The one about Reed's First Birthday

You hear this from all the moms that you know, "I can't believe my baby is turning one!" Or whatever age/grade/milestone it might be at the time.  It's really hard not to be so proud and so excited about these things even tho they happen to everyone that has a child. Yes, Reed turned one.  An entire year has gone by since I birthed him and changed our lives more drastically than we could have anticipated.  


A whole year of firsts. As my mom observed, he's seen all four seasons: bundled up in the winter and melted through the summer.  Experienced each holiday: dressed up for Halloween, woke up Christmas morning to presents, brought home Valentines from school friends, played with an Easter basket, and well... slept through 4th of July fireworks.  



A lot has happened in a year. He went from a tiny helpless miracle, to a determined force of destruction with a mind of his own. 


He walks, he climbs, he knows what sound a bear makes, he throws, he laughs, he points, he dances, he stacks blocks.  He amazes us all the time.  


Reed has three teeth. All across the bottom in the front. He had just two for over 4 months before another one decided to emerge. 


So I wanted to make Reed's birthday party really special.  It seemed like I'd been planning all year.  I had lots of ideas and just kept hoping that it would all be enough. Special enough, fun enough, entertaining enough, and memorable enough. We celebrated at the clubhouse in our neighborhood to avoid destroying our house. My big thing for the kids was the ball pit.  We filled an inflatable pool with 500 plastic balls (turned out we could have used more!) and the kids loved it.  I don't think there was a single moment that you could have glanced over and caught it empty during the party.  For treats, I set up a parfait bar in bright colored sand pails.  I made a delicious healthy granola to go with the berries and yogurt. 

 Also, the morning of the party I made 4 dozen gourmet cupcakes. Half were "Banana Pudding" and half were "Cookie's n Cream". 


Other decorations included Reed's full year of monthly photos in the basket that I had been taking since his birth.  They were strung along the wall and clipped to a blue ribbon.  I also created a slideshow of his first year in photos to display on our digital picture frame. 



One of the other fun elements were the name tags. I printed off sheets of printed name tags that said, Hi! I'm Reed's:
This allowed out guests to express their relationship to Reed.  Some were very creative, but it was fun to find out what people came up with.  We had, 
Hi! I'm Reed's: 
Creepy Neighbor, 
future girlfriend, (if Reed plays his cards right) Sophie
girlfriend Piper
Grandma Jackie
Dad's boss, Todd. 
Friend, Cassie
Play Papa, Keith
And many other great versions! 


I could have done some better planning day-of.  When we came down to the wire I was stressing at how much prep we had to do still.  Luckily our early arrivers were also great helpers.  Whew!


Reed was a wonderful birthday boy. He played hard- he mingled and made sure to hand out birthday hugs all around.  When it came time for cake he was more interested in sharing it with everyone else than eating it himself.  However, he did get in a few bites, even with 30 people staring at him. 


We had received a tremendous amount of RSVPs but when it came down to day of- there were an unfortunate amount of last minute cancellations.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but there were so many cupcakes to bring home and my fridge is packed with yogurt from the parfait bar!
To all of you who missed it, I'm sorry you couldn't be there.  We had a blast!

The one where Reed goes to the mall playground

My mother-in-law came into town on Sunday afternoon and is staying for two weeks to help us out with Reed.  We are both blessed and thankful for her!  She arrived on Sunday to a family in shambles.  That is a bit dramatic, but her son was in bad shape and had been sick all weekend with a fever off and on.  Reed wasn't doing too well either.  He must have been bothered by something because he was a whiny monster all weekend- not allowing me to get anything done without him in my arms.
Much to my relief she was interested in joining me to the ice-cream social our neighborhood was throwing at the clubhouse.  Mike and Reed, of course, stayed home and rested.  We noticed that all my friendly neighbors were wearing name tags as they were enjoying their frozen treats but we decided to forego the ritual to avoid all of the, "you're both named Connie Franklin?" comments.  It was a much needed break for me, to get out of the house without those tiny hands pulling on my clothes or climbing my leg. Add the bowl of cookies-n-creme topped with almonds, strawberries, candy bar pieces, chocolate covered espresso beans and whipped cream? Well I was in heaven with a cherry on top!
Today we took Reed to the mall where they have a great play area surrounded by padded benches for parents.  Reed has never been allowed in the play area before.  Usually, if we go to the mall, it's a mission to get in and out with what we came for.  We are not mall rats in the least.  Today was different- we went to the mall specifically to fulfill Reed's needs and not our own.  Connie and I didn't even set foot in a single store except the one we walked through from the parking lot.
I have never seen Reed so happy, and that's saying a lot.  He could barely contain himself as he covered ever square inch of the spacious area with his ear to ear smiles.  He made sure to give all the other moms his most extreme smile so he could get their approval and compliments in return.  He plays so well with other children it makes me proud.
They have big shiny animals all around for the kids to jump, stand, crawl, and sit on.  The whole time we were there the group didn't get any smaller than about 10 kids.  They were all very well behaved, although highly energetic. Reed played for almost an hour and there was never any crying. Not only did he love climbing all over the animal shapes, he also loved all the other strollers in the area.  He has a thing for wheels- so we had to apologize to the other moms when Reed attacked their stroller.
By the time we were ready to go, he was so exhausted.  He could barely keep upright on his own two feet!

