I just wanted everything with Graham to be okay. Everything up until this point had gone by so fast and it had only been about an hour and a half and we were about to go to the OR and actually I walked myself there!

After a walk down to the OR and one last kiss from Josh, I was on the table getting all good and numb. Josh came in and the next thing we heard was this little voice screaming away!

A picture showing the clock on the wall and the time he was born 7:44 am. From the time I left my room, until he was born was only 14 minutes and then we were back in the room at exactly 8 am.
Getting cleaned up and still screaming! Josh and I both immediately looked at each other and thought that he looked so different than Reed did when he was born.

Graham weighed 7.7 lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long.

So happy to be holding my second, healthy baby boy!

Reed quickly came running back to our room after he was born and we spent a few minutes just the 4 of us. Reed was so excited to hold Graham!

Our first picture as a family of 4!

Kisses for Baby Graham!

Proud Parents to 2 precious baby boys!

The Time Has Come!

2011-11-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Well ready or not Baby Graham Scott Baker will be here in less than 12 hours!! I am feeling so many emotions I don't know what to do! I have had a list a mile long this week I think just to keep my mind off the fact that our lives are about to change more than we could ever imagine. I am so much more nervous this time, not really sure why. I think it is a mixture of knowing what's ahead, wanting everything to be okay and making sure Reed has very thing he needs.

Well regardless of how I am feeling the bags are packed (or will be completed soon), cookies for nurses and visitors are ready, scrapbook page for guest to sign is complete, Reed's goodie bag is ready to go and Reed is with Aunt Amy for the night!

We have to be at the hospital by 5:30 and the c-section is scheduled for 7:30. We (or maybe just I, when Reed was born it was the 1st and only time Josh has blogged) will update as soon as we can.We are so lucky to have so many friends and family to share tomorrow with and we can't thank everyone enough for everything you have already done for us! We love you all!

Sneak Peak-Graham's Nursery

2011-11-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

The nursery is still not 100% complete, but it is so close that it may be done before we get home from the hospital or within the next few days. I know it will be complete soon and I really am not worried about it at all, but I thought I would show a few things. I am loving it more every day!

I was a little worried about using the same room that the two nurseries would look to much a like. I really wanted Reed and Graham to each have a special, different room. We didn't even change the paint color and I think they are completely different.

The room has a modern safari theme! The fabric was one of the first ones I found when I started looking and I have loved it from the second I saw it. We decided to add a tree to the wall behind the crib to tie in the theme.

View of the crib wall. There will be letters added with Graham's name soon, they should be in the mail any day.

Close up of the bumpers and sheet

The sheet is a teeny tiny print of the larger animal print.

Close up of the tree! I love how it turned out and knowing that it cost me $6 makes it twice as great. I used a projector to project a picture of the tree I found on the Internet and then bought green and brown paint samples that were 40% off and used the sample paint to paint it on the wall!

Stripped curtains, same fabric from the crib skirt and bumper cording

The next two pictures are prints I found on etsy. I was worried about having to spend tons of money framing them and I walked in Michaels and these were literally the first frames I saw. I was a little worried the green would be to bright or not look right, but I think they turned out perfect just what I imagined.

Cute little Alligator bank I bought months ago, I knew it would be perfect.

This is a picture frame that I have had forever that I used the leaf paint on and then added his monogram and cute elephant from Hobby Lobby.

Two stuff animals to match. The giraffe my mom bought and the elephant I saw at a local fabric store months ago, it was a little expensive so I didn't buy it at the time, but I couldn't stop thinking about how perfect it would be so I went back and got it this week.

Still to come the dresser made by Josh's Dad, Graham's name for over the crib, a changing pad made out of the animal print and 4 paintings being done on 14X14 canvases to hang above the dresser, by one of my friends from college! I can't wait to show the finished room!

Reed & Daddy

2011-11-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Reed looked so cute last Sunday, so we tried to get a cute picture with Daddy! I got Reed his first pair of dress shoes and he was so excited! He loves having shoes like Daddy and he calls them his church shoes! He wanted to wear them last Sunday so we had to find something dressy enough for him to wear with them!

I can't believe we will have 2 little boys so soon!

Baby Showers!

2011-11-26T05:47:00.000-08:00

The girls at church hosted a baby shower for me to celebrate Baby Graham! They went above and beyond, it couldn't have been cuter, from the great food to adorable decorations!

Cupcakes, so fun to see Graham's monogram

Wonderful food, everything was so good!

Diaper Cake, I loved the little animals, they are now decorated Graham's first Christmas tree!

When it was time to open gifts two special guests arrived, via Skype, Lauren and Riley! It was so sweet of Christina to do this! It was so fun getting to see them!

We got so many great gifts! Lots of monogrammed stuff which I love! I was so worried about Graham not having as many special things as Reed, but he may have ended up with more!

Special Blanket that my sister got me! It coordinates with the nursery perfectly! Amy also bought Reed a blanket and it is favorite, his "bye-bye" as he calls it!

For the hostess gift I found a cute idea on Pinterest! I made Christmas ornaments by taking a wooden block and mod podging paper with girl's last name initial on one side, pictures on two sides (that I stole from their Facebook pages) and a bible verse on the 4th side. I thought they turned out so cute, but I didn't take any pictures when I made them so I thought I would share here.

Me and the hostesses!

I love these girls to death and I am so lucky to have them as friends.

Mom & Sister

Gigi & Gran

Halloween 2011

2011-11-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

So I decided Reed was too cute in his Halloween costume not to go back and share a few! Our church has a great Fall Festival that we went to and Reed had a blast, but first we tried our best to get a few cute pictures of Mater (Reed's favorite character right now). As you can see Reed is the typical 2 1/2 year old boy and doesn't sit still for anything! I have had to just let go of getting the perfect picture every time!

First Josh took him in the back yard and tried to get a picture!

Then we went to the front!

Then we tried once we got to the church!

You get the point! :) I think they all show see silly, fun personality!

Family Picture

With Gigi

Once we got to the church Reed loved walking around looking at all of the other kids in costume!

Then he spotted the bounce house! The costume came of and he started sliding over and over!

Sliding with Kaleb & Montgomery (they are in class together at school too)

Once we finally got him pulled away from the bounce house Reed decided he wanted to play some games.....once he figured out games = candy, he was all about it!

On Halloween night we took Reed around the neighborhood to about 10 houses and he had a blast. He would get a little shy when the neighbors would come to the door, but he would usually say "Trick-or-Treat" and thank you. Then he would turn around and say can we do more trick or treat! He loved the candy!!

I didn't take any pictures while we were walking, but this is a pictures when we got home! He still ask for a piece of trick or treat candy! All in all we had a great Halloween!

Reed's Big Boy Room

2011-11-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

I just realized I never posted Reed's Big Boy Room pictures!

This is the big boy bed I found on craigslist for $100! I got a cheap comforter, so I wouldn't always be stressing about it getting dirty or messed up and then spent a little more on the shams and sheets from pottery barn (which I used debit card points for).

I think the curtains look even better in this room because the window is so much bigger. Tonja also made a bed skirt to match. I think it all tied together great! I love that we got to reuse so much from his nursery. The baseball men I found at Hobby Lobby and I bought a lamp at Target. Besides the bed stuff, those are the only two things I had to buy.

We rehung the bats Josh had made for the nursery and of course the amazing dresser that Josh's Dad made, that I still love to death and now Graham has one too!

This shelf is something we had added to Reed's room before we moved him to help organize toys and books. It fit perfectly on the wall between the door and the closet!

Reed's Tree! I found a star this year, maybe next year I will finally find a tree skirt.

New Cars ornament this year from Gigi, my Mom also got him some Cars ornaments but I didn't get a picture of them.

Reed loves his room and we do too! I think the hardest part was finding a paint color....if you know me you are not surprised. I think we went through 5 colors, but I think we finally found the perfect one.

Pregnancy #2-Graham Scott Baker

2011-11-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

Well, we were so excited to find out on March 28th that we were expecting our second baby! We were beyond thrilled and decided to share the news with everyone at Reed's 2nd Birthday Party. We had a family party at our house so it was the perfect time, except that it took everyone forever to notice Reed's Big Bro shirt! In fact I finally had to tell my Dad to read the shirt and he was very shocked and so was everyone else!

Then on July 5th, we were able to find out we were expecting our 2nd baby BOY! By the time the day arrived Reed had me convinced that it was a boy because he would only say he was having a baby brother. You could ask him, "Are you having a sister or a sister?" and he would still say brother! We decided it would be fun to have a little reveal party for the family so my sister made some cookies with colored cake balls in the center for everyone to bite into. They turned out so cute and everyone loved finding out together.

We were so excited to see this little profile!

We finally decided on a name in September. I have always loved the name Graham and Josh liked it right away, but there were several other names we considered for a while. We just had a hard time deciding. For some reason it was weird giving him a name, very different from naming Reed when I practically knew all my life that if I had a little boy that's what his name would be. But we finally settled on Graham and Josh wanted to use Scott after his brother's middle name. I think they go great together and I am totally in love with his name now, Graham Scott Baker!

This pregnancy has been VERY different from Reed's. It started off very similar, I didn't show much until 24 weeks or so (I was 25 weeks pregnant when we went to the beach in the previous post), I gained about the same amount of weight, Graham's heartbeat was always around 140 like Reed, and I measured right on track every week. With Reed I had what I would consider mild heartburn and with Graham I had a few days where I could barely eat it was so bad! Then around week 30 once I started getting bigger I started having so much pressure and I knew right away that Graham was head down. Reed was always breech and I never experienced anything like this. I have also had lots of braxton hicks contractions (a couple of nights ago I was able to time them every 2 minutes for 40 minutes) and never had one with Reed. 2 weeks ago during my 36th week I got very sick and was so sick I called the doctor and they wanted to check on dehydration. The nurse practitioner went ahead and did a full appointment and I had lost 4 lbs in 4 days and we had a little scare when she measured Graham at only 34 weeks and 4 days earlier I had measured 36. After an ultrasound everything checked out fine and Graham measured exact to the day! Once I got well, it was like my body held on to everything I ate and I got SO swollen! I did swell with Reed, but I had never seen anything like this! I am happy to report now the swelling as subsided and at least to a stranger my hands and feet look normal. I am feeling great and we are just SO excited to meet our Baby Graham in 4 days!

