a trip to the zoo for Reid's birthday

The boys and I visited the Zoo for the first time on Reid's birthday! We went with two friends who are seasoned zoo-goers so they knew where to go and what was worth seeing on an especially crowded day. I was really impressed with the Zoo and the amount of animal interaction! The boys had a great time and were troopers throughout the heat. We're excited to visit again and see more animals and exhibits!

Almost the entire crew, just missing two! 

Face to face with the tiger (that is not a mirage!) and not even startled by it!

Barely holding both boys so they could see the elephants swimming! This lasted about ten seconds before my back about gave out. ;) I love these guys and watching them experience new things!

the boys' birthday party (& a gender reveal)!

We celebrated the boys' birthdays with a joint party in the backyard, just like last year! (Only a different backyard, since we weren't in our house quite yet!) We were so thankful for yet another year of a clear forecast which allowed us to have the party out back and let kids roam free and play in the water. We like to keep their birthday parties simple and more like a barbecue than a party: good food and friends, games for kids and adults, and cake at the end of course!

We set out corn hole for the adults, a sprinkler, soccer balls and goals, a water table and the kids were happy as can be!

^^Possibly my favorite picture of Reid!

Cake time! I made Jake's cake, a number 5 with a dinosaur theme (reminiscent of his 3rd birthday!), but I outsourced Reid's cake to our neighbor. Reid absolutely loves our neighbor and she just so happens to be pretty darn good at decorating cakes, so she took on the challenge of making a puppy cake for our little guy who loves seeing puppies (not getting close mind you, just looking at them!) He was so thrilled with the cake, even if his face doesn't reflect it in the picture. ;)

After enjoying cake, we did a gender reveal for baby #3! When I was pregnant with the boys, Deric and I always found out the gender during the ultrasound, which was still exciting. But we decided to do something a little more exciting this time and I asked a friend to help us with a reveal. We'd just been at the doctor for the ultrasound a few days before the party, so we didn't have to wait much longer to find out! It was definitely hard at the ultrasound not to peek though!

^^I promise Reid's not upset! ;) I was so shocked and I think Deric was too! Even though we'd had an inkling all along that it was a girl, I was still so surprised. And it was so worth it to wait a few days for a fun reveal with friends!

^^White balancing my camera totally worked against me somehow, sadly!

And then after the excitement, it was back to the water for the kids! A friend lent us their slip-and-slide and the kids had a great time on it, once they got the hang of *sliding* rather than falling. Such a fun party for the boys and I'm glad they were able to have all their best buddies--and cousins-- with them!

Reid at 20 months

Absolutely loves wearing boots-- his rainboots have the #1 spot, but his snow boots, Jake's rain boots and even my furry boots are all contenders. He'll bang on the door to the mudroom until I let him get in there and find some shoes to clomp around in, and he doesn't take them off on his own. I usually sneak the boots off of him at meals or on our way upstairs for naps but otherwise he could clomp around the house for days.

Likes to wear (pieces of) the costumes. Just the cape or just the helmet is good enough for him. I can tell he likes wearing the cape and running really fast. His run is so cute because he's just getting it down and still kind of bobs up and down instead of going any quicker! He's just learning to jump and actually get off the ground too so he's learning to use the trampoline from Christmas as more than a spot to lay down and play cars. 

Stripped down after spaghetti for dinner but rockin' the knight costume!

Stuck on his paci (which he sometimes refers to as "papi") and his blanket. If I'm not careful he'll keep it in all day so I try to pop it out and keep it just for naps and bedtime, but you know that doesn't always happen. Church nursery: here's your paci! Grocery store: definitely getting your paci! Car rides: why don't I give you your paci?? ;)

At church today, after he put his hat on by himself. I couldn't fix it. It was too cute.

Speaking of his blanket, he is just the cutest. He finds the corners right away and rubs it on his palm, his cheek, his belly...he'll even rub it between his toes. Heaven for Reid would be his paci, his blanket and his favorite pair of boots!

Loves reading the Bible. He can say the word "Bible" pretty clearly and will look for it among his other books.

Wants to do exactly what Jake is doing at any given time. When Jake claps his hand, Reid claps his hands. When I gave Jake a band-aid the other day for a cut on his finger, Reid watched me put it on Jake's finger and then immediately stuck out his finger for a band-aid too. So of course I had to give him one, which he took off a few minutes later. Speaking of Jake, they play together all the time. They get frustrated with each other for sure, but they still don't go play different things. Its usually the Hot Wheels on one track or another but its interesting to me how closely they play even when they're not getting along. I hope they're always close, even despite arguments.