I'm on a boat! .... or Arc, I guess! 

The one about baby weight

When you're hauling around a baby under one year old, while pregnant, it's really hard not to be self conscious about your baby bump.  I don't know why I care so much but I sometimes wish I could wear a sign or just announce to the world that this isn't post pregnancy baby weight- I lost all of that. This is  new baby weight!

While I can't announce it to the world, the best I can do is announce it to all of you who read my blog.  I don't expect you to take my word without proof, and I won't disappoint. Here is a picture from April, when I set up the blow up pool in the back yard for Reed. He's 7 & 1/2 months old.  I have to apologize for how white I am, plus the exposure of the photo didn't help me out, there!
I am very proud to say I made it back to pre-pregnancy weight, and although I had a lot of "toning" left to do, my real goal was not to start another pregnancy with baby weight from the first one.

Carrying Reed around with this growing belly is becoming a little difficult.  I can barely imagine what it's going to be like in the next few months. I just keep getting bigger and so does he! I'm so glad he's walking now, which is great around the house, but when we go places I still have to carry him in.  I did test him on walking into school the other day.  I held his hand and walked with him but it wasn't very efficient. There were way too many "This way Reed"s and "Over here Reed"s.  Even with some tugging on his arm it took us about 5 times longer than usual.  Or ten times, I'm not sure. We will definitely  have to work on that.  At least its an option now that I've found shoes that I can get on his feet, and that he'll actually wear.  They're rubberoos, and they're like socks with rubber soles on them.  It's much easier to get them on and off than the other shoes we have and they don't seem to bother him.

For the past few weeks, Reed has really been into pointing. He points at people as they pass by (as if they can't see him pointing at them!) he points around the house (the door, the fan, the ball, etc).  What cracks me up is when Mike comes home from work, Reed is so excited to see him and can't wait for Mike to pick him up but instead of greeting him with a hug he immediately turns outward and his finger is pointing without him even deciding what the object will be yet.  He does this with a very inquisitive sound as well, "da?" or "groo?" or "beh?"  Reed is starting to communicate with us! This is just the beginning, but I'm ready to find out what's been going on in that head of his!

The one about family/friends gathering in Missouri

Our trip to Branson, Missouri at the end of July was a whole lotta fun! It was great to watch Reed interact with the other little guys, but the most amazing part was how much he learned! Most of the kids were slightly older than Reed, which means they could walk, run, communicate, and the like.  When we arrived on Friday, Reed record was past 20 steps and we were calling him a walker, but he was often falling to his but after only a few steps.  By the time we got home, he was so much better and more sure footed than we ever thought possible in just a weekend's amount of time!

The house we all rented was south of Branson, near the lake and almost fit everyone, but not quite.  Mike's parent's and Greg's parents were housed in a condo down the road. That meant Mike, Reed and I were in a room. David, Niki, Luke (2yrs) and Kyle (7mo) another. Greg, Kelly and their 18mo old, Evan had a room, which leaves the Foust family- Mike, Kat, Hailey (10), Natalie (3), and Grandma Mary.  One house. That's correct. It was great because there were always eyes on the kids- everyone pitched in for everything from kindercare to cooking.

On Saturday we rented a boat and took turns getting everyone out on the water.  Reed was a bit of a boat hog- he was on the boat for over 5 hours.  He enjoyed it, handled it really well and not to anyone's surprise wasn't afraid for even a split second. He wore his life jacket without a fuss, took bottles and a nap- but that's all boring stuff. What he'd really like you to know is how he played in the lake, jumped off the tube into Dad's waiting arms and even rode on the tube!  More pictures are in our picasa album when you're ready!