Spring Break

Last week was my spring break, so I got to be a pretend stay at home mom. It was pretty awesome. What wasn't awesome was that Reed ended up with another double ear infection. But, to focus on the positive, Reed and I went to the zoo and had a really great time. It was Reed's first trip, and I'm pretty sure he was more interested in the other kids we went with than the animals.
More than a couple times, when I have mentioned Reed's chronic ear infections, people have told me that either their kid or a kid they know had success being "cured" of ear infections after seeing a chiropractor. Now, I'm not  one for hippy dippy alternative medicine stuff, but we're meeting with the doctor in 2 weeks to talk about getting tubes in Reed's ears and if I can avoid another surgery, then why not? I had been considering a chiropractor for myself for some time now (my back hasn't been the same since being preggo) and a friend suggested a woman who has a christian family practice and very reasonable prices. So...we went for our evaluations last Saturday. Sure enough, Reed has some misalignment in his neck and I'm just all sorts of messed up I guess. We'll go back this Saturday to have our first alignments. Exciting. I hope we see results quickly! I'll keep you all updated on Reed's progress. Unfortunately, I worry we may have waited too long and that we may just need to move forward with tubes at this point anyway. We shall see...
Oh! And Reed got his first haircut. How could I forget that? He looks even more dapper than he did before. If that's at all possible.

Enjoy some pics:

 Ready for the zoo! 

Getting ready for some serious grocery shopping with Mom.  

 Hair cut!

Just fell asleep reading his book. No big deal. 

I can't believe he's almost 16 months and we're getting ready to celebrate his 2nd Easter. They weren't joking when they told us he'll be 18 as soon as we blink our eyes. 

15 Months...

Isn't that guy just super cute? And he's 15 months old. Hard to believe. Before I know it he will be a year and a half and it will be summer and he'll be hitting baseballs in the backyard and then he'll be in middle school and then he'll be graduating college and getting married...whew. I think I may be getting ahead of myself here....
Reed is so exciting. This is such a fun age. He loves to give kisses. He loves to try new words and he "talks" all the time. Just this morning he tried to grab Dane's coffee mug and Dane said, "No, it's hot." So, Reed proceeded to say "hot" all the way to the car.
Something that Dane and I just started is a journal we're keeping for Reed. We bought a really nice leather journal and had his initials engraved on it. This way we can write letters to him as he grows up about things going on in his life and stuff. I thought it could be a cool way for us to share these early years with him and something he can keep forever. Maybe we'll be able to keep it going until his 18th birthday or something monumental like that. And of course, we'll want to do something similar for the other children we'll have someday. Just thought it could be neat.
On Thursday, Reed and I will head back up to our favorite place...Children's Hospital! He has his 2nd pediatric orthopedic appointment to check up on the bowing of his legs. Hope they find some improvement, or at the very least that it's stayed the same. So, prayers for that please. It certainly hasn't keep him from walking, so that's good.
In other non-Reed news, I just found out that the State of Missouri approved me to be a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. If you have no idea what that means just trust that it's a pretty big deal and involves like a 2 year process and a test. I'm pretty jazzed about it.

 What a handsome family.

Look what came in the mail!

Excited to see what Spring brings us :)



14 Months

Reed is now 14 months and a few days old. We've already scheduled our friend Amy (Amy Joy Photography) to do his 18 month pics. She's super talented (see Reed's 1 yr photos) and we were able to lock her in at a pretty cheap rate. June seems so far away, but I know it will be here before we know it.

Some new things in Reed's world:
Reed is a full fledged walker.

Reed now says:
snack
bye bye (sounds a lot like 'da da')
cat
dog
uh oh
what's this?

Reed can also:
do, So Big!
Drink pretty well from a straw and a sippy cup
Yell/Scream with the best of them
Dance! (Music really moves him. It's super cute.)
Melt your heart with those big brown eyes

It's so much fun being his mom and seeing his personality really start to break through. He's actually becoming a little person now with his own ideas, thoughts, and feelings. It's pretty cool.

 Hanging out with Grandpa and Aunt's Devan and Darci is exhausting.

He looks pretty tough with the paci and owl shirt.

So Big!!!