I can't really decide if my belly is the same size as it was with Reed or maybe a little smaller. Monday at my last appointment I actually only measured 37 weeks and I should have been 38 and 1 day. I want to guess that Graham is going to be a little smaller, but I only gained 1 lb less this pregnancy and it is Thanksgiving week (with no weigh in before delivery.....I couldn't have timed this better)! So I guess everyone will have fun guessing his size!

Here I am at 31 and 37 weeks pregnant. I took them wearing the same outfit to try to compare. I haven't been very good about taking pictures. I had taken several more in the mirror myself but unfortunately I just lost all of my pictures and videos off my phone.

Up next pictures from the 2 wonderful showers we were blessed with and a sneak peak at Graham's nursery! It most likely won't be 100% by the 28th, but it will be very close and will possibly be 100% by the time we come home from the hospital!

Reed at 2 and a 1/2

2011-11-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

So once Reed turned two in April, the summer fun began!

The weekend of Memorial Day Reed starting telling us he needed to go to the potty, so we sent him to school in underwear for the first time and that was pretty much it! He had a little trouble for a couple of weeks with #2, but that quickly ended and he was doing great! He also learned quickly that he likes having a book while he goes potty and he didn't like sitting when he went pee-pee so we saw a lot of this.....

and this....

We still have some accidents of course, but 95% of the time they are during nap time and at home he just doesn't want to stop playing to go so we have accidents then too. Around this time he started finally counting to 10 all the way and singing the ABCs to himself, just not for us when we asked him. He started putting on his shoes by himself and this is something he still likes to do and he LOVES shoes!

In June, after showing some fear of water we started Reed in swim lessons! It took several lessons but he finally started loving it and he loved Miss Chelsey his instructor.

This summer Reed finally started watching a little bit of TV. I say that because up until this point Reed would never sit still longer than 5 minutes. I didn't/don't want him watching TV all the time, but it is nice to have him still long enough to get ready to go some where or get dinner started. Reed's first favorite was the movie Cars for about two months he watched it EVERY day after school and sometimes before! Then he started liking the cartoon Olivia, or as he calls it "Piggies." We still watch this cartoon every morning and every afternoon almost! We have a DVR full of every episode.

If we weren't outside playing or at the park, Reed loved playing play-doh and legos. He also still loved his trucks! He could tell us all the different trucks in books and when we were in the car! He would scream out dump truck, garage truck, gas truck, car truck and then he learned his farm equipment. Then he would yell out excavator, digger, backhoe! We were amazed how quickly he learned and how he could tell the difference.

Shortly after turning two the conversations began! Each month his vocabulary and understanding of what was going on around him just continued to grow! He would amaze us week after week with the things he would say, remember and do. We laughed on a daily basis at the things he would say!

Reed continued to not have much of an appetite or want to try new foods. Pretty much all he ate was chicken nuggets and occasionally turkey dogs, spaghetti or poppy seed chicken or some kind of chicken casserole. However, Reed is like his Mommy and loves his sweets. He would beg every day and still does for candy or popsicles! He also loves to drink anything instead of eating! milk, juice and sprite are his favorites.

In July, the "WHY" questions started! Everything was and still is WHY! It can be exhausting at times but we know he is learning and we have just learned to make a game out of it most of the time. Also this month while Josh traveled to Haiti I started putting Reed to bed awake. Up until this point Reed would fall asleep sitting on the couch with us and then we would put him to bed. We had taken his crib front off a month or so ago and I knew he was ready to start being able to fall asleep by himself. He did it every day at school and it was taking him forever to fall asleep watching TV every night. It took a couple of nights but by the third night there were no tears and he fell right to sleep. We would say our prayers together and Reed would go to sleep. Then on Labor Day weekend Reed got to move to a big boy bed in his new room (I need to do a whole post showing off his new room, we love how it turned out)! We had a couple of nights where Reed would show up in our room in the middle of the night, but we would just take him back to his room and he would go right back to sleep.

In August, we went to the beach and Reed loved it! We had so much fun, it was our last trip as a family of 3! We also got a new car and Reed quickly became attached to watching movies in the car. At school Reed is one of the youngest in his class and he missed moving up to a new room with the rest of his friends. So we went through a period where he didn't like going to school. In September, he was finally allowed to move up a little before turning 2 1/2 and he was back to normal. He loves his friends at school and we love his school. It is a Christian Daycare and I love him coming home singing Bible songs and seeing the bible verses they learn each week.

Lately, Reed is still very into playing with trucks, legos and his race cars and race track. He loves all things deer hunting, due to his Daddy. He loves to wear his deer camp pants, orange shirt (which happens to say Trick or Treat) and deer camp boots (camo rain boots). He has a small play 4-wheeler that he loves and plays with all the time. His favorite things to watch are still Cars, Olivia and Clifford. He still only eats chicken nuggets 90% of the time and loves his juice and milk. He is doing great in his big boy bed and lately I have been having to wake him up for school at 7:15. When he wakes up he drinks his milk and watches "Piggies" every day! He goes to bed around 8. After he drinks his milk we lay in bed with him and read a book or two, say prayers and he goes to sleep. I have to mention that Reed is STILL very much attached to his blanket that he calls his "Bye-Bye." At this point he may go to college with it! :) At school, Reed has been having quite a few accidents during nap time, so we have been encouraging him to go in the potty and allowing him to get a prize for going. He loves stopping at the gas station to pick out a treat or going to Sonic to get a drink.

Over the last few weeks we have really been trying to prepare Reed to become a big brother! We talk about Graham constantly and Reed really seems to understand that a baby is going to come out of my belly (it helps having friends with baby brothers and sisters too). His favorite thing to say is that he is going to change poopy diapers. I think he is going to be a great helper. I have a feeling we will have a little bit of jealousy but overall I think he will be very protective and love him to death. A couple of weeks ago I was going through tubs from the attic and found a lovey that had Reed's name on it and he immediately wanted it and started calling it his baby. He even wanted a bottle to feed it. He doesn't have to have it all the time, but he will occasionally ask for his "Baby" and sleep with it or carry it around. So I think we are all caught up with the life of Reed! We love this kid to death and just can't get enough of him! I will try to get a post done on his big boy room soon!

Reed's 2nd Year

2011-11-23T08:49:00.001-08:00

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Reeds First Year

2011-11-23T08:41:00.001-08:00

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It's really me....

2011-11-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

Well, if you still have this blog on your Google Reader account or some how are seeing this it really is me and not a spammer! I guess I should take this time as well to apologize to anyone that has been receiving spam emails from me! I promise I have been trying to fix the account, just don't want to get rid of a 12 year old account.

Anyway, even though it may not seem important to me, documenting Reed's life and soon to be Graham's life is VERY important to me. I previously got so far behind that I just decided to stop, but I continued to jot down at least monthly what Reed was up too. So my solution now is to post links to Reed's 1st and 2nd year Shutterfly books and move forward and do my best to keep up! I don't really know what makes me think I can keep up with a blog with 2 kiddos verses one, but I am going to try.

So here it goes! Watch Reed grow up over the last 2 years through the books and then I will try to catch you up on what we have been up to over the last 6 months!

8 Months

2009-12-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well, due to Reed getting sick the day I planned to take his 8 month pictures, I haven't been able to post. Needless, to say these pictures were taken 2 weeks late, but thankfully I had already jotted down his milestones on the 9th. It is amazing how much as changed since then. It is almost funny reading some of what I wrote, now knowing what he learned the following 2 weeks.

At 8 months Reed is.....

Rolling over and over to get places and get what he wants. Still not crawling, mainly because he hates being on his stomach.
Still no teeth
Babbling so much more and only he knows what he is talking about
Finally saying Da-da again at least every once in a while. He had stopped saying it for over a month.
Said Ma-ma for the first time on November 13th, he says it all the time now...it is the BEST!!
Much more aware of what is going on....if he sees something he wants you can't try to hide it from him, he will try to go where you put it
Tried green beans, asparagus, carrots and squash for the first time. He liked everything except for asparagus. He hated it! I keep trying but he has hated it every time so far.
Eating 5 bottles a day at 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8ish. He has yogurt after his morning bottle and solid foods, normally 2 to 3 cubes, after his 11 and 5 bottles.
Loves mum mums and puffs. Doing great get puffs in his mouth.
This is a funny fact about Reed.....he loves playing with toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. Josh's Mom works at a dentist office so we had a baby toothbrush that Reed as always loved chewing on and now he has three different brushes he chews on. He started liking toothpaste tubes when he would hang out in the bathroom with us while we were getting ready. We handed him one to play with one time and now he goes crazy to get them when he sees the toothpaste tube.

Loves anything shiny, like silver measuring spoons or my mom's watch
Reed will run over you in his walker. He is so fast! He now knows how to run and then coast and bang into things.
He can jump to the moon in his jumperoo. He goes crazy in it.
Gives five when you ask for one and stick out your hand.
Loves tapping and banging on hard surfaces
Started giving hugs
Waved bye-bye to my Mom on November 17th but hasn't really done it that well again. He really thinks about it though when he sees us doing and saying it

Still taking 3 naps a day, but I think he may be transitioning to only 2 naps.
Still doesn't liked to be rocked. We just lay him down when he gets tired and he gets himself to sleep. Normally doesn't make a peep, sometimes he will talk himself to sleep.
Still going to bed around 8 and sleeping great. Lately he has been sleeping past 7, usually around 7:20, but yesterday (12/8) it was 7:50
Not waking up at all during the night, no more paci runs
Wearing 6-9 month clothes, but they are just fitting, we will be moving up sizes soon
Wearing size 2-3 diapers
Will play in the floor for 30 minutes or more just playing with his toys by himself.

We decided to capture a crib picture with the crib lowered all the way down. This will be a good way to measure his growth.

This is our attempt to capture some pictures of Reed in front of his Christmas tree. We gave him the letter to try to distract from the tree.

It didn't last long....

He got it!

We never got a good picture with the whole tree, but here it is.

More first....some good & some not!

