Another soon to be classic...

Recently Reed has been in a "two shirt" phase. Hey, if one shirt is good, isn't two shirts even better?! Yesterday he assembled an outfit that he was quite pleased with. Only time will tell if he tries to work it into the weekly lineup.


It is also getting exceedingly difficult to take pictures of Reed these days. As soon as he sees the camera, he gives a big 'cheese!' and wide smile but only holds it about 2 seconds before he runs at me, saying "See that!" He instantly wants to see the photo in the view finder. Kids these days! :) Remember when we dropped our film off at the drug store and it came back a week later? Reed can't even wait until the photo has taken until he wants to see it!

These days I have a growing number of photos that look like this.

Decisions, decisions

Lately Reed has wanted to make a lot more decisions. While I was a little resistant at first to doing things his way rather than my way, I am trying to allow him to have a little more control and giving him choices. It's kind of silly but one of things that Reed and I would fuss about was what he would wear. I, strangely, would like to pick out outfits that matched. My taste didn't seem to matter to Reed however. I've realized that I must compromise because it's not worth the daily fight. We'll save that for special occasions when it really does matter (well, sort of) if he looks good.
Here's a sample of a "Reed outfit." Maroon wind pants with a navy and white stripe, his orange "La Tortuga" shirt with a turtle on it, his navy moose fleece, his favorite baseball cap, and his new teal pirate rubber boots. Earlier in the day he had the same outfit except with a bright yellow t-shirt with a race car on the front, but he got that too dirty for me to allow him to be seen publicly.

I'm not sure what he's going to do with his favorite clothing staples already dirty by Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Reed is getting pumped up for his 2nd birthday in 2 weeks. So I think it threw him off a little when his Dad had a birthday before him. He took advantage of the celebration to "practice up" for his. He got to work on singing the Happy Birthday song. He obviously felt he needed a little practice blowing out candles too because he was quick on the trigger and blew them out before we finished the song.

Thanks for to the Mihelichs for the tasty fajita dinner and Porter for providing the DQ ice cream cake.

Love you Bob! Happy Birthday to the best husband!

Edamame and mashed potatoes

Reed is my good little veggie eater. I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised when he took such a strong liking to edamame. Yes, my boy loves soybeans. It concerned me a little when he started mixing them in with his mashed potatoes last night, but he ended up cleaning his plate.

More soybeans please!

Big Boy Bed update

What a difference a few days has made! Reed is going to bed by himself in the big boy bed after I read him a few books and do our normal night-time routine. On Sunday night, I explained to him that his cousins, Mason, Porter, Owen, and Willa, all sleep in a bed by themselves all night. I told him that I would be in the next room and to call me if he need anything but not to get out of bed. And it worked! I really didn't think that reasoning would work with a 23 month old, but hey, never underestimate Reed :)

Big Boy Bed

We just finished preparing Reed's big boy room, but I hadn't prepared myself for the transition from sleeping in his crib to the twin bed. I figured I had some time. While Reed was blown away by his Hippo Room, he hadn't grabbed onto the idea of being a "big boy" yet. When I would ask him if he was a big boy or a baby, his response was always that he was a baby. That's fine...he IS my baby still.

So Wednesday night when he was having an uncharacteristic crying jag at bedtime, after asking him a series of questions about what he might want or need, I asked, 'well, do you want to sleep in your big boy bed?' To which, he walked into his new room and climbed up on the bed. I didn't have a plan for this. I was going to prepare how to handle this so I didn't start a bad pattern to begin with. I laid with him until he fell asleep and then crawled out of bed, crossing my fingers that he would sleep through the night.

He didn't. He woke up at 1am crying and I ended up going in and sleeping the rest of the night with him. The next day he wanted to nap in there. We read books and both fell asleep in there (hey, a pregnant lady can use all the naps she can get.)