What an adventure this is :)

Stomach Flu Took Over

Wow! It's been a while since I last checked in with my many readers ;) I think I can safely blame that on the fact that the stomach flu completely invaded our household a week and a half ago. It was terrible. It started with Reed waking up around 12:30 on a Wednesday night (Thursday morning, really). He was a little fussy so Dane got up to give him his pacifier (no, we have not weened him off of it yet, and yes, I think that Dane and I may be more afraid/nervous/not looking forward to it than Reed...don't judge) and came back to bed. But, of course, since I had woken up I had to pee. I crawled out of bed and heard what I initially thought was the dog throwing up. I remember thinking "oh no...what's the dog doing in the baby's room...wait! (panic rising) I think that's Reed!" I ran into his room to see him on his knees with his face in the mattress just about to throw up. I sat him up so he wouldn't choke on anything. We gave him a bath, and then since Dane had already planned on taking Thursday and Friday off to hunt, he decided he'd sleep with him on the couch and stay home with him the following day. I went back to bed (totally unable to fall back asleep) and heard Dane running to the bathroom with Reed about 45 min later. This continued for about the next 4 hrs. Dane and I eventually gave up on trying to get any kind of sleep and I myself let my supervisor know I would be staying home. Reed stopped throwing up around 11am, but diarrhea followed for the next 3 days. It took him a full week to get his appetite back in full force.
As if that wasn't bad enough...I left work on Friday feeling like I was going to throw up. There wasn't any real indication that I was going to be getting sick. All of a sudden I felt hot and nauseous. I couldn't get a hold of Dane because his phone had died while he was out hunting and I didn't have a clear idea of when he would get home. By the time I got home with Reed I was down for the count. After about 2 hrs of me having to put Reed in his pack n' play and run into the bathroom and still no word from Dane, I finally broke down and called my dad. He came over to help me give Reed his dinner (which he was refusing), get him to drink Pedialite (which he was refusing) and put him to bed. About 15 mins after he arrived, Dane came busting through the door as pale as a sheet. As he was climbing out of the tree stand, the stomach bug hit him too.
I said it once, and I'll say it again...it was terrible. Thank goodness for family though. My Aunt Cindy babysat Reed all day Saturday so Dane and I could get some rest....2 days later she got sick too. This thing was no joke.
But, we're all feeling better now and everyone is back to their normal selves. Reed is officially a "walker" now which is super cute and exciting. I just love seeing his personality blossom each day. He's a pretty funny guy and probably has the best/cutest laugh ever. I mean that. Ever. He loves to eat. When he runs out of food, he cries. He really will eat anything. He likes being read to and has started bringing books over to me to read. It's super sweet. I love reading to him. I hope he develops a real love of reading like me and Dane. He always dances to the Jeopardy theme song. It's like something comes over him and he just has to move to the music, no matter what he's doing. He must be a genius. But that makes sense, right?

 Sick Reed.

The Jeopardy Jig 

(shift from one foot to the other and repeat).

To sum it all up: Reed is pretty awesome. 

Blessed

This year marked Reed's 2nd Christmas! As usual we spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Cate's house and Santa came through and showed up again :)  (It's so cool that my family  has an 'in' with Santa). Reed did not freak out and cry. He studied his present and then studied the Big Guy and then went back to his present. 

Reed did great staying up late and entertaining our family. We thought he might sleep in Christmas morning...but to our dismay he was awake at 6am, as usual. 

Reed opened some toys and books from Mom and Dad and then took a short nap. We headed to Papa's for lunch and even more gifts! 

Overall, Reed did a great job and now has more toys than we have space to put them in and enough Cardinal apparel to outfit him for the entire summer. What a spoiled little sucker.  

Dane was really sweet and got me a Pandora charm bracelet. He started me off with one charm that represents Reed. It is blue with silver ivy wrapped around it and is meant to represent us (the ivy) surrounding Reed with our love (the blue being Reed). It's super special. He also got me a Willow Tree figurine that is a mom holding her son on a rocking chair under a quilt. He said this reminds him of how I hold Reed under his blankie.  Some other top earners for me were my new cookware set and canvas print from my dad. He printed it on canvas and mounted it to the frame himself (pictured below)! Now Reed's picture is really like a piece of art. 

I'm glad that my family doesn't get all caught up in the gifts they get but instead simply enjoys giving to each other, sharing laughs and creating memories. 

 Reed with Santa!

Christmas morning with Mom and Dad. 

Papa with his grandkids, year 2. 

The  canvas print my dad made. Picture doesn't do it justice. 

Merry Christmas. We are blessed.

9 Years.

A couple of months ago, at my dad's suggestion, I submitted an essay on when I first understood what love was to a popular magazine. Seeing as I haven't heard anything from them, I think it's safe to say that I didn't win anything and they won't be publishing my essay. However, on the ninth anniversary of my mom's death, I keep thinking about it and about how awesomely my mom loved. I've decided to share it with you, my dear readers (all 6 of you), in an effort to celebrate my amazing mom....

I have been lucky. Love has been a constant in my life since birth. I always knew that I was loved. I always knew that my parent’s loved each other. I understood that love was a powerful force. I was taught about God’s amazing love. The problem was that I just took it for granted. 

My parents had the kind of romantic love only seen in old black and white movies. They were truly each other’s best friend and loved nothing more than the others company. Most couples I know relish weekends without their spouse, my parents hated them. They would do anything they could together: walks in the evening, cooking dinner, weekend retreats and grocery shopping. To this day I thank them for showing me what true love really is and encouraging me to settle for nothing less.  At the time, I figured this was how everyone’s parents were.

