Conversations with Maddie {3 Years Old}

Well, I usually take pride in being a semi-ok summer blogger, but obviously this summer is proving me to be the sub-par blogger I truly am. As an apology I will start my summer of catch up blogs with my conversations with Maddie {year 3} that took place last night starting off a probably impossible to keep up with fun family tradition! Thank you, Pinterest and LeeLou for the super cute {FREE} template!

I asked Madison each question and wrote down her answers. It was so cute to see and hear her actually stop and think about the question. Nearly all of her answers are pretty accurate! I did have to help her with a kind of food she doesn't like for 2 reasons: 1. She pretty much likes everything and 2. She kept saying she didn't like spaghetti or ravioli. #liarliarpantsonfire We settled on "corn" because that's one thing that she consistently doesn't really care for.

Hopefully, I'll be able to "catch up" (said with quotes because one can never truly catch up) by blogging about some of our bigger summer events like Maddie turning THREE and Reid turning ONE! What?! How and why does time fly by so fast??

Reid {10 months!}

Dear Reid,

I'm not sure anyone can doubt that you are a VERY happy baby! You bring us all so much joy, and though you are getting continuously more curious and destructive, you are also getting more and more fun by the day! You have such a joyous personality that is beautifully paired with a little bit of stubbornness. ;)

 Taking your monthly pictures is quite an ordeal these days, but I am determined to keep them going! I love being able to look back and see how much you've grown each month. You may notice Daddy's hand holding you in place in order for me to get your picture ON the bear, instead of you trying to man handle the poor thing* (see picture below). I'm pretty sure I had to change the setting on my camera to "sports" just so it could keep up with you. ;)

 You are still proudly living up to your nickname "Reid the Destroyer." Nothing is safe near you! It's a good thing Madison is such a great big sister; she watches out for you possibly even better than we do your average 2 1/2 year old sibling.

Since I was a little behind on getting your 9 month check up in, you ended up see the doctor 4 days shy of turning 10 months. You weighed in at 21.1 lbs and 29" long. Looks like Madison won't be bigger than you for very long! You have 2 full teeth in and 2 that have just started poking through. I have a bad feeling you are going to get a LOT of teeth all at once. Sorry, buddy!

You have started being able to stand for a good bit of time on your own and even take a few steps. You have been wanting to walk for so long now. You are a pro furniture walker and get the biggest kick out of trying to walk to Madison (that is a video worth watching over and over!) You'll notice the lack of a smile on your face here. Every time I tried to get a picture of you standing you would sit as soon as I got the camera ready. You finally humored me enough to stay standing, but you refused to act like you enjoyed it. Well played, Mr. Stubborn, well played.

 You spent most of your 10th month of life sick. :( You went through strep throat, an ear infection, congestion to the point of needing breathing treatments, then a throat virus that was not strep, a double ear infection and then just your overall cold/congestion. Even through all that sickness you stayed fairly happy and playful the majority of the day. Your nights sure did take a toll on us, though. You pretty much slept snuggled up to me for nearly a month. Don't tell anyone, but I didn't really mind it at all! ;)

I couldn't capture this adorable face you like to give as well as I wanted to, but it does give you a little taste of how playful you are. We have scrunchy face wars quite often, and it cracks us all up! Not only do you enjoy laughing and making us laugh (your fake laugh is hilarious,) you are also so loving and sweet. When I ask you for kisses, you lean over and either push your head on my face to receive kisses, or you plant a big drooling kiss on my cheek! Simply adorable!


We love you so much, Baby Reid, and simply couldn't imagine life without you! You do a perfect job of adding to the love and happiness of our little family of four!

xoxo,
Mommy

Gymnastics Fun!

Putting Madison in gymnastics was one of the best things I've done so far as a mom. Not only is it fun for me to do with her, she has learned so many things and developed so many new skills. She started right before she turned 2 years old, and at that time she couldn't even jump. Now, she can so much!

She can follow directions from her coach and o her stretches (so cute!)

She plays with her friends and waits patiently for her turn (quite an improvement from when she started!)

She balances very well on the balance beam. She can do the beam while walking, kicking, hopping (her favorite), walking backwards and doing forward rolls. She also loves doing headstands!

She loves to jump in the foam pit and has finally mastered forward rolls!!

Needless to say, she loves going to gymnastics! We both very much look forward to Wednesdays! Wouldn't you want to take her if you got to see this smile the whole time?!?!

Happy {Heart} Day!

Even when I was single I loved Valentine's Day! I guess there's something about being surrounded by red, pink and hearts that just simply makes me happy! I love celebrating how much I LOVE the people in my life. I have been so blessed by the love of God, who brought the two little sweethearts below into our family. No matter where you are on the road of life, I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day. You are loved!

Veggie Tales, Horse Riding and Treehouse Fun {Oh My!}

Look at me, look at me! I'm posting something TWO days after it happened!! I'm pretty sure for this wanna-be-blogger, that's a record!

This weekend, I decided on my own with absolutely no pressure from my little sister to make a trip down to Houston. We always enjoy our time when we go, but the drive has begun to scare me more and more every time I make it. Don't get me wrong, I (emphasize the "eeeyyyyeee") don't mind the 2 1/2 hour drive at all, it's the company I'm hauling that usually has issues. Blame the babies, right?! ;)

Anyhow, like always we had a pretty good trip. In order to keep things positive, I'm not going to address Reid and Maddie's horrible sleep habits leading to a very restless sleep and a much-too-early rise BOTH nights. Oh wait, did I accidentally mention it? Ooops!

We started off the weekend fun by driving out to Katy and meeting Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales. They are a big favorite in our house and have been since I was in high school. The kids loved them! Reid would not stop cheesing at Larry long enough to face anyone else and take a picture. It was so cute!

