7 Months

I missed blogging about Reed's progress on his 7 month anniversary (July 2) so I will take some quick time to do it now.
In 7 short months Reed has...

Become an accomplished crawler. This kid is FAST! We have to keep eyes on him all the time.

Started pulling himself up on whatever he can...the crib, coffee table, couch, mommy, daddy...

Become quite the little talker. He makes the funniest noises and really makes a huge effort to be a part of our conversations. Once he starts really talking I don't think he's going to stop.

Started eating more solid foods (see last post) and added more solid foods to his daily schedule including an afternoon snack. Yumm-o.

Traveled to or through the following states: IL, IN, OH, WV, PA, CT, NJ, NY, DE and just about 2 miles shy of RI. So well traveled.

Gone to the pool...even went under water. We can't wait to go back!

Sprouted his 2 bottom teeth and started working on some more.

Graduated from the "baby bath tub" (of which he was starting to crawl out of) to the "big boy bath tub" in which he loves to splash around :)

And (for Uncle Tyler) started creepin'. He stared a hole in some girl on the ferry back from Fisher's Island...made her quite uncomfortable. It was rather hillarious.

...I can't believe how fast my little boy is growing. Just a couple of weeks ago when he stood up in his pack n play his eyes just made it over the edge, now his chin meets it. He'll be taller than me before I know it.

Home Again, Home Again...

After a week and 2 days of vacation, we are finally home! Dont' get me wrong...vacation was great, but it's good to be relaxing on my couch at the moment :)

We departed for the great state of Pennsylvania last Friday at approximately 7:45 am. Dane, Pop, Reed and myself rode in Pop's car and my dad and Pat followed. The first day we drove about 6 hrs and ended in Dayton, OH at my Great Uncle George and Aunt Tish's house. They fed us and George shared stories of his and my Pop's childhood on the Island (Fisher's Island, NY...the whole reason for this epic trip up North). Day 2 involved about 8 hrs of travel and brought us to our destination for the next 2 days, Uncle John and Aunt Jeanne's house in PA. We spent a couple of days relaxing there (the girls going shopping, the boys visiting a Civil War POW camp in DE) and then headed to CT Wednesday morning. This was a 6 hr trip that landed us in Groton, CT. From here we explored the cemetery where my great grandparents are buried, visited my Pop's cousin George (there are a lot of George's in his family...), saw his G-pa's house in Mystic, CT, saw Mystic Pizza (didn't eat there though, George says the pizza's no good), toured the Submarine Museum, and then headed out to the Island. The Island is a 45 minute ferry ride that departs from New London, CT, however, Fisher's Island is part of New York.

I have heard stories of the Island growing up and really wanted to see it with my Pop as a guide so he could show me his old stomping grounds and tell me stories about what happened here and what happened there. His dad (my great g-pa) ran the grocery store on the Island. My Pop was 1 of 8 students who graduated in his high school class. The Island is 9 miles long and during my Pop's childhood also housed a military base (WWII). There is an East Side of the Island (summer houses for the rich and famous) and the West Side (regular folks). There are 2 golf courses (1 being in the top 10 best golf courses in the US) and a town triangle (Pop likes to say it's not big enough for a town square). I got to see the house he grew up in and the store my great g-pa had (no longer a grocery store, but still operating as a gift shop of sorts). We saw the golf course he worked on as a teenager and gained access to the private East Side of the Island to view the beautiful golf course and the ridiculous houses (people like the Simmons of Simmon's Mattress, DuPont's of DuPont paint and others own houses on this part of the Island). Pop's childhood friend, Mary Jean, met us on the Island and gave us our own private tour. She had a ton of pictures and even showed us one of Nancy Dow, Jennifer Aniston's mom, who was a grade younger than her in school on the Island. Pretty cool. I'm so glad we were able to go.

Reed was such a trooper during all of that traveling. He had a lot of "firsts" too. He ate cheerios, peaches, green beans, corn on the cob (don't worry, the corn was off, it was just the bare cob) and watermelon. Oh, and Papa spoiled him and shared his ice cream. He created a monster.