Last night, he slept in his bed until 3am and I finished the night with him. I'm not sure if this is progress or the start of a bad habit. I'm not sure if I should employ the "lock him in there" technique or what. I kind of want him to start being comfortable in there before I cut off contact in the night. I can see how waking up alone in new surroundings can be scary.

So we are starting this journey into Big Boy Land. I guess the good news is that we still have almost 8 weeks left before the new baby comes. Hopefully we can work the kinks out by then. Any suggestions will be well-received.

Easter fun in Greenville

We made a last minute change of plans and went down to Greenville for Easter weekend. We were so glad that we did, because we had tons of fun. We think this will be the last trip we make before the baby comes.

Saturday morning Reed and I met up with my high school friends, Jen and Sara, and their darling children. Jen was in from D.C. and Sara was home from Indy so we got a rare visit. Reed was being shy until he decided to start stealing Jen's mom's fruit salad. He ate about half of what she had in her dish and then we fixed him his own plate and he almost cleaned them out. Great fruit salad, Pat! Jen's newborn, Hadley, was absolutely adorable and a little angel while we were there. Bryant and Benson were active little cuties-- they played together so great as brothers.

Meeting up with friends

Saturday afternoon we headed to the park near my parents' house for an Easter Egg Hunt. The weather was great and Reed seemed to enjoy himself. He only got a couple eggs, partly because the other parents were egg vulchers but also because he discovered that there were Tootsie Rolls in the eggs and that halted his search.

Hey there's stuff in these eggs!

Cousins Owen, Reed, and Willa showing off their finds.

Reed and Daddy

After the egg hunt, P-pa made a call to his friend Jay Young with a farm just up the road and we headed up to see his animals. The featured attraction was P.J. the (pajama) llama, but we also saw a big bull, a few steer, and a cool green tractor.

P.J. was extremely friendly but Reed still wasn't sure he should trust him.

But he couldn't get enough of the tractor!

As if we didn't have enough excitement for one day, we then colored Easter eggs at Granny and P-pa's house. We didn't trust the toddlers with clothes and food dye so we stripped them down to diapers and let them decorate.

What do you mean...be fragile with the eggs?

Straight to the bath after decorating eggs and a long day outside.

Sunday morning we headed out early to attend church in Brighton with Grandma Maher, who turned 90 that day! We had a nice mass and we sang Happy Birthday to Grandma at the end. We then headed to her house for pastries and celebration.

Reed helping Great-Granny to blow out her candles.

We then headed over to my Aunt Marilyn's house in Shipman for lunch and an Easter Egg hunt. This time Reed and Willa got a lot more eggs. Again we had great weather although it was quite windy.

More eggs...and more candy!

Look at this huge tractor that we found in Uncle Gary's barn!

Big boy room!

Last week on Bob's Spring Break, he got cracking on converting the spare bedroom/office into Reed's new big boy bedroom. We packed everything up, moved it out, and Bob repainted the room and the radiator. The room was a little stinky (mostly from the spray paint from the radiator) so we had the room closed off with the windows open for a few days so it wouldn't affect us in the other bedrooms.

As I've been a little under-employed for the last week or so, I had the chance on Wednesday to start putting the room together. I scrubbed the floor, laundered and ironed the new curtains, sheets, and duvet cover. I hung new curtain rods and voila, it started to come together. While I may be nesting, I wasn't foolish enough to move the furniture, besides rolling around the bed that is on casters. But besides moving furniture and hanging things on the wall, we are pretty much there.

When Reed got home, he noticed the door to the room was open and he ran right in and happily jumped up on the bed. He seemed to LOVE his new big boy room. Now we just have to work on the idea of sleeping in there. I think we'll get there soon.

This is MY room?! (thinking in his mind he is the luckiest boy to have two rooms...for now)

HIPPOS!

(Note: he doesn't normally run around in a diaper but he had been playing in the sandbox all afternoon so I made him take off his clothes before jumping on the bed. Mean mommy, I know!)