Baby's First...

This week marked Reed's first Thanksgiving as well as his first trip to Rockford, IL to visit his great grandparents. I cannot believe that this time last year I was as big as a house with just about 5 chins, only days away from meeting my amazing little boy. Ca-razy. But, I digress...this is about Reed's latest first's.

Thanksgiving was spent at my dad's house with my brothers, Pop, sis-in-law, niece, and Pat's dad, brother, wife and kids.  It was really nice. Dakota (my 6 year old niece) was super sweet with Reed. He was really taken with her too. The last time they saw each other was Easter so it was neat to see them actually really interact. At one point, I went downstairs to try and get Reed to take a nap. Dakota was playing a Dora game on the Wii and Reed (although super tired) was stubbornly refusing to sleep. After about 10 minutes of fighting with him, Dakota said, "I know what he needs." Then, before I could do anything to stop it, she started belting out "Hush Little Baby." Not only does she have a surprisingly good voice (although, why am I surprised knowing how musically talented my brother is?), but she knew every single word to that song. Who knows every word to "Hush Little Baby"? Anyway, Reed was tickled by his cousins performance, but by golly if it didn't work! 5 minutes after she was done singing, Reed was asleep. Such a sweet little girl.

On Saturday Dane's Dad and sisters went with us up to Rockford, IL to visit Reed's great grandparents. We survived the 3.5 hr drive and enjoyed a day with Dane's family.

Today, Reed had his 1 yr pictures taken by an old high school friend of Dane's. It was just about freezing cold and the sun was not shining at all, but there was no rain so we went for it. She's already posted some pics and they look great so I'm excited to see the rest.

Here are some pics of the last few special, yet very exhausting, days.

 Cousin Love.

Us + Dakota 

Reed put the angel at the top of our tree! (yes, it's skinny) 

Reed meets Gma Pat

The next time you read this my baby will  be 1...

Nuthin' Much

There isn't really much to report on since my last entry...

Reed's top 2 teeth are coming in. One is in about half way and the other is just breaking the skin. What a cutie.

Reed has yet another ear infection. Awesome.

He continues to work on walking. He is so proficient at crawling, however, that walking is of little interest to him at the moment. I'm not going to rush it. It will happen soon enough and then I will never get to sit down again.

Plans are rolling for Reed's first birthday extravaganza! So exciting. But not really an extravaganza. More like a small get together with family.

Here are some pics:

 Why do I let Dad do these things to me?

 I can chill in here, right?

Really. I could be happy here.

So much excitement around the corner. Thanksgiving, first birthdays, Christmas...stay tuned!

Baby's First Halloween

If you haven't already seen his super cute pic on Facebook, here is Reed on his first Halloween:



Yes, he is in fact the world's cutest monkey. 

Confession: I am not the world's biggest Halloween fan. I don't really understand the hype and wasn't planning on taking Reed trick or treating (he isn't old enough to eat the candy after all). Sorry to those of you who think that is a mortal sin (actually, I'm not really sorry). We dressed him up and took him over to visit family members on Sunday, but didn't at that point have solid Halloween night plans. Reed goes to bed at 7 for Pete's sake!

Dane and I were invited to a Halloweenie party at the house of a friend from church. A few families and their kids would be getting together to roast hot dogs and hand out candy to the neighborhood trick or treators. Kids were encouraged to wear their costumes. We made the decision to attend on Halloween (nothing like last minute, huh?). I rushed home from work to buy some candy and chips and then we headed to North County (about a 30 min drive). We're really glad we went. It was good fellowship and Reed did a great job staying up past his bed time. He fell asleep soon after we got him in the car and did not wake up the rest of the night (even when we transferred him from the car seat to his crib). Overall, a successful first Halloween for Reed.

In other exciting news...Reed is 11 months old today!!! Holy craziness. I can not believe that I am planning his first birthday party already.

AND

Reed took his first few hesitant steps yesterday!!! Any day now he is just going to take off.  I only hope I'm able to keep up.

Well, catch you on the flip side!