We had only 1 scary moment...and boy was it scary. Reed choked on a Cheerio while we were driving around Groton. I mean really choked...no coughing, no breathing, eyes wide in panic choked. I won't go into all the gory details (more for myself than for you), but Dane acted fast and squeezed his stomach (not proper protocol but you can't give back blows when a baby is in a car seat!) and dislodged the offending cheerio. Suffice it to say Reed will not be eating hard solid food until he is at least 10.

Now for pictures!


Reed and Papa at Fort Deleware




Reed and Daddy at Ft. Deleware



Reed Loves Watermelon!!!





He's mastered crawling and moved on to standing !!!





Just chillin' on the Ferry



Fourth of July Baby



4 Generations of Lamb's on Fisher's Island.



Waiting for the Ferry back to the mainland











Tired travelers.

All in all a great trip...too bad Reed won't remember any of it. Guess that just means we'll have to go back!

He's Crawling!!!



Reed can really crawl now...this is just too much.

Pictures!!!

Nothing too exciting happened in the world of Reed this past week. A few things to note:

• His bottom 2 teeth are almost all the way in. It's super cute to see the new faces he makes as he works his mouth around his teeth. He's just too adorable.
• His eyes seem to be healing very well. His left eye has taken some time to get completely straightened out, and it's still not perfect, but it's so much better than it was before. Hopefully it will be just right by the time we go see the eye doctor again in August.
• Reed's noises have gotten pretty interesting. We think he might actually be starting to speak Russian instead of English based on the silly sounds he makes :)
• He is adjusting to his new schedule of Julie 4 days a week and Pat 1 day. This week my Pop even joined the party at Pat's and got to spend some good quality time with him. It's so nice that we live close to so much family and Reed gets to benefit from that. Even the in-laws aren't too far and come to see him a couple of times a month. He's one lucky boy.
• Reed has moved to stage 2 in the baby food (the "sitter" stage). He now eats things like, banana and mixed berries, apple cinnamon oatmeal, ham and pineapple, and macaroni and veggies. We still haven't found a food he won't eat. Hopefully he won't be picky like his mom. Small finger foods (like Cheerios) are right around the corner.
• Reed can officially pull himself up in the crib and the pack n play. This is mostly cute, but sometimes frustrating (like when he should be going to sleep). Julie told him he had no business having such strong legs at only 6 months old.
• We need to start baby proofing the house.

This post is titled pictures so I should post some I guess. We got our family/Reed's 6 month pictures back from the amazing Helene Behrend (she did our engagement and wedding pics too). She took over 200 so I'll only put a few here. I have more posted on my facebook if you're my friend and would like to peruse.

Next week we will leave for the great North East. A 2 day car ride with a 7 month old to PA...prayers please!!!

Fathers Day

Today is Dane's very first Father's Day!

Dane has stepped into his role as "daddy" quite naturally. He dove in to giving Reed his very first bath and has since become the primary bath giver. He also takes on the 6am wake up call and feeding, not only on the weekdays (because he has to wake up an hour before I do) but also on the weekends when he could easily ask me to switch off with him. He loves going on walks as a family and taking Reed out for runs every evening with the dog. He has even taken him along on one of his favorite past times...fishing! Reed lights up when he sees him and greets him every morning with a smile (I guess that makes 6am a little more bearable). It's touching to see the love he has for Reed and just how happy Reed makes him. We are both so lucky to have him in our lives. I can't wait to watch their father-son relationship grow.

And I'd be remiss not to mention my amazing father today as well. How blessed am I to have such wonderful men in my life? Thanks for guiding, loving, encouraging and supporting me for so many years dad! I'm one lucky Baby Cakes. 

Yesterday Reed had his first trip to the pool!!! Thanks to Uncle Tyler, we had a lot of fun in the sun. Reed wasn't too excited about the cold water, but he warmed up to it (pun intended). He even went underwater for the first time. We'll definitely be going back.