Jake was helping peel the carrots. Reid was helping eat them!

I have pretty good sous chefs! Transitioning them to head chef as soon as possible.

Apparently I wasn't making dinner fast enough tonight! He found his bib and a measuring cup and wanted to be held while I cooked. Maybe he was supervising for quality control? He constantly wants other people's food or any kind of condiment someone uses. If Deric puts salt on something, guess who needs some salt?! He does love condiments though, especially hummus!

Learning the in's and out's of Play doh. I had just taught him to hide the play doh under the cup and reveal it, which he thought was the best!





He is a kid of few words at this point but I know that any day now the floodgate will open and he'll seem like a totally different boy! I refer to him a lot as a "baby" still and I know he's not, but since he doesn't talk I think of him as younger than he is. And I do admittedly hold on to my "baby" when his big brother is growing like I can't even believe! I love these two guys so much.

decorating the tree (and the house!)

So as much as I love Christmas, the actual setting up of the Christmas tree and decorating it is not my favorite part. I love the tree once its up and decorated and making the living room so cozy-- and I love all the memories tied to the ornaments-- but the whole process is not too much fun, in my opinion. This year, because we were traveling home from Michigan the weekend after Thanksgiving (when we're usually putting up the tree), we did the tree decorating in stages. First day, got it out of the basement, put together and fluffed up. Pine needles were everywhere because Jake thought he was helping us out by shaking the needles out of the tree storage bag. Hilarious.

That next evening, we managed to get the lights wrapped around the tree and brought up the ornaments. Poor Jake wanted so badly to decorate the tree but we just couldn't get to it right away since we had to do other things like groceries and meals and getting ready for the week coming up. So that next afternoon while Reid was sleeping and Deric was obviously at work, Jake convinced me to decorate the tree with him. Usually we make it a whole family affair but I knew Deric doesn't love decorating the tree, so Jake and I did it ourselves!

The best part was watching Jake's excitement over *finally* being allowed to get the ornaments out of their boxes and choose where to put them. Of course we had a few lessons here and there about ornament placement ;) but otherwise he did a great job spreading out the ornaments and covering the entire tree! I did make sure to put the special ornaments around the top half because I wasn't sure what Reid would do with the tree. Thankfully his curiosity has waned and the ornaments stay put. (Can't say the same for the Christmas train, however!)

This was our first year to decorate the outside of our home and I was so, so excited for it! I found inexpensive lights at Target one afternoon while there for something else (always how it goes) and called Deric to measure off the roof line. As soon as I got home, Deric climbed out through a second story window to put lights up and the boys and I tried to rake leaves while we watched him climb around the roof. Jake chose colored lights and I love how they look! Nearly every house on our street is decorated and its so fun to see when we drive home after dark.

Looking for Dad way up on the roof!

Someone got cold and went in to supervise Dad up close!

The last bit of color right before a windstorm this weekend stripped all of the trees bare! But we also had some snow this weekend so I am definitely not complaining! I love seeing snow in December!

Back inside, a few other decorations have gone up too, like this felt tree I made when Jake was one. Its not getting much playtime with this active one year old, but Reid (and Jake) will still occasionally decorate it with the ornaments. The train around our tree is the biggest attraction and I'll post some photos and videos of Reid watching the train because it is the cutest!

a space-themed Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Every year has gotten more fun as the boys understand trick-or-treating a little more, plus I love seeing them dressed up in their costumes. We had friends over for dinner and then scoured the neighborhood with them. I feel like we got a late start on trick or treating but we started at 6! We had a group of kids ring the doorbell at 5:30 and it totally surprised me. So by the time we headed out just a little later, it seemed like we were the last ones out the door...and we were the last ones walking home at 7:45, surprisingly!

Jake was hung up between being a robot or an astronaut for probably a month leading up to Halloween! I'll admit, I steer his decisions based on what I can feasibly create, but he also loves robots and astronauts so I didn't feel too bad. ;) But then after looking online for costume ideas, I worked harder to steer him in the astronaut direction because 1) we already have an astronaut costume and 2) the diy robots just weren't that much fun unless you want to go all out with a cardboard head, and I knew Jake would hate to wear that. So he settled on the astronaut as long as he could have a "robot" jet pack, aka a jet pack he could actually play with! That was just fine with me. Deric figured out the jet pack while I worked on making Reid a rocket ship costume.

