Happy Birthday Aunt Amy!!

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

Pumpkin Patch & Da-da

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

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

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!!

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

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

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!!