During my freshman year of high school, my mom was diagnosed with a rapidly growing form of breast cancer. She was 38. Within a week she had found the lump, seen the doctor, had a mastectomy and begun chemotherapy. With no family history and her young age we were all pretty scared, yet, call us naïve, we just figured she’d beat it.

Within a year she had gone into remission. This joy was short lived, however.  Within another year, the doctor’s found that her cancer was back. It had multiplied and traveled to several parts of her body. We weren’t so naïve this time.

 Throughout this difficult season of our lives I was able to see love in action. Love was my mom sitting in bed all day drawing personalized cards for her family and friends. Love was the families of my mom’s students who made us dinner and shared their housekeepers with us. Love was my Grandma, Aunt and family friends taking shifts sitting with my mom while she was home alone during the day. Love was my dad’s boss telling him to stay at home for as long as he needed to be with my mom as her condition declined. Love was my mom being more concerned with her kids being kids than the unfairness of what life had dealt her.  Love was my dad carrying my mom to the bathroom when she was in too much pain to make it there on her own.  Love was the school my mom worked at closing the day of her funeral so everyone could attend.  Love was everywhere, but I was in too much pain to really see it.

When my mom passed away during my senior year of high school I was smacked in the face with just what love meant in my life. My mom was everywhere, and then all of a sudden, she wasn’t.  My mom was love and now she was gone. She wasn’t in the stands at my sporting events, she wasn’t at home after a long day to talk to, she wasn’t in the kitchen making dinner, she wasn’t tucking my little brother in at night, or supporting my older brother’s music dreams.  She wasn’t teaching her students, listening to her siblings, or being my dad’s confidant anymore. She was just gone and the space her love filled (and it was a large space) was empty. Don’t get me wrong, I was still loved by so many wonderful people…but it wasn’t my mother’s love. 

I have since learned to live without this love so present in my life. Some of that void has been filled by carrying her memories instead.  Some of that void has been filled through my attempts at loving others.

I am now a mom myself. When I first held my son I was overcome by a powerful force… “Now I get it”, I thought. Now I understand the love my mom had for her children. I understand why she sacrificed for us, why she attended EVERY event we participated it, why she always encouraged us, why she expected so much from us, why she prayed for us, laughed with us, cried with us, and eventually wanted us to be normal kids even though she was so sick.  I am often sad that my son will never know the love of his Grandma, but then I am reminded that I will share a similar love with him…my own kind of motherly love.

I now understand that love is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains.  None of us deserves love, but we cannot live without it.  Love gives us hope, allows us to forgive, and gives us the strength we need to accomplish our goals.  My mom loved me. She loved me unconditionally and from her I learned a lot about love, even how to love those who hurt you the most.  I know that I am loved.  I don’t know why I deserve such love, but it’s there. In spite of my faults, my flaws and blemishes, my mistakes and missteps, I am loved.

I have a tattoo on my foot. It simply says “love.” But what makes this tattoo so special is that it is in my mom’s handwriting, copied straight from a letter she wrote to me. When I think of love and what it means, I think of my mom. Love is her legacy.

I hope my children will be able to say the same thing about me one day, too.

Specialists

Reeds party was a blast and he got more toys than he knows what to do with. I'm not sure what to expect for Christmas! It was so much fun to have all the family over to celebrate our special little guy.

His 1 year appointment went well. Reed is 21 pounds and 31 & 3/4 inches. He's moved up in his weight percentile to the upper 25th and his height is in the 90th. Tall and skinny, but healthy. The doctor was a little concerned that his legs are still slightly bowed and Reed had another ear infection (surprise!). If Reed gets 2 more this season we'll be seeing an Ear, Nose & Throat guy to talk about tubes. The Dr did recommend a pediatric orthopedic and we saw her this morning. Reed got his first x-rays taken and we got good news. He has some mild bowing, but nothing serious. He is just a little behind in getting them completely straight, but the Dr is confident that they will straighten out on their own and not hinder his development. We'll return in March for them to track his progress. We're just getting to meet all the pediatric specialists at Children's! But I'm thankful that we have such a great hospital so close to us.

I'm happy to report that I have made HUGE improvements with my food fear. Reed is fed almost 100% table food now and I even let him have a cookie now and then. He does a great job chewing and I've made myself relax and trust his eating ability more. It helps to know that when he's at my dad's on Thursdays that he and my grandpa feed him brownies and cookies all day ;) He's just getting so big. He's a toddler now. I can't believe it.

What's going on? Why are you all singing and staring at me? 

What are you guys making me eat? This stuff is weird...

 So. Freaking. Handsome.

Huh? I fell asleep?

My kid is awesome.