(I thought I might have better luck with some photos if I put them in their costumes earlier that afternoon before the excitement but clearly, no. Reid couldn't stand the thought of staying *on* the porch long enough to get a picture!)

This one's a framer. ;)

I love how the rocketship costume turned out but it was freezing that night. So after we stuffed Reid into two jackets, the costume was a *bit* snug. (I'd planned for just one jacket!) But he didn't care. He managed to walk to a few houses and then Reid and our friends' youngest snuggled up in the double stroller and let the big kids get the candy for them. Smart move!

We loved being able to trick or treat in our own neighborhood this year and meet a few more neighbors! It makes me excited for years to come and traditions to continue!

Reid Warren, 16 months

The days have been racing by lately! I completely attribute that to Reid, who gets faster and faster every day. About the only thing he does slowly is waking up-- lots of murmuring to himself and sitting up, then laying down, then sitting up again--but once he's thrown his paci on the ground and wants to get out, he is full speed ahead! For the past few days I've caught him trying to climb out of his crib and thankfully he can't (yet) but we have a video monitor on him for a reason.

 

Just in the last few weeks, Reid's really taken an interest in books. I love this stage! I love how he brings books to me and settles himself in my lap. He's not usually in the mood to read books in their entirety and would rather flip the pages pretty quickly but he has a few favorites that he'll let me read completely. Big Red Barn is a favorite of his. (One bonus of memorizing my kids' books: I can "read" the books to Reid while actually getting something else done. Case in point: trying to get ready this morning, I could "read" the book and put on makeup while he sat at my feet and turned the pages!)

I haven't worn him in a carrier in probably ten months or so, but the other morning he just needed me so much and I needed to get our kitchen clean, so I savored a few minutes of snuggling before he was off and running again.

I think because he's my second child and I continually think of him as a baby, I've kind of forgotten that he's at the age to learn a lot of new things right now! It caught me off guard when we were reading before his nap the other day and I asked him where the dog was in the picture and he found it! So then while changing his diaper, I asked him where his belly was: found it. Nose? Found it. Ears? Yep. And all I can think is, how did you learn this when I haven't actually taught you?! So now I'll be upping my game and actually working on these skills with him. ;)

Reid gets hungry the instant I start meal preparations so I always end up feeding him crackers or something easy while I get our meal ready. This time, a little smoothie saved from breakfast saved the day! He is all about smoothies!

First try feeding himself yogurt resulted in a bath immediately after dinner, but he actually did pretty well! 

Reid really likes dogs (compared to Jake who is terrified!) and he loves to watch the two retrievers who live behind us. Anytime he hears a dog bark, he freezes in place until he can find the dog and then points emphatically at them until I can steer him away. ;) When we pass by dogs at the park, he does the same thing and points and grunts until we've gone pretty far past them. Thankfully he hasn't braved actually petting a dog and I kind of don't want him to, because he'll probably love it and then he'll try to pet all the strange dogs!

Swinging at the park but trying to spot the dog he could hear barking!

Head first down the tunnel, the slide...anything that will give me a heart attack.

Oh, and he managed to climb onto the kitchen chair the other day, so now I get to watch out for that little trick too. ;)

He's going through that "love of shoes" phase right now and constantly tries to wear Jake's shoes. He'll get them on but then get so frustrated when he can't move around in them. Just today he wanted to wear a new pair of boots I got for Jake for the winter (if this heat wave will ever end...). So I put them on his feet, zipped them up and he klonked around for a few minutes. But then he got tired of wearing them and tried to kick them off but because they were zipped up, he couldn't get rid of them. I had to jump in and rescue him before he really got ticked, but his attempts were pretty cute. 

Reid loves to wrestle and climb over anyone who's dared to lay on the ground even for just a second. Jake is thankfully very patient and lets Reid climb on him even if he doesn't want to be climbed on. Reid has a signature move that a friend deemed his "tripod", where he puts his head on the ground and his booty in the air, sometimes even putting his hands up and getting on his tippy toes! He thinks its hysterical and then we all do too.

He loves to dribble balls around the house, and toys too. He kicks anything thats in his way--not like a tantrum, just like everything is a soccer ball and he's surprisingly good at it. Just this afternoon, Jake and Reid passed the ball back and forth between each other for the first time! It was so fun to see and I'm so looking forward to when they can truly play with each other!