2009-12-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

I will start with the not so good! Unfortunately, Reed got sick for the first time and it wasn't just a little stomach bug or snotty nose. He got RSV! On December 11th, which was a Friday, Reed woke up with a little cough, nothing to be worried about at all. Then on Saturday we went to Kaleb's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. He coughed a few times that day, enough that it made us wonder and I called the doctor's office just to see what they thought. Of course they said if he wasn't running fever to just watch him over the weekend and bring him in Monday if he got worse. By Sunday night we had decided that we would take him to the doctor just to be on the safe side. In the middle of the night Sunday the cough had gotten a lot worse and by Monday morning he was wheezing a little. Monday morning I had my mom meet me at the doctor's office and the doctor did confirm that Reed was wheezing, but he said it wasn't to bad and in the upper part of his lungs. He also said that Reed's ears looked perfect and clear. I was so relieved because that was my biggest fear that he had an ear infection. The doctor had us give him a breathing treatment in the office, which was my worst experience so far as a parent. I had to hold a mask, like an oxygen mask, over Reed's face for about 8 minutes. He screamed and kicked the whole time. The doctor sent us home with an inhaler to do as needed and that was it. Well all day Monday Reed was very lethargic and then through out the night his cough was horrible. Every time he coughed it sounded like he was going to throw up. On Tuesday morning I didn't know what to do but I went on to work and left Reed with my Mom again. I called to check on Reed through out the day and each time it sounded like he was getting worse. I also called the doctor's office 3 times on Tuesday each time hoping to get a different nurse that would confirm my concerns that we should bring him back in, but each time they just said if he isn't running fever he should be fine. The nurses also kept saying that sometimes the inhalers and breathing treatments make the cough worse because they break up all the mucus in their chest and make them cough more. Around 2:30 on Tuesday Reed was feeling so bad that I came home to check on him and shortly after coming home he got a low grade fever. My Mom and I just sat there and stared at him and didn't know what to do. He was struggling to breath and only able to drink PediLight because milk was to thick for him to drink and still be able to breath. We just didn't know what to do for him! My Mom thankfully is a home health nurse and had a pulse ox machine in her car, of course it is for adults but she hooked it up to Reed's big toe and the machine read his pulse ox at 93. Of course, I didn't know what that meant and Mom wasn't sure if it was reading right and she didn't know what was bad for infants, but she said 93 for an adult is not great. Finally at 4:15, we decided that we had to take him back to the doctor. I was prepared for them to just look at me like I was a crazy over protective, first time mother, but I had to do it. I just knew something wasn't right, even though I had been reassured by 3 nurses not to worry.

So we are able to make a 5 pm appointment. We get there and a very sweet, petite female doctor walks in, barely looks at Reed and says, "He has RSV!" What?? How, could he have gone from having a minor cough to RSV in 24 hours. The doctor the day before and all 3 nurses NEVER even mentioned a concern of RSV. Every mother would have remembered those 3 letters getting mentioned! She of course had the test ran just to confirm and it was positive. She looked at me and said you did the right thing by bringing him in. Thank goodness we did! Next, she looked at his ears and said both of them were infected. At this point I was freaking out, what the heck is happening to my baby. Then, she has the nurse check his pulse ox and it is 93. So my Mom's machine was right and the nurse says, "Oh that is not good!" Great, now I am scared to death. The doctor comes back in and let us know that he is a VERY sick little boy. She tells us that she doesn't feel he needs to be admitted to the hospital at this time, but he is very close to needing to be. Yikes, this is worse than I ever imagined! We did another breathing treatment in the office and this time Reed just laid there. He was feeling so bad he couldn't fight! We had to purchase a breathing machine so we could continue doing breathing treatments every 2-3 hours during the night. The doctor told us to watch him very closely through the night and if felt he was getting worse at all to take him to Children's. She said she wanted to see him back in the morning to make sure he was doing better. Tuesday night was very scary but a little better than I expected. We sat Reed in his carseat to sleep in our room. We was able to breath a lot easier sitting up. Every 2 1/2 hours during the night Reed woke up having coughing fits. At these times we would get up and do a breathing treatment on him while he slept. He never really woke up or cried during the night he was just coughing so hard it scared us to death. By morning Reed was breathing a little easier but definitely not acting like himself. We took him back to the doctor and the doctor said he still sounded awful but he could tell that he was on the upside of things and that the breathing treatments were helping. He told us to do them every 4 hours until Sunday. Reed still wasn't able or wanting to drink much milk but we did get about 2 out of his 5 bottles down him on Wednesday. Slowly, day by day Reed got to feeling better. We elevated his bed and he was able to sleep in his bed. By Saturday he was taking all 5 of his bottles again but still no solid foods.

The cough continued the week of Christmas. On Christmas Eve morning, he woke up crying and was wheezing pretty bad again. We had to do another breathing treatment and he slept sitting up in our bed that morning. The same thing happen Christmas morning and for the next two days. We decided this past Monday to take him back to the doctor again just to make sure he was really getting better. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't turning into pneumonia and have his ears checked out. He had been pulling on them a little more than normal. The doctor said that he sounded great and that his ears were looking much better just a little fluid left.

Through all this horrible sickness Reed as been a little trooper! He seriously has not cried and fussed hardly at all. After a couple of days of being very lethargic he has been back to normal as far as personality is concerned. He still is not eating much. Since the 15th he has only finished his morning yogurt once or twice and he has only had 3 or 4 whole jars of food at one sitting. We are used to him eating yogurt for breakfast and then 3 or 4 cubes (1 1/2 to 2 jars) of food for lunch and the same for dinner. The only real change has been that Reed has decided that he likes to be rocked/held while he goes to sleep now. He got use to being held while he was sick and now he doesn't like to just be laid down for naps and bedtime. Part of this is also contributed to Reed being able to sit up from a laying position now (more on that later). Anyway, for now I am eating it up! There is nothing like rocking my baby to sleep. He is just so sweet when he is sleepy. He just cuddles with his blanket and usually falls right to sleep, most of the time just a little bouncy on the couch and he is out.

This is a picture of Reed on Wednesday night (not even at his worst) getting a breathing treatment. He quickly learned that they made him feel better so he would just lay there and breath them in.....so sad. Can you see how gray his eyes are? He just looked sick just to look at him!

Well, now on to the other first I alluded to in the title. Reed has had more first in the last two weeks than any other two weeks his whole life. The first one being his firth tooth! When we went to the doctor the first time, on December 14th the doctor put the tongue depressor in Reed's mouth to look down his throat and he said, "I see your little tooth poking through!" I screamed in the doctor's face, "You do!" I know he thought I was crazy. Sure enough I stuck my finger in his mouth (probably not the best idea in front of a doctor, but I didn't think about it until it was too late) and felt a little razor sharp point. We did our best to capture a few pictures once Reed started feeling better. For the last few days we have been noticing his other front tooth right under the gums and today I am pretty sure I felt a second sharp point. He doesn't like us to try to feel, but I am almost positive I did. So Reed has 2 teeth to ring in the new year with!

Can you see the little white speck?

I mentioned that Reed is sitting up from a laying position. This has been a gradual first. I took these pictures on December 5th of Reed pulling on his bumpers trying to sit up and got himself over on his stomach for the first time in his bed.

Then Josh's Mom sent me this picture on December 7th, saying, "Look Mom I sat up by myself after my nap!"

Then two days later my Mom took pictures of him sitting up, hutch over with his head on his knees sleeping. Saturday morning before we left for Kaleb's birthday party we lower the crib to the middle level and then that night he pulled up and was leaning half out of the crib reaching for his Christmas tree in his room. Needless to say we had to lower his crib to the floor that night at 9 pm so we could put him to bed. Then the next week while Reed was sick he perfected the sitting up in the crib and on the floor (no more crunches, like on his 7 month post). We took this picture before the crib got lowered to the floor. We should have known better than to think he wouldn't pull up like this at bedtime. Reed is starting to pull up on things that aren't far above him but he still can't pull up on higher things.

Next 1st, (I told you, Reed has been VERY busy lately) Reed started clapping on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve afternoon we were just hanging out with Amy and Branden they were both home for the holidays and ended up at our house, probably to see Reed more than us, but anyway we were just having a lazy afternoon. Amy was watching Reed play on the floor from the couch and I was walking through the house as I looked over and saw Reed clap his hands together. Amy had said, "Yeah" and Reed just started clapping. Amy didn't realize that he hadn't clapped before until I started saying did he just clap! From that point forward he clapped non-stop all day! I must say it is the most precious thing EVER!! All day on Christmas he would do one little thing and then stop and clap. Now all we have to say is yeah and he starts clapping. I love it!!

This is Reed clapping in Josh's lap before the Christmas Eve church services started! Look at those little chubby hands!

Big claps!

Finally, Reed is crawling!!! This also has been very gradual, but has of today, Reed is crawling more than sitting still! Josh and I know that our whole world as parents is about to change! For some time now Reed has been leaning forward trying to figure out how to get his knees underneath him. He as always hated being on his stomach so as soon as he would get in somewhat of a crawling position he would turn over.

This is a picture of him leaning forward. This was taken on November 29th, so it has been a while in the making!

Right before Christmas Reed started pushing up and getting on his knees but then he couldn't figure out to move forward. He would kind of hopped and rocked forward. He would only try fora few seconds and then he would quite and sit up. On December 17th and 18th he started taking 2 or 3 steps forward and that continued until this past Sunday, December 28th as Josh and I watched him crawl across the living room, but he was still not moving around much. He would still mostly only take a few steps and quite. I got a call from my Mom on Tuesday freaking out because she didn't realize he was moving so much more since Christmas. He had crawled to the kitchen after her. Josh's Mom said he was moving around a lot yesterday and I was home today and he was ALL over the place. I sat him in his room and left him and within less than a minute he was all the way to me in the kitchen across the tile even. I got lots of video, but not any pictures. So on the last day of 2009 Reed officially became a crawler!

This is what Reed would do when he tried to move forward. His leg always went out to the side and he would just sit up.

Here he is rocking on his knees. These pictures were taken on December 23rd.

Our little boy is growing up to fast! He has changed so much in the last couple of weeks. He is becoming a little boy to quick. On top of all the mobility he is babbling up a storm. He added bye-bye this week. He says Da-da and Ma-ma all the time and now he has started with the "b" sounds.

All I can say is we love him to pieces!! It gets better every day!! He is the joy of our life!

