Summer Break

Petting a "doggie" at Grant's Farm.

This week and last was my summer break from work. Reed and I have had a lot of fun, but being a stay at home mom is definitely not a walk in the park. Phew! For example, currently Reed has been in his crib for about an hour fighting a nap. We went to the zoo this morning with some friends and had to leave because Reed threw a huge fit because he needed to share with another child and did not want to. I realized it was time to get him home for a nap, so we headed out. He almost fell asleep on the way home, so I thought, "great, he's gonna conk out for like 2 hours"....wrong!
If he doesn't fall asleep in the next 30 minutes, I'm gonna have to give in and forgo the nap because it will be too late and he won't go to bed. And I hate giving in when it comes to naps. Let's face it, they are not only something the toddler needs, but the parent's need them too. At least we had fun at the zoo though :)
Last week Dane took a few days off and we went to Grant's Farm (one of his favorite places). We had planned on going to Cahokia Mounds also, but took Reed to the pool instead. He has so much fun and we just love wearing him out there. Dane and I also got to go to our first Cardinal's game of the season, thanks to my dad who had tickets that needed to be used while he's on vaca in Canada. It was a 7:15 game and the temperature was only a measly 103 degrees. I think it got down to 93 by the time we left around 9:30pm. Crazy!
We also spent the weekend in Springfield with Dane's family. His Uncle Scott and fam were in town from California and Dane's sister's and I had planned a girls weekend. It was great to see Scott/fam and spend time with my sisters in law talking about babies and weddings, eating s'mores and watching chick flicks.
Now, LOTS of pictures!

Goats at Grant's Farm

Swimming all day makes for a tired boy.

While taking a break at the zoo to eat some fishies, Reed made a new friend. 

Just splashing around at the zoo.

Sporting his shades. 

1st Card's game of the season. It was only 103 degrees at 7pm. No big deal.

Girls Weekend!

One of his favorite seats.

But, it's back to work for me next week. Glad I get to have time off like this to spend with my ever growing little guy. Oh, and you'll be happy to know that Reed finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before I was going to give in. Sa-weet.

19 Months

Today, Reed is officially 19 months old. That's only one month away from 20 months and only five months away from 2 freakin' years old. How can that be?!?!?! Oh my goodness.

Some of Reed's favorite words now include:
Shower
Ooo-ie (this is what he says when he's poopy)
Thank-you
Eat
Cheese
Car
Beep Beep
Kiss
Hug

I'm sure I'm missing something. This list does not do justice to his every growing vocabulary. I swear, he learns at least one new word a day. He's pretty amazing.
He loves to sing and dance. Turn music on and he starts grooving. The other day I was with him in the car. I was listening to NPR (yes, I'm a nerd sometimes) and I realized that he was in the backseat singing a song to himself. He loves to play the piano at Papa and Pat's house and he sings along with the "tub time" song we sing before he heads to the tub each night (it's really creative...the Batman theme song with "tub time" inserted for "Batman!"). My dad--who is a minor expert on the multiple intelligence theory ;)--says that Reed most definitely has some sort of musical intelligence. I guess this means I need to teach him new things in song and he'll learn it faster. I'll have to put that one to the test.
I'm on my summer break for two weeks and am so looking forward to spending some quality time with my ever growing 19 month old.
Here are some pics:

 Working hard at the puzzle. 

 Stained Glass Butterfly. I think it's beautiful :)

 Just rockin' out. 

 I don't even know what to write here....

This is not a cute picture of Reed, but something I wanted to brag about anyway. Newest addition to the dinning room. Pretty nice, if I do say so myself. 

Peace!