An update about Reed's ears: they are perfectly fine. For the time being we don't need to worry about going to an ENT.
Reed had a good first week with the new babysitter and Pat. I hope it just keeps getting better :)

I'll leave you with one more picture. This is what Dane was greeted with yesterday morning.

Does it get any better than that?

Change

This week marks a week of change in the Sample household. Today was officially Reed's last day at Growing Footprints Daycare. Tomorrow morning he will start at Julie's house. Julie is a woman in the neighborhood who was recommended to us. She currently watches one other three year old boy. His mom raved about Julie, so that put us a little more at ease about this transition. Julie will watch Reed four days a week and Pat will watch him one day (Thursdays).  At least for the summer, Papa will also be there with Pat so Reed will have 2 on 1 attention! Obviously this switch creates a pretty good money saving opportunity for us and as an added benefit, Reed will be getting much more attention. This does not ease our nerves, however.
In other exciting news, after a rather gruelling interview process (involving several phone interviews and one 9 hour long interview culminating in teaching a lesson) my dad was offered the position of Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Clinical Practice at Greenville College. My Alma Mater! How exciting is that?!?!? When I was a freshman at Greenville, my dad mentioned how nice it would be to retire to a small college town like that and be a quircky professor. I am so proud of him and in awe of how God brought him to this place. Why am I still surprised at how God takes care of us and leads us directly where we need to be? Yet another example of Jeremiah 29:11. I'm so excited to see my dad grow in this new position.
Anyway, back to Reed...
He has added more food to his repetroi which include: vegetable beef, turkey and rice, chicken and apples, chicken and noodles, vegetable chicken, and an apple/strawberry/banana mix. He eats fruit with oatmeal along with a bottle at 10am and then gets another dose of baby food at dinner which is usually meat and some veggies. I haven't found a food he doesn't like. Squash is not his favorite and neither are peaches, but he'll still eat them if he has to ;) He has a doctor appointment tomorrow to check his ears again, so we'll see if he's gained any weight in the past couple weeks since we've added the extra baby food. Regarding his ears, this last round of meds seemed to have worked really well. Hopefully that was the last ear infection he'll have for a while. Really don't want to do another surgery!
Here's what Reed's  been up to:

Standing up at the Doctor's office. Reed had to change cribs at daycare to one with higher sides because he had pulled himself up to a standing position one day last week and freaked the teachers out!

Just chillin after a walk with Mom and Dad.

Standing up in the pack n' play!



Bed Time Book!



Keep Reed (and us) in your thoughts and prayers this week as he transitions to new childcare. 

6 Sweet Months

Can you believe that Reed is 6 months old today?!?!? Crazy.

Here's the rundown on his 6 month check-up:

-got 3 shots & one oral vaccination (why can't they all be done orally?...so much easier)
-last ear infection STILL not totally gone (even though the medicine he was on was supposed to be stronger), so trying yet another medicine...if this pattern of ear infections doesn't end soon we'll be sent to an ENT doctor to discuss having tubes put in. we'll go in on June 15th for the doc to take a look at his ears again to make sure this medicine worked.
-14 pounds 12 ounces...that's not even a pound up from his 4 month appt.-the doc wants to keep an eye on the weight but thinks it may just be genetics since he has no problem eating and certainly gets enough food. he did suggest adding more baby food to his feedings (he gets fruit or veggies w his 10am feeding & some rice cereal before bedtime) so it looks like we'll be adding food to his bedtime feeding-and we can start meats now too...yummy
-27.5 inches...that's an inch and a half longer than he was at 4 months! still long and lean, but hopefully we can add a little more weight to him
-doc noticed that one eye is still turning in a little bit but the eye doc said this may happen for a few months after the surgery...hopefully it won't be a problem anymore when we go back to the eye doc in august

In other news, Reed is about to take off crawling. Here's a link for a video my sister-in-law took (sometimes the audio comes on before the visual so just hang with it for a second):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF0L87ZKsFY

What a cutie :)

Continued prayers for his eyes to heal correctly, as well as his ears. Next check-up...9 months.