Kaleb's 2nd Birthday Party

2009-12-31T08:10:00.000-08:00

On December 12th we had a great time at Chuck E Cheese celebrating Kaleb's birthday. It was fun to see Reed enjoy all the action and get to partake in a little fun riding some of the kiddy rides with his friend Owen.

Reed at the party table, wishing he could have some pizza instead of his baby food!

Kaleb blowing out his candles on his Thomas the Train cake. Such a big boy!

Reed taking Chuck E Cheese for a ride!

Owen's turn

Reed and Owen on a big truck together! Watch out Owen, Reed has a lead foot like his daddy!

How cute are these 2?!?!

Of course all the parents had to play a little ski ball and Jeff wanted to brag on his high score! Notice Josh's score to the left and Kyle's score to the right.

We all had a great time together! Thanks Burn's family for such a fun day!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-31T07:48:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving celebrating with our familes. We have so much to be thankful for this year. We capture several family pictures I wanted to share.

Josh, Reed and I getting ready to eat an amazing Thanksgiving dinner made by Josh's Mom. Of course Reed just settled for Mum Mums.

The whole Baker clan

Just the 3 of us

Fun with Aunt Amy & Uncle Branden

Reed with Gigi and Popa

7 Months

2009-10-13T17:36:00.004-07:00

Well, over two weeks late as usual but I have been thinking about this post non-stop all month. I had plans to take Reed's 7 months pictures a day early after church on the 8th. We had him dressed up in the cutest outfit (hopefully we will get pictures in it for his 8th month pictures), but Reed fell asleep on the way home and we left him in his carseat to sleep, 2 hours later he finally woke up and he was so sweaty and hot that we had to take change him as soon as he woke up. So I ended up taking these pictures the next Sunday after church on the 15th and here it is the 29th and I am finally getting them posted.

Reed just gets sweeter and cuter every day. He is just pure joy and so much fun! His little personality shines through more and more every day. He is constantly doing something that makes us smile and laugh at him.

Such a big boy!

Reed does this move all the time, usually with a little grunt. He hasn't figured out how to get sat back up from a laying position, so after several tries like this we come to the rescue and help him up. It still makes me laugh every time I see him do it.

It is getter much harder to change Reed's diaper, this is usually what happens as soon as we lay him down.

The smile that melts my heart!

Serious face!

Laughing face, blowing bubbles!

And the photo shoot is over. Reed did not want to sit still. I was lucky to get the pictures I did!

At 7 months Reed is....

Sitting up great by himself! The weekend after Reed turned 6 months old was when he really stopped falling to the side when we would sit him up.
Loves playing in the floor with his toys.
Loves jumping in his jumperoo and chasing us and the dogs in his walker.
Still sleeping great. Going to bed around 8 and waking up around 7. Just a side note, that daylight savings time got Reed off track for about 2 weeks. He started waking up about an hour early and I was so worried that his routine was changing. Eventually, he started sleeping 15 to 30 minutes longer and after a couple of weeks he was back to waking up closer to 7. Whoever came up with daylight savings time must not have kids!
Still eating around 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8. Right at 6 months I stopped nursing Reed at night, due to all the fussiness at bedtime. During the month when I was home during the day I would always try to nurse, but if Reed was fussy I would give him a bottle. Over the weeks we eventually were down to only nursing in the morning. Reed seems much happier drinking bottles and I have just had to face the fact that I need to do what Reed wants and not force him to do what I want. I had 130 ounces of frozen milk, but it didn't last long so by 7 months Reed is on mostly formula.
Eating solid foods after his 11 and 5 o'clock bottle. The Friday before Reed turned 7 months I also started giving him yogurt for breakfast after his morning bottle and he loves it.
Started using the high chair this month. We have just been using the bumbo seat, but Reed can now get himself turned over in the seat.
Still very healthy, we are counting our blessings that Reed hasn't been to sick yet. Unfortunately, two nights after I was sick with a 24 hour bug, we woke up to Reed screaming in the monitor. I ran across the house so fast and looked over the crib to find Reed covered in throw up. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. He threw up one other time while we were cleaning him up and then that was it. I was feeling horrible because I thought I had gotten my baby sick and was prepared to be up all night with him. He never ran a fever and just cuddled with me all night and literally woke up smiling from ear to ear the next morning. I had read while I was sick to keep nursing and if your baby gets sick it would be a much lighter case. That is what I did and that's exactly what happen, thankfully.
Still wearing size 2 diapers, but I have bought size 2-3 diapers to start when he runs out of size 2.
Naps are so great now. When Reed gets tired we just take him and lay him in his bed with his soft fleece blanket and he goes right to sleep. He normally has 3 naps a day, lately it has been 45 to 1 hour nap in the morning a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap around noon and a 45 to 1 hour nap around 3 to 4. He still does not like to be rocked. It make me sad, but it is so nice just to be able to lay him down. Sometimes at night he will fall asleep drinking his bottle and I will just hold him just to get my cuddle time in.
Loves blowing raspberries! He said Da-da for a couple of weeks non-stop and now his favorite thing to do is blow bubbles all the time. It is so funny!
Loves mum-mums! He normally has 1 a day for a snack with his juice.
Reaching for whoever he wants to go to more and more, so sweet! We are constantly working on bye-bye and clapping.
Still no teeth. I feel like everyday I am saying any day now. Anytime he is extra fussy or upset we blame it on his teeth. Haha! Josh and I both didn't get our first tooth until we were 9 months old, so maybe he will be a late bloomer like us.
Still doesn't have much interest in crawling. He HATES being on his stomach! As soon as he gets on his stomach he is rolling to his back.
He does do a little crawling on his back! He arches his back and pushes with his feet and hops backwards. For the most part you can sit him down and he doesn't go to far yet!
Still at home with me or his grandmas, we are so lucky!

I also just remembered that I never posted Reed's 6 months stats. We didn't get to go to his 6 month visit until October 20th, because the doctor's office was closed the whole week after he turned 6 months. Anyway, he weighed 18 lbs 2 oz. (55%), he was 26 3/4 in (50%) and his head was 16 1/2 (15%). This visit took forever! The appointment was at 4:00 and we didn't see the doctor until 5:45. Reed did great waiting and did great with his shots, just a few tears. We were bored while we were waiting so we took some pictures with Reed.

Reed with his stats! They always lay him down on the paper and mark his length and measure his head and write it on the paper, so we took a picture.

Reed the next morning before his bath with all 4 of his band-aids on his chubby thighs.

Reed also got his H1N1 shot and he didn't even flinch or cry....such a big boy!

Halloween Day

2009-10-13T17:36:00.003-07:00

On Halloween, Reed enjoyed a fun time in Sheridan visiting family and we also went to trunk or treat at my Mom's church. Unfortunately, the 24 virus I had earlier in the week got passed on to Josh. He woke up eary Saturday morning (Halloween day) sick so he didn't get to enjoy the Halloween fun with us. I also had to work Halloween day for physical inventory count at work, so the day started off pretty crazy. Aunt Amy had planned to keep Reed at our house while I worked, but due to Josh getting sick I had to call Mom and Amy at the last minute and ask them to meet me at work to take Reed back to Sheridan with them so we didn't risk anyone else getting sick. Luckily, Mom and Amy were able to watch Reed all day while I worked and as soon as I could leave I headed to Sheridan so we could start the Halloween fun.

The first stop was Mamaw's house. Everyone loved the little elephant named Reed! The costume didn't last long though. By the time Nanny and Aunt Joan got to Mamaw's house we had to start faking the costume for pictures with only the head piece.

Mamaw and Reed

Nanny and Reed

Aunt Joan and Reed

The next stop was truck or treat. Josh's parents were able to meet mom and I there to see the little elephant too. Unfortunately, on the way to the church Reed feel fast asleep and even after letting him sleep for about 30 minutes in the car he was still exhausted from a full day of playing at Mom's house, so it was very hard to get many smiles out of him and we weren't there very long.

Gran and Reed

Papa and Gigi with Reed

Me and my little Elephant

An exhausted elephant ready for bed!

Halloween Party

2009-10-13T17:36:00.002-07:00

Ok, so I know this is a month late but I have to blog about it for the memories! Lately, I feel like my life is spinning out of control. I just can't catch up! I LOVE being at home a couple of days a week with Reed, but it makes getting work done so hard so I need up staying up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Then on the nights I actually work in the office after Reed goes to bed I completely crash and end up going to bed shortly after he does. So that has been the cause of the lack of blogging lately, not that I have ever been great at it! Anyway, on to the Halloween Party we hosted almost a month ago!

So on October 24th we hosted a Halloween Party for all the kiddos and our great friends! It was a chance for all the kids to get together and see them all in their costumes before Halloween. Unfortunately we didn't get a group picture of all of them, but we had a great time hanging out with everyone! It was so much fun seeing all the kids in their costumes! I of course had lots of fun getting ready for the party by making fun decorations and desserts.

Reed, as you can see below, was the cutest elephant I have ever seen! He hated the costume, he didn't like the head piece at all. We were able to capture a couple of pictures but the costume came off pretty fast.

This was the best smile that we got without him pulling at the ears.

Reed and sweet Amelia, the cutest bee ever! They were the only 2 that couldn't walk, so they got stuck in front of the camera! Haha! All the other kiddos were running around.

Reed loved Amelia's shiny black shoes.

Ashley and Deacon, he was an adorable Lion, you can see pictures of him in his costume and some of the other kids here, Deacon's Mommy is a much better blogger than me and took quite a few more pictures.

Amelia and her Mommy, Heather!

Owen and his Mommy, Amy!

Thank goodness for Laurie! She held Reed a lot this night. I under estimated how hard it is being the host with a little one. Josh was grilling most of the night, so I had a hard time getting things together with Reed on my hip. Another reason I forgot to take more pictures too.

One of the few pictures of some of the food. Rice Krispy treats, Nutterbutter ghost and Oreo spiders.

This is a terrible picture. But the centerpieces I made for the table were Halloween trees. I took orange flower pots put Candy Corn in them to hold up a black painted twig. Then I hung small pumpkins, black cats, spiders and ghost on them. They turned out so cute!

Lots of picture taking went on outside in the yard. If you look close you can see Chandler the sock monkey, Stella the flower, Megan as Batwoman, and Mason as Tiger.