That evening Angelica was in her school's Mr. Valentine Pageant. She escorted her friend Caleb and looked beautiful! I was especially proud of her dance skillz! ;)

The next day Maddie got to ride Dancer for a few minutes. Side note: she had woken up Friday morning exclaiming, "I wanna go to Papa and Gelly's house and ride Skit." So to say she was excited about riding the horse would be an understatement.

Our last fun stop of the weekend was to visit the new treehouse that Houston Oaks CC built. I have to admit, it was pretty cool! Maddie's favorite part was the "treehouse potty!" And yes, we both used it. TMI? There's not much need to narrate our whole treehouse experience, so I'll leave you with some pictures that accurately depict the fun we had and then bid you adieu.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone else feel like they're witnessing a death threat going on in the above left pic?

Reid {9 Months!}

Dear Reid,

"Busy" doesn't even begin to describe how active you are!! Seriously, Dude- you are anywhere and everywhere you aren't supposed to be within a matter of seconds. You have definitely got crawling down to an art. You see where you want to go, lower your head like a charging bull, and off you go! That's one reason why most of your 9 month pictures turned out like this:

I'd set you down on your bear and before I could get even half way ready, you were climbing up my legs to get a close up. I tried so hard, but you won the battle to NOT take a monthly picture sitting in the bear's lap. I guess we'll have to judge this month's growth in a different way. TBH- it makes this OCD mama want to cringe a little that the consistency has ended. I'll start my therapy next week.

On day 1 (yes, there were multiple days of trying to get pictures, don't judge) of the photo shoot, this is as close as I could get you to the bear before you were off to the races. You are so curious and seriously into anything remotely in your reach. Your newest nickname is "Reid the Destroyer," and it's pretty accurate! At Nana's house you knock over the play house daily like the Big Bad Wolf, you've knocked down the basketball goal (bitter you can't dunk yet?) and you knocked over the play kitchen into the wall where there is now a small chunk of wall missing. At some point you're gonna need to tone down the Godzilla impersonations. I don't think even Fisher Price can stand up to your destructive habits!

Some more proof of the above. Step away from the bear. ;) You FINALLY broke a tooth through. One of your bottom pearly whites made its appearance after teething since 2 months old (maybe not quite that long, but it sure seemed that way!) You need as many teeth as you can get too because boy do you like to eat. That has most certainly not changed a bit.

You LOVE to climb and are an expert couch walker! You have a push toy that you love to walk around with. We love your very wide football stance as you walk across the room; it's super cute! We also can't get enough of your sweet, sweet personality! You have an adorable smile and a contagious laugh. It's doesn't take much at all to get you to do either, especially if Big Sister, Madison is nearby. She takes the cake when it comes to entertaining you!

One more thing that you started doing that melts my heart...you've started saying "mama." We weren't quite sure if it was with-purpose at first, but it didn't take long to become pretty clear that you knew exactly what you were saying. I can't get enough of you crawling to me as fast as you can saying, "mama mama mama!" With a call like that and a smile that can brighten up any day, you definitely have us wrapped around your little finger.

We all love you Baby Boy, and thank God every day for blessing us with you!

xoxo,
Mommy

Reid {7 & 8 Months!}

Dear Reid,

I am so sorry this post is so late! You are already 8 months old, and I just can't believe it! It seems like time has started speeding up on me, and, well, I just don't think I'm ok with that! Time, I'm really going to need you to slow down. Thanks!

Can you tell how much you are growing?! It is simply crazy! I guess it's a good survival technique because your big sister can be quite the wrestler. Problem is every time we get on to her for being rough, you start laughing, so I guess there's not too much we can say. Y'all have fun and just try not to get hurt too bad! ;)

You are quite the busy-body. Staying in one place just wasn't good enough for you so you decided it was time to start crawling! You started crawling about a week after you turned 7 months old. I guess you figured where Maddie went, you needed to go to, too! We were relieved at first because we thought it would ease some of your frustrations. You had been wanting to crawl soooo badly for soooo long. Only thing was, the day you started crawling was the day you decided it was time to walk! You were not so happy to find out walking is slightly more difficult. Slow down there, Little Buddy!

You are such a curious little boy. I'm not sure if I've already posted about this but one thing that cracks us up is how animal-like you are. You LOVE shoes, and not in a girly way, in a hmm-I-wonder-what-the-bottom-of-this-nasty-shoe-tastes-like way! I'm serious; you even hunt them down when we think they are completely out of sight. You also like to pull up on the furniture, but not just to practice your football stance, to check out what the knobs or pillows taste like. To say everything goes into your mouth is a serious understatement! And yes- in the above picture, you tasted that sticker, just to get to know it better I guess.

Here are your eight month pictures! It is so amazing watching your little personality coming through. You are sweet, lovable, demanding and destructive...the perfect combination for an adorable baby boy! ;) You are getting soooooooo active. I tried to keep you contained to the bear for your pictures and you basically laughed in my face. We had a talk about being nice to Mommy, but I'm not sure you got the point.

Here you are trying to escape, as you did every. single. time I put you in the bear's lap. Now that you are a master crawler and climber, I guess you think you thinking sitting still is pretty lame. Agreed.

You did appease me by climbing up the bear and attacking its face with kisses, which by the way are so sweet and slobbery! No matter the drool, I love being loved by you!!

You, my sweet Reid, are so much fun and oh so happy! We are so beyond blessed by God to have you in our family. I can't get enough of your smile, your laughter, your scrunchie-nose face, your slobber kisses and your sweet sweet cuddles!

We love you bunches!
xoxo
Mommy