No!

We have been practicing a new word with Reed this week. NO! Reed is enjoy his ever-increasing mobility and adding climbing to his repertoire. Yesterday he learned how to climb on the coffee table. As you can see, he was pretty pleased with himself and I have to admit that I was mildly amused as well, but we've quickly realized that we need to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later. Hopefully we can break him of it, but for now he can not understand why he should walk around the coffee table when he can climb straight over it.

Happy 1st Birthday Reed!

We had a small birthday party for Reed with grandparents, great-grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins, although it turned out to be a houseful. The highlight, of course, was cake eating. Reed enjoyed himself thoroughly.

He enjoyed the cake but the icing even more so.

After realizing everyone was watching, he tried to act more civilized and he decided to use a fork.

Bring on the presents.

The very proud grandparents

Walking

It been months since we thought Reed would take his first steps, but instead the boy learned the super-crawl and lost all interest in walking from one object to another. He could shimmy his way around a coffee table in no time flat, but the second he spotted something across the room that he wanted, it was down to his knees and off he went.

But in the weeks, maybe days, before his first birthday the mood hit him to start walking. I'm just scared that he'll be running before I know it. Here is a little video that Bob and I shot the day before his first birthday. Enjoy!

Reed's Buddies

We had our monthly play group on Wednesday and Reed got a chance to catch up with his neighborhood crew.

This was their roundtable discussion on the merits of Baby Mum-Mum rice crackers. I think it ended with a consensus that they are fun and delicious after they continued to steal them from each other until everyone had some.

Buzz off Mom! Can't you see that I am in the tent with Addie!

Hooray, it feels like spring FINALLY!

It was a gorgeous day so Reed and I took advantage by playing outside and then going on a long walk with our neighbors. Reed was trying out his new hand-me-down scooter, lovingly passed on by Mason and Porter. It was always a hit with them and Reed has equally taken to it.

He likes to push it and walks up and down the sidewalk. I run behind as a "spotter" just in case he trips and takes a tumble onto the concrete. Luckily he's not old enough to tell me how uncool that make both him and me look.

The riding option is a close second on the fun factor. He likes when I push him, but I end up all hunched over and awkward (see "uncool" comment above). But he loves it so that's good enough for me. I'm still his #1 (okay, maybe #2 behind the scooter.)

Adventures on the downstate visit

Reed and I had a nice little trip down to Greenville last week. I had gotten ahead at work and also had Good Friday off so we decided to get away for a few days before Easter. We had a very relaxing time with the family and Reed got reacquainted with everyone.


...especially his cousin Willa who is 3 months his senior. They had been playing so nicely together and I thought, 'hmm let me set them here on the couch together and capture their cousinly love.' My little stinker proved me wrong by biting Willa's foot just as I took the shot. If I would have taken the photo a second later Willa would have been crying and Reed would have a 'what?!' look on his face. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. We'll see when they come visit in a few weeks for Reed's 1st Birthday.


We also made a trip to visit Great Grandma Maher. It was a late birthday(89)/early Easter visit. Unfortunately, Grandma was under the weather and wasn't feeling her normal chipper self. Good news is the cold is now gone and we still enjoyed the visit.

Reed was very pleased with all the "new" toys at Granny and P-pa's house. He really like the train and pushed it all over the living room. His assisted walking is in peak form and he's now letting go and taking a few steps on his own.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Bob's 33rd birthday and the first celebrated with Reed. We had a family birthday celebration on Sunday along with the Easter festivities. Here are a few photos from the afternoon.

Mason and Porter helped Bob blow out the candles; Reed tried to figure out what was happening.

A family portrait.

Note the big blue ball in the photo. Who knew such a simple toy could make a boy so happy.

We were also very pleased that Great Grandma was able to join us.