Stella was cracking me up! After taking off her costume she was running around in her tights and boots.....so cute!

The best part of the night for Reed was that Deacon brought his walker over for us to borrow! Reed LOVES it! He chases us and the dogs all over the house in it. He amazes us how well he turns in it and gets where he wants to go.

Reed's 1st Masterpiece

2009-10-13T17:36:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, unfortunately, I caught a 24 hour stomach virus. It hit me so hard out of no where one night after work. The next day Josh had to stay home with Reed while I quarantined myself to the bedroom. That night I was finally feeling better and my fever had broke so I decided I would go see what my boys were up to and this is what I found! Daddy had set up a little painting project for Reed! He mashed up banana and avocado, added a little food coloring and made "paint!"

So excited to paint!

I can do it myself Dad....using the paint brush!

Forget the paintbrush, I am digging in with my hands!

2 hands in and loving it! He is looking at me like are you sure this is ok?

Our little Picasso at work!

Next color please!

Showing us how it is done!

Next color....green!

Ummm, I like this color!

I better taste it before I use it!

Almost finished!

This paint is pretty good!

All done! Next project, please!

Josh and Reed had so much fun hanging out together all day! Josh is the best Daddy any little boy could ask for. To be honest I would probably never dream of letting Reed do this, especially not at 6 months old. But he had so much fun and to be honest it was a very easy mess to clean up. I am sure we will be doing it more in the future!

Taking a bath in style!

2009-10-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Reed had completely outgrown is baby bath tub and then I remembered I had received a rubber blow up duck at one of my showers (thanks Jamie)! I was home with Reed this day so I decided to blow it up and see how it worked out for giving a bath in and see if Reed liked it. Well he loved it and is still loving it to this day! This is a great transition between the baby bath tub and the big bath tub.

As soon as I put him in he went to lounging! It was so funny! He loved having something soft to rest his head on.

Just relaxing and playing with toys.

A couple of days later he had perfected the lounge! So cute! Josh and I were dying laughing at him and he had no idea why.

This is a daily occurrence for Reed! He loves his bath time!

Birthday Presents

2009-10-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

The big 6 month milestone, calls for presents...right? Well at least for Reed! Friday, Papa watched Reed while I went to work and that morning he brought a birthday present in for Reed.

This is what Papa got Reed.....

and he loves it! It is a little alligator that when you push the button on top he rolls across the floor. Reed and Daddy played with it tonight.

Sunday we went on a family outing to Wal-Mart. Of course we had to make a run by the toy section for Reed. It wasn't planned but when we saw this little drum we couldn't pass it up. I don't think I have told this funny little thing about Reed, but he loves to tap his hands on things. A few weeks ago my Mom was tapping on a table and Reed started tapping back. It sounds crazy but he almost always taps back when you tap on something in front of him. We were pretty sure he would love tapping on this drum and we were right.

When you tap on the drum it goes through the ABCs! Notice what letter it is on in this picture...R for Reed...how cute and totally not planned!

We were very impressed with Reed's skills! He just tapped away flying through the alphabet!

He loved it, you could really tell he was playing with a new toy!

We may have a little drummer on our hands!!

6 Months Old

2009-10-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old! This has been the first milestone that made me a little sad. Last Friday on the 9th, every time I would think about Reed being 6 months old the tears would start coming. I just want to hold on to that little baby forever!

This was the first monthly birthday that I wasn't able to take pictures on the actually day. I had to work Friday and I had plans to take them before I left for work, but Reed decided to sleep in until 7:40 (he didn't make a peep for almost 11 hours). I let him sleep in until he woke up, but as soon as he ate I had to leave for work. After work we packed up and headed to Fayetteville to see friends and for Josh and some other guys to go watch the Hogs game. So I took pictures Sunday afternoon after church in his church clothes. Reed was in a funny, very busy mood as usual. He is a typical little boy for sure! He can't sit still for more than 30 seconds and wants to put everything in his mouth. It is getting harder and harder to get some good pictures of him.

Look at that mischievous smile!

Laughing for the camera.

The famous open mouth smile.

Going for the shoe....

Look Mom...I got it!

Now for the other shoe.

And the bear....

Reed was ready to get those clothes off!

Look at that precious face!

I thought I might be able to get some better pictures without all those clothes on!

Not so much! He looks huge in this picture...he is getting so big!

Silly boy....always on the move!

Has you can see Reed's little personality is starting to shine! He is such a happy little boy! To me this month as been the most fun! He has changed so much! It is so much fun to see the world through Reed's eyes.

At 6 months Reed is....

Almost sitting up by himself, he does so well sitting up with the boppy behind him for a little support. He prefers to be sitting up. He is able to sit and play and go from toy to toy by himself.
Reaching and grabbing for anything that interest him. We have learned that he is very fast!
Doing great drinking from a sippy cup. He has learned that he has to tip his head back to drink
Holding his own bottle.
Still going to bed right at 8 pm and sleeping until around 7 am. A few mornings a week he wakes up around 5 to 6 for his paci and that will hold him off for another hour or so
Eating consistently for the last couple of weeks at 7, 11, 2, 5 and 8. Some days I think he is going to be way off schedule b/c he will eat early at 6:30 and then again at 10, but some how by the end of the day he always gets himself back on schedule
After his 5 pm feeding, he eats his solid food. Thus far Reed has had banana, sweet potatoes, avocado, cooked pears, cooked peaches and cooked plums. Next, up is mangos and papaya. Most of the time I mix the food with a little bit of cereal to thicken it up and for the iron in the cereal.
On the 8th we tried adding a second feeding after the 11 am feeding but he hasn't seemed to interested. I made the Super Porridge from the Super Baby Food book (basically it is fine ground, cooked whole grain brown rice). Reed wasn't very impressed! I mixed it with a little banana and it still wasn't his favorite.
Still wearing size 2 diapers
Transitioning more into size 6-9 month clothes, a lot of this is due to the season changes.
Loving bath time. Still getting baths during the day, mainly b/c Gran and Gigi give them to him.
Naps are getting much better, I wouldn't say they are predictable, but they are easier. The last couple of weeks I have been able to lay him down in his crib when I know he is really tired with his blanket and he will get himself to sleep within 5 to 10 minutes. However, you never know how long he is going to sleep, anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours. He averages about 1 hour 3 times a day.
Has the best giggle! Loves being tickled and playing peek-a-boo! He will giggle so hard over and over.
Has mastered spitting the paci out when he wants to put something in his mouth instead.
Saying Da-da and babbling so much more. He even as a little squeal he will do sometimes.
Has really discovered his hands. He will lay back a turn them back and forth just looking at them it is SO funny.
Also found his ears, he will sit and just play with them.
Sitting up in the stroller, shopping cart and high chairs at restaurants. This has been a lot of fun!
Rolled over from tummy to back on September 28th. Rolling over now is old news, he makes it look to easy. We waited forever for him to roll over and now all he wants to do is sit up.
Has started reaching for me, it is the BEST! This is the single one thing that I couldn't wait for! Makes my day that he knows his Mommy! He has also started getting really excited when he sees me when I get home from work.

Happy Birthday Aunt Amy!!

2009-10-13T08:25:00.001-07:00

We love you so much and hope you have a GREAT day!! Thanks for being the best aunt ever!

Pumpkin Patch & Da-da

2009-10-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we decided to have a family day and go to the pumpkin patch! Josh and I had never been, so we thought it would be fun to take Reed at least to get a few pictures! We had a lot fun and got some great pictures of Reed! Reed is a little people watcher for sure! We had a really hard time getting Reed to look at the camera and when he was his smile was always with his mouth wide open! There are a lot of pictures on this post but we took over 100, so I had a hard time choosing!

This was literally the 2nd picture we took and the only one with a normal smile!

Love him to pieces!!

I think he is looking at me in this picture acting crazy trying to get him to smile! Josh did a great job taking all the pictures from different angles!

This was the smile we got ALL day! Too funny! He has a little open mouth laugh he does all the time too!

A serious look! I really liked the background in this picture.

Then a dog walked in the picture! Reed loved him and Josh liked that he went well with the pumpkins!

This will be one of my all time favorite Reed pics forever!!

So sweet!

People watching!

More people watching....but still cute as can be!

And more looking away!

I was very impressed with the cute picture background set-ups they had! As soon as we sat Reed down on the hay he went to pulling at it. I kept trying to take it away from him and finally just gave up and decided it wouldn't kill him to chew on a little straw and it made for some really cute pictures.

Another all time favorite! Can you see the piece of straw in his mouth?

Love this picture! He looks like a little baby doll (at least to his Mommy)! We had a small crowd watching him while we took these pictures! He was so into the straw that he didn't care what we were doing, but he wasn't smiling for anything!

First ride in a John Deere tractor!

What a cute piece of corn!

After all the picture taking we finally made it into the barn to do a little pumpkin shopping!

Reed just sat back a relaxed with his juice and of course another open mouth smile!

Back at home with our hay, pumpkins and mum (I plan to get a prettier pot for the mum).

The sun was so bright when we got home these pictures didn't turn out to good!

Reed did so good taking pictures all day!

We had a great day, just the 3 of us! This was really the first time we were able to take Reed somewhere that I think he enjoyed it as much as we did! He is getting so big, to fast! As you can see from ALL the pictures he is really starting to sit up good. I of course was not to far out of every picture ready to catch him when he went to fall over (which happen a couple of times). We had a really fun day together and Reed made the day even better by saying Da-da for the first time. It was SO cute! The 3 of us were just hanging out on the couch and Reed was just talking and squirming around in my lap and all of a sudden he said it, "Da-da, Da-da" and he just kept saying it! It was so neat for Josh and I to hear it together for the first time. Reed says it by biting his gums in the middle of his tongue, hard to describe but it is the cutest thing. He has said it all day today too, and I have tried to video it all day but of course he stops as soon as the camera gets in his face! I am sure I will be able to catch it soon and I will try to post it. He has also be blowing raspberries a lot lately too, which is also very funny!

Making Baby Food

2009-10-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Reed and I made a special trip to the store to gather lots of fruits and veggies to make baby food! We came home and Reed sat in his bumbo seat while I steamed sweet potatoes, pureed them in the food processor and then but them in ice cube trays to freeze.

Here is Reed with the first batch of baby food.

He can't wait to eat this yummy food!

Fun times in the kitchen with Mommy!

Reed started eating solid food on September 19th (it just happen to be exactly 1 month after we started him on cereal), we started with bananas mixed with cereal instead of milk. Then he had sweet potatoes, next avocados and today will be day 4 of cooked peaches. Everything I have read says to feed them the same food for 4 days to make sure there are no allergies to the food, so that is what we have been doing. He has loved everything but avocados. He makes the funniest face when I put a spoon full in his mouth. He even squirms in his chair, it taste so funny to him, but he keeps opening his mouth for more. This child will eat anything and can NEVER get enough. All 4 nights of avocados I mixed it with a little banana so he would eat it a little better. Next up on the list to try is cooked pears! I also have cooked plums, mango and papaya in the freezer along with everything else he has already tried. I am using the book Super Baby Food as my guide and I love this book. Several of my friends have used it and recommended it. It is such an easy read and gives a step by step process of how to pick the foods, prepare them and even what age is best to start each fruit or veggie.

Visiting Mamaw

2009-10-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

While I was in Dallas Josh took Reed to see Mamaw. It is so special to see Reed with his Great Grandma! Mamaw loves him to death if you can't tell from the pictures! These pictures are priceless to me! Mamaw actually Reed's the blog, so these are for you Mamaw!

SPOILED!!

2009-10-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Seeing the title you probably think I am talking about Reed! Well, him being spoiled of course goes without saying! Being the only grandchild on both sides of the family I am sure he will always be spoiled rotten! :) This time I am talking about Josh and I! I have been wanting to write this post forever it seems, to thank our families for all they do for us. Reed is the luckiest little boy to have his Gran, Gigi and Papa (our Moms and Josh's Dad) taking care of him every week and we are the luckiest parents to have our parents watching our child. I am also SUPER blessed to have a job that as been so flexible with my schedule. Since Reed was 12 weeks old I went back to work, working 3 days a week in the office and 2 days from home. Being the Controller and only accountant for a small company has its perks and downfalls at the same time. I wasn't really able to take a maternity leave, I basically never stopped doing my full time job. I even closed the books in April with a 2 1/2 week old. However, because of this I have been able to continue working from home some. Most of the time Gigi (Josh's Mom) watches Reed on Mondays and Fridays and my Mom watches him on Tuesday or Thursday depending on her work schedule. One Friday a month Josh's Dad watches Reed. My schedule can get crazy sometimes requiring me to be in the office 4 days during the week and Josh has had to take a couple of vacation days. So far we have all been able to make it work and we couldn't be more happy or feel more loved. While I was pregnant and people would ask what we were going to do about childcare I would always say my best case scenario would be for us to keep Reed out of daycare until he was 6 months old. Some days I can't believe that it has been possible, we feel SO BLESSED. Now with flu season coming the grandmas have decided to keep Reed at home until spring!

Oh and I haven't mentioned that our parents drive about 50 mins to our house by 7:30 am for me to leave for work! This is a huge deal getting up so early and we are so thankful! If this wasn't enough our Moms also do so much around the house for us! They do laundry, fold clothes, dust, clean floors and we have even had dinner made for us a few times!

We love our parents so much a we are beyond grateful for all they do for us!!

5 Months Old

2009-10-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

I know Reed is almost 6 months old and I am finally get the 5 month post done! I have been going non-stop this month and just haven't made time to blog. In fact Daddy had to take these pictures because I was away from Reed for the first time. I had to take a quick trip (33 hours, to be exact) to Dallas for work. My job has kept me very busy this month to say the least. Reed is so much fun and seems to change every day, we love him so much! He was 5 months old on 9/9/09!
At 5 months Reed is....

Still eating about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours
Still no real nap schedule, he normally gets up around 7 to eat and then goes back down for a nap around 8 to 8:30. His naps range anywhere from 30 mins to a hour or so. He normally is awake for an 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours before taking another nap. Still naps the best laying in his boppy pillow.
Still sleeping great through the night. Once a week or so he wakes up in the middle of the night (around 4 to 5) for his paci
Going to bed as close to 8 as possible, some nights it is all we can do to get to 8 o'clock. He just crashes around 7, but we hold him off as long as possible to ensure he sleeps until 7.
Everything he grabs now, goes straight to his mouth
Laughing so much more now, he has the best giggle when we tickle him
Loves to bounce in your lap when he is standing or in his jumperoo
Reaching out to grab for toys
Starting to take his paci out of his mouth and try to put it back in
Still wearing 3 to 6 month cloths
Wearing size 2 diapers
Doing pretty good at trying to hold his own bottle, he gets 2 bottles on the days I work
Grabbing his feet all the time now
Eating cereal at his 5 o'clock feeding, Reed loves to eat, I think he would eat until he popped.
Drinking water or diluted juice from a sippy cup every day
Loves bath time
Starting to recognize people he knows a lot more (mainly me, Josh and his grandmas)
Big news of the month is that Reed rolled over on his 5 month birthday!! However, he rolled from back to tummy and is still not rolling from tummy to back. He gets over and can't get back!

Reed's newest trick

2009-09-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

Just this past Thursday night Josh and I were getting Reed ready for bed and he started holding his feet. He has been putting them up in the air for a while, but this was the first time that he had grabbed them. The next morning he started doing it again so I ran to grabbed the camera to document. Then I decided to put him in the chair and take a few cute pictures since he was in such a good mood and he decided to keep holding his feet even while sitting up! :) Please notice all the hair he is getting! I can't get enough of this little boy....love him to pieces!

Excuse the no pants we were having a relaxing day at home in just a onesie!

Concentration!!

Look at that thigh...my little chucky monkey!

Both feet and a smile!!

Deacon's Birthday

2009-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Reed attended his first birthday party a couple of weekends ago. I can't believe Deacon is already 1! It was so much fun seeing all the kiddos together!

Birthday Boy!!

I think he got a little help from Dad on this one!

Cake face! :)

Reed and Owen playing with the balloons!

Owen smiling for the camera!

Pretty Amelia!

Okay, so I know the next few pictures are exactly the same, but I couldn't download just one. They are hilarious! All the kiddos are looking at their parents like we are crazy! Reed is smiling in a couple of them, but my favorite part by far is Amelia tugging on her boyfriend Owen, who is completely ignoring her! :)

Sippy Cup

2009-09-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well if you read the previous post you know Reed had been having a few dirty diaper issues! So after calling the doctor they recommended giving him juice to help move things along. One afternoon I gave Reed a sippy cup with some diluted juice in it and he grabbed it with both hands played with it in his mouth for a little while and then just drank it down like he had been doing it all his life. I was totally amazed! I was holding him at the time so I took these pictures with my phone.

What is this??

This isn't milk...

He looks so big....I can't believe my 4 month old is drinking from a sippy cup!

Eating Cereal

2009-09-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

Well we decided to give Reed cereal for the first time on August 19th (Reed was 1 day shy of 19 weeks)! We had several days with Reed where Josh and I kept asking each other, "Do you think he needs more food?" He just didn't seem satisfied (read the previous post for more on this). So finally one night I gave in, I say this because I really wanted to try to wait until 6 months to start solid foods. The book I have been reading (Super Baby Food) and our pediatrician recommended waiting, but I knew it was okay to start at 4 months and wanted to try to go off Reed's needs and not wait just because that's what I wanted. Reed loved every minute of the cereal and did great (way better than I expected) with the spoon! By the end he was whining for more between bites.

The cereal didn't seem to help him sleep better, but we have continued to give it to him every night. He seems to love it and if anything it is helping him get ready for more foods to come. Reed gets better at eating every day. I mix cereal with 1 oz of breast milk and he gobbles it down in less than 5 minutes.

1st Bite

Mmm...good!

What is this stuff??

Faster please...

Why are you taking pictures??

Happy Boy!!

Back on Track...

2009-09-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

Reed is now 21 weeks old, we just can't believe how big he is getting! By the way, when does a Mom stop counting weeks?? Well, I decided to write this post to document one of the things I have found much harder about being a parent than I ever imagined. Weeks 18 and 19 of Reed's little life has been thus far the most trying time for me. I found myself literally every day saying, "What should I do!" or "What is wrong with him!" We have been overly blessed with a very healthy and happy baby. However, a couple of weeks ago Reed was much more fussy than normal and especially at bedtime. It was all we could do to get to 8 o'clock without a total meltdown. Then he started crying out when I would try to nurse him. He was doing this at almost every single feeding, to the point that we were both in tears. It was like he was crying for a bottle, it was heartbreaking for me. He also started waking up more during the night, the pacifier would normally get him back to sleep, but a couple of nights I was up every hour putting the pacifier in and one night I even had to feed him in the middle of the night and that hadn't happen in over a month. On top of the fussiness and not sleeping good, Reed was going up to 6 days without a poopy diaper, this started right before he turned 4 months old. All this and Reed started fighting sleep at nap time like I have never seen before, it would take an hour to get him asleep and then by the time you got him to sleep it was time to eat again and this just created more crying! Ugh, are you getting my drift...not fun! I just never imagined I would be at such a loss on what to do to make my child better. I didn't know if he had an ear infection and maybe that is why he wasn't nursing. I thought maybe he needed more to eat and I should be starting him on solid foods. So finally after a night of being up 4 times putting the pacifier back in I decided to try feeding Reed cereal before bedtime. Then that night was one of the worse yet, it didn't help at all he was up almost every hour.

I just kept pressing through telling myself it has to get better! We learned after the late afternoon feeding to get Reed to take a nap before bedtime and this helped him not be so fussy. I did a lot of reading on breastfeeding and learned several techniques that have seemed to help with feeding time. We also let Reed cry it out a couple of times when he woke up for his pacifier and now he is only waking up maybe once or twice a week for it and not until around 4 am. I am so happy to say that the last week as been the BEST week ever. Reed has been SO happy, eating great, sleeping great, having plenty of dirty diapers and even the napping is better. The last four days I have been home with him he has taken a 2 1/2 hour morning nap, a couple of 30-40 minute naps during the day and hour to hour and half afternoon nap. He is growing up so fast, learning more and doing something new every day and just such a joy to be around.

I have been told over and over, as soon as you think you have them figured out or as soon as you think you have them on a schedule it changes. This is SO true and easier said than understood, especially when you are living it every day! But I am happy to say we are back on track for now!

4 Months Old

2009-08-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Reed was 4 months old on August 9th! Two weeks late on posting, but I did take these pictures and jot a few things down on the 9th about what he has been up to this month. He is getting so big and cuter every day! At his 4 month check-up he weighed 16 lbs 7 oz (80th percentile), 25 1/2 inches long (75%) and his head was 16 1/4 cm (35%). The doctor said he looks great and his a healthy little boy!

I could stare at this smile all day!

He is getting so big! He looks all grow up in his little jeans!

Squirmy worm, can't sit still!

Give me that camera!

He has found his thumb! He just did this for the first time last week. He has always tucked his thumb under his fingers.

So sweet! I LOVE his big BLUE eyes and long eyelashes! I never dreamed I would get my blue eyed baby I always dreamed about with all the brown eyes in both our families!

This little 1 month old has grown up and perfected that little smile! Wow, he has changed so much! Why do they have to grow up so fast?

What Reed is up to at 4 months.....

Still wearing 3 to 6 month clothes
Still wearing size 2 diapers
Still nursing/eating 5 to 6 times a day, every 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Every once in a while he will go 4 hours, but it is usually when we are out and about and he is asleep in the car or stroller or distracted by everything going on around him.
Still loves his playmat! Reed loves to look at himself in the mirror that hangs above him on the mat. I say all the time, "What would we do without that mirror!"
We also got the jumperoo out this month, his feet barely touch the ground but he likes it a lot and will play in it for quite a while.
Starting to reach more and more for things
Can hold toys really well now and everything goes straight to his mouth
Still chewing on his fists like crazy, this creates an enormous amount of drool everywhere.
For the last week or so Reed as been going to bed between 8 and 8:30. He still doesn't nap a whole lot during the day, so by 8 o'clock he is so tired. He sleeps until around 7. The days that I go to work (I work 3 days in the office and 2 from home...more on that later) I have to wake him up at 7 to feed him. On the days that I am home he is normally up by 7:30, but he has slept in a few times past 8 o'clock.
Loves being on the go! I always say Reed is like a different baby when we are out of the house. Don't get me wrong he has always been a great baby, but when we are out he never fusses, smiles and everyone and is always so happy.
Loves to watch tv. We have caught him looking around us sometimes to look at the tv.
Still not rolling over! He gets so far over on his side, but he will not roll over! He will also get himself turned completely around, just not over!
Pulling his head up when he is laying on his back. Anytime you put him in his carseat, lay him on his boppy or flat in your lap he will pull himself up as far as he can, like he doesn't like laying down. He would always rather be seating up. Sometimes he will get himself sitting straight up in his boppy by himself. I can't put him in is bouncy seat anymore because it doesn't allow him to sit up enough to his liking and he throws himself forward so far he can't lean back.
His hair is starting to grow back in slowly but surely! I think it is a little lighter too.

No more hair :(

2009-07-29T11:17:00.001-07:00

You have probably noticed from the recent pictures that Reed's hair as slowly all fallen out. He had so much hair when he was born we couldn't believe how much he had. Around 11 to 12 weeks old we started noticing that it was starting to thin and within 2-3 weeks it was all gone. He kept it for so long I was starting to think he might not lose it, but I was wrong. We still think he is as cute as ever, but he is definitely going through an awkward hair stage! :)

Hard to believe it use to all be as thick as the bottom half

Can you see the slight red mark in the middle of his neck? Ihave the same birth mark on my neck.

Look at all that hair!! He was 8 days old here.

Paci Face

2009-07-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

Well, as I said before we finally found a paci Reed would take when he was 10 weeks old. We have purposely not taken any pictures with the paci in his mouth but I thought I would share what he looks like with it in. It has been a lifesaver when it comes to naps, bedtime and long car rides.

He has also starting liking his little tag blanket (thanks Kristen!)

Watching tv

In only a few minutes we have paci marks in those chubby cheeks!

Tummy Time...well kind of!

2009-07-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Reed is still not rolling over at 15 weeks! I just keep saying he is to big to roll over and he will roll over when he is ready. He actually doesn't mind tummy time now. He can hold his head up great and will tolerate laying on his stomach for quite a while, but he doesn't really move around much or try to flip over. When we use the tummy time mat, it starts out great.....

and then it turns into rest time, not tummy time....how funny is this, love it! :)

Papaw Visits

2009-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

My Dad stopped by to see us last weekend, we hadn't seen him in a few weeks so it was fun to visit for a while. Reed thought he was pretty funny, he loves his Papaw! I thought these pictures we captured were to cute not to share.

They both look so serious!

Notice the slobber on Dad's shirt.

That tickles!

Airplane....there are so many pictures of me when I was little like this. Dad loved to throw us in the air and we loved it too.

4th of July

2009-07-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

4th of July was low key for us. We traveled to Sheridan to have dinner with Josh's parents then we headed to the river to watch the fireworks with them and the Barnard's. Reed stayed awake the whole time and didn't even seem to notice the fireworks.

Reed in his 4th of July outfit!

Caught chewing on the doggy's ear. This is the first toy/stuffed animal that Reed put in his mouth. This dog is very soft and Reed loves to squeeze it and put it in his mouth.

Smiling at Daddy

Watching thefireworks with Gigi and Papa! Can you tell Reed is tired?

Reed & Deacon (at least Deacon would look at the camera). Reed was so tired we couldn't get him to look up.

Fireworks over the Arkansas River

Growing Boys

2009-07-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

We got to hang out with several great friends from church a couple of weekends ago and we snapped this picture of Ashley, me and Amy and Deacon, Reed and Owen. Deacon and Owen are about 3 1/2 months apart and Owen and Reed are about 4 months apart. Oh how our lives have changed over the last year. It has been so much fun raising Reed along side great friends and their precious babies. These 3 boys will hopefully all be in the same grade in school one day and enjoy playing and growing up together.

All 3 boys were pretty tired, but cute as ever!

3 Months Old

2009-07-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of Mr. Chunky Monkey Reed at 3 months! He is getting so big and we love him more and more every day! Reed is smiling and talking more and more every day. He has complete head control now and I am starting to call him my hip baby because I can almost carry him around on my hip, just one sign that he isn't a little bitty baby anymore! :(

Can he get any cuter?? I am so proud of this picture! Reed smiles ALL the time! But every Mom of a 3 month old knows how hard it is to get a picture at the peak of the smile with them looking at the camera! Sitting up in the middle of the chair all by himself!

Look at those chunky legs!

Still has those pretty big blue eyes!

What Reed is up to at 3 months....

still chewing on his fist and fingers constantly, slobbering more and more every day
we had a pacifier revelation this month!! Reed started taking a pacifier at 10 weeks, or should I say we found a pacifier Reed likes (picture to come, it is pretty cute b/c it is so big on his face)! Reed had always liked sucking on our fingers, so one day I thought he might like a pacifier with a bigger nipple so I gave him a Mams paci that was 6+ months and he took it right away. It has really been a lifesaver when it comes to calming him down in the car or getting him to sleep for naps during the day. Hopefully it won't be to hard to take away.
still loves standing up and his putting more and more weight on his legs for longer periods of time
still loving his baths, starting to kick and splash more and more
wearing all 3 to 6 month clothes
moved into size 2 diapers at 11 weeks, he could still fit in size 1 but I was running out so I tried a size 2 and it fit so I just went ahead and moved him up (I tried to keep him in newborn size to long and ended up wasting almost a whole box)
I am happy to say he his still sleeping through the night! Week 9 and 10 were a little spotty because we were out of town for the CWS and then coming home took him a little while to get back on schedule. However, after getting up 2 nights in a row and feeding him on the 3rd night I decided to try the pacifer, because I really felt like he wasn't hungry and it worked, he went right back to sleep. We have had a few nights here and there that he has woke up and he have had to stick the pacifier in but not to many. I consider ourselves every lucky at 3 months.
Going to bed between 9 and 10 and sleeping between 8 and 9 hours in his crib. We have had a couple of 10 hour nights already....very nice!!
Eating every 3 to 3 1/2 hours, nursing 5 to 6 times a day. Now that he his sleeping more, he has dropped one of his feedings.
Still not the best napper. He cat naps between feedings during the day, sleeping sometimes up to 1 hour at a time. He sleeps mostly in his boppy on the couch during the day. I always say as long as he is sleeping at night, whatever he does during the day doesn't bother me! He is never really fussy during the day either, but he does just crash at night after not sleeping much during the day.
Still LOVES his playmat and bouncy seat! He will talk to himself in the mirror on his playmat forever.
Doing great in his bumbo seat!
Grabbing at toys more and more. Starting to focus on toys and then reaching for them.
I am happy to report that the 2 outfits a day as come and gone. We have a few blowouts here and there, but definetely not every day now.
Still only rolling to his side. He HATES tummy time and it makes me so sad. He is starting to pull his knees under himself a little bit and he is starting to push up with his arms a little but he still hates being on his tummy.
Reed's hair has started disappearing!! I still haven't seen any in his crib or where he has been laying but his hair is gone! If you go back and look at his 1 month pictures you can really tell how much hair he use to have.
He definetely knows who Josh and I are and it makes my heart melt when I walk in the room and I get the biggest smile from him or when someone is holding him and he just sits and stares at me because he knows I am his Mom, it is the best feeling in the world!

Just a little side story! We had our first trip to the doctor on Reed's 3 month birthday. The day before Reed had 2 poopy diapers that he had what we thought was blood in them. It was really scary, because it really looked like blood (I have pictures, but I will spare everyone) and we had no clue what could be causing it and they continued for 4 days. Long story short we went to the doctor and then took some samples back to get tested and it wasn't blood. We had been giving Reed vitamins with iron in them and we stopped the vitamins with iron and what we thought was blood has stopped. Reed never really acted sick so we are just moving on like it never happened. They weighed Reed at the doctor and he weighed 15 lbs 14 oz, he gained 1 lb 10 oz in 1 month. He his a healthy, happy little boy and we are SO grateful and blessed to have him in our lives.

Father's Day

2009-07-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Reed and I had been planning for a while what we wanted to get Josh for Father's Day! I wanted Josh to have something that he would always have to remember his first Father's Day. We decided to go to Firefly, a little pottery studio where you can paint your own pottery to make something extra special for Daddy. I think it turned out really cute and Josh seemed to really like it. Father's day was pretty uneventful. Josh's family cam to church with us and then we went out to eat at Olive Garden. After lunch we headed over to a birthday party of a family friend of Josh's parents. At the party we got to meet little Walker. If you remember Mrs. Vicky from delivery day this is her second grandchild. He is about a month younger than Reed.

Daddy opening his card from Reed!

"Daddy's Little Slugger" plate

Daddy telling Reed thank you!

Unfortunately, we waited until Reed was super tired to try to take pictures and he wouldn't let Josh hold him any other way.

Reed with Daddy and Papa

Reed and Walker

I love this picture because you can see Reed talking. He makes the sweetest faces when he coos and goos.

WAY BEHIND!!

2009-07-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I admit it! I have to be one of the worst bloggers ever. I think about blogging all the time, but it always gets pushed down the list of things to do. I have to start doing better. Also when I get this far behind I feel like I have to get completely caught up before I publish any of the post. So I have been working on several post lately! Scroll down and enjoy! Coming soon Father's Day and little Reed man will be 3 months next week, so maybe I will be able to give a 3 month update less than a month late this time!

CWS Road Trip

2009-06-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

After Reed's shots on Thursday we were on our way to Omaha, NE to watch the College World Series of Baseball and to visit with Josh's family that had not met Reed. We made it to Fayetteville Thursday night to spend the night with Amy and then traveled the rest of the way on Friday. Thursday night we had an early birthday dinner with Amy, Sydney and Stella. Friday was mine and Sydney's birthday. Amy also surprised me with a birthday cake from Rick's Bakery. It was delicious and my only birthday cake this year....thanks Amy!

Friday morning we met up with Josh's parents and brother and we were on our way to Omaha. I was a little nervous about the 6 hour drive ahead of us but we were on our way and who could complain getting to look at this precious face all day on their birthday. :)

We were packed in! First time traveling with Reed was an experience!

We made it to Omaha about 6 pm. We set up house in Grandpa Baker's one bedroom apartment. It was a tight squeeze with all of Reed's stuff, but we were so thankful to have a free place to stay, we weren't complaning. After settling in we went to dinner with Josh's Grandpa Baker, Aunt Bonny and Uncle Mark. It was great to see them and for them to be able to meet Reed. We hadn't seen Bonny and Mark since our wedding and we hadn't seen Grandpa since last summer.

After dinner we traveled down to the stadium to see where we would be going the next day. We were shocked to see our crowded it already was and at that point Josh, his dad and brother decided they would be getting in line pretty early for the game the next morning. So Saturday morning came pretty early! The boys parked and got in line about 9:30 am for the 1 pm game. The rest of us took the shuttle and arrived at the ball park about 12 pm and were lucky enough to still get in, they actually cut the line off at one point, the stadium was standing room only. I wore Reed in the front carrier on the shuttle and on the walk to and from the stadium. We carried his carseat in so he had some where to sit in the shade. The weather was a little hard to predict because it was so chilly in the morning, but by game time it was extremely hot. I am proud to say that Reed made it through the whole game! We changed him and fed him right in the stands, it was a little hard on him, but he did great. We had a little battery powered fan that we kept on him the whole time, I don't think we could have made it without it. It was fun being there and the Hogs won which made it even better.

Josh and Branden

We took this picture after the game we had already changed Reed into his pjs so we just slipped his shirt over for the picture!

Saturday night Aunt Bonny and Uncle Mark made us a wonderful steak dinner at their house.

Sunday morning Reed and I went to breakfast with Grandpa Baker and cousin Matt. While the guys went to watch more games. Sunday afternoon Reed and I found an outdoor shopping area and did a little shopping and a lot of walking. We had lunch with Josh's Mom, Uncle Mark and Aunt Bonny and then headed back to the house to wait for the guys to get home. That night we all went to dinner with Grandpa Baker at Red Robin (Josh's favorite). After dinner we decided it would be fun to take Reed swimming for the first time. The hotel Josh's parents were staying in had an indoor swimming pool. Their hotel was about a 45 minute drive and Reed was so fussy on the way and then finally fell asleep. I was afraid he might miss his swimming chance but he woke up just in time. He was SO cute in his little swim trunks and matching hat! Reed didn't really know what to think. He was just kind of taking it all in the whole time and didn't show much expression.

Monday morning we all went to breakfast together. The Hogs were playing at 6 pm against LSU. The LSU fans are crazy and come every year to Omaha whether they are in the tournament or not so the guys decided to get in line at noon for the game. Reed, Josh's mom and I hung out at the apartment all day. I had a couple of hours of work to get done, so Josh's Mom watched Reed for me while I did that. We took a little walk in the afternoon and then Aunt Bonny brought over dinner for us to eat while we watched the game on tv. By the time the guys got home it was time for bed.

Tuesday morning it was time to head home. We loaded up all our stuff, said our good-byes and we were back on the road. We were so ready to be home that we decided to drive straight through instead of stopping in Fayetteville on the way home. It made for a VERY long drive and it was a little tough on Reed, but we made it home in about 12 hours, just in time for bed time. We had a great trip! It has always been one of Josh's dreams to go to the College World Series and it was really special to have Reed with us and get to spend time with family all at the same time.

2 Month Dr. Appointment

2009-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 11th Reed had his 2 month doctor's appointment and the dreaded first round of shots. Reed did great! It was a little bit harder to watch than I thought it would be. The nurse came in to give the shots and she asked that one of us hold his chest down in case he jumped. I didn't think anything of it, so when Josh stepped back like he didn't want to, I quickly put my hand over him. After the shots Josh said, "Haha now he is going to associate you with the pain!" I didn't even think about that, but it was so hard to see his little face go from being just fine to complete terror and I am sure it will only get worse has he gets older. It was the first time I heard him cry so hard that he held his breath. I picked him up as soon as I could and he calmed right down. I had given him a dose of Tylenol before the shots and the medicine knocked him out. We traveled to Fayetteville that night and he slept the whole way up there and still slept through the night. Reed weighed 14 lbs 5 ounces (95%). He was 23 1/2 inches long (75%) and his head was 15 (15%). Reed is a big little boy! The doctor said he looked great and was very impressed that he was sleeping through the night (he was on a 5 night stretch).

Nothing like little legs with band-aids on them. Can you tell he was just fine by the smile on his face?

2 Months Old

2009-06-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this adorable little boy has been in our lives 2 months already! He is our chucky little monkey and we love him so much! Here are so pictures of Reed on his 2 month birthday!

So big, yet so little!

The smile that will melt your heart!

Mom are we done yet?

Can you tell in this picture that he is constantly moving? I took a ton of pictures and this is the only one that is half way in focus.

What Reed is up to at 2 months....

smiling more & more...it melts my heart

kicking & moving like crazy

chews on his fist and fingers constantly

still doesn't like pacifiers

still has pretty blue eyes

likes standing up...he has some strong little legs

loves his baths

wearing 3-6 month clothes, he only wore 0-3 for 2 weeks, there are still a few 0-3 things he can wear but not many

Consistently sleeping 5-6 hours, with a few 7 hour nights, on 6/7, 6/8 & 6/9 he slept 8-9 hours....I am hoping this continues (one morning he actually went back to sleep until 9 am in his bouncy seat). He also had one 8 hour night at 7 weeks and 2 days. He is doing great sleeping in his crib at night.

goes to bed around 10 pm

still eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day, nurses 7-8 times a day

still does not nap well during the day, 99% of the time he must be rocked to sleep and then it is so hard to get him to lay down anywhere during the day, I am lucky to get 30 mins without holding him if he is asleep

loves his playmat and bouncy seat they keep him entertained at least long enough for me to get a shower or eat a little lunch (he really just started liking his bouncy seat this week, the toys are right at eye level and he will laugh and smile at them for hours)

moved to size 1 diapers at 5 weeks

most of the time Reed prefers to be laying out flat in your lap or on his playmat, he likes for you to talk to him, but doesn't really liked to be cradled and messed with

lately he has been going through 2 outfits almost every day, he is constantly pooping out of diapers (this is a post all by itself)

consistently rolling to his side...doesn't appear to be close to rolling over at all

doing good in his bumbo seat

just starting to slobber a little

Reed's Dedication

2009-06-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

On May 30th, we dedicated Reed to the Lord. By doing this, Josh and I promised before our family and church congregation that we will raise Reed up in the church and teach and guide him to accept Christ as his savior one day. This was a special time for us and we were so blessed to have our families there with us. Our church prayed over us and Reed received a t-shirt to remember the occasion and we received a certificate to sign and keep reminding us of our promise.

Me & Reed with Heather & Amelia

Reed modeling his shirt he received.

The shirt has the verse Jeremiah 29:11 on it, for I know the plans I have made for you.

Remembering the little things...

2009-06-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

Reed is getting so big (he is 7 weeks here)! We have been putting him in gowns at night to sleep in because they are to convenient for those midnight diaper changes, but he is starting to grow out of them. Josh was getting Reed ready for bed one night and decided to put him in his baseball sleeper. I couldn't help but think back to Christmas when Josh received this sleeper as a gift. I love to remember the little times like this, before Reed was born, we couldn't have imagined how precious the little boy would be that would wear this sleeper.

Reed and Daddy!

Please note the dogs on each side, they are still trying to figure out who this little guy in the house is.

My first Mother's Day

2009-05-12T15:55:00.001-07:00

I had a wonderful 1st Mother's Day! Saturday night we went to our church and had a wonderful church service and then Sunday morning we headed to Sheridan to spend the day with our moms. Reed and I went with my Mom and Josh's Mom to a Mother's Day breakfast at the church I grew up in and then we went to church with Josh's family at the church he grew up in. After church we had a wonderful lunch at Josh's parent's house and my Mom and Steve also came.

Josh was so sweet! He got me a beautiful diamond fleur de lis necklace. Reed's birthstone is diamond (I planned that well...wink, wink) and Josh said he wanted me to have something special to remember my first Mother's Day. I love it! We don't give gifts very often, so it was very special!

Me, my Mom & Reed

Josh with his brother Branden, Mom & Reed

The Baker Family

All the Moms

Me & Baby Reed...my first Mother's Day!