a little bit of this and a little bit of that...

First of all, it's RAINING right now...really raining!

Reid has four wonderful grandparents and they all adore him. I am so glad that we have both of our families close by. Chris' parents got Reid his first camo gear with their ranch logo. :) I know Reid will make lots of special memories spending time with his grandparents at the ranch.

We had Reid's 4 month check up today! Here are his 4 month and 6 day stats:

Height: 26 1/2 inches, 94%
Weight: 15 pounds 12 ounces, 54%
Head Circumference: 17 inches, 88%

He was all smiles this afternoon! :)

Last weekend we went to Mumsie and Popsie's house to watch the Aggie game while Chris was in College Station!
(I guess when you become a parent you start referring to your own parent's by their grandparent names instead of mom and dad.)Cheering on the Aggies with his beautiful Auntie Alli!

Mumsie and Popsie
Seriously Ags? Oh well, maybe next time!

To make this post even more random than it already is, I found out yesterday that Chick-fil-a will be closing for three weeks due to construction. What??? I could go to Sonic for my Diet Coke, but it's just not the same.

Give me the simple life...

Today I was feeling very sentimental about how wonderfully simple life is right now. I know it won't always be this way. I can spend my days completely focused on my sweet boy. I don't have to worry about discipline yet. We don't have homework to do or after school activities to run around to. We can stay in our pajamas all day because there is usually nowhere we have to be. Just pure, sweet simplicity. I love it.

This picture is completely irrelevent, but it sums up the last couple of days. EVERYTHING is going in this baby's mouth. Oh how I love him!

Rolling and Squealing

Well, Reid has officially mastered rolling from back to tummy! Now that he has gotten good at it, he rolls as soon as I put him on the ground. Gone are the days of turning my back for even a second! He has also started to love the sound of his own voice! He makes a really high pitched squeal and it's hilarious! I took a couple of pictures of what his face looks like while he is doing it. He's not sad even though it looks like he is!

Monday Happies

Three random things that have made me happy today (and it's only 1:00!)...

1. Going to ibloom! ibloom is a mom's group at our church and it's wonderful for so many reasons! :)
2. Making this delicious pumpkin pie dip. YUM. I have made lots of recipes from the great website, skinnytaste.com! Yes, I have been cooking! I am really surprising myself with how much I am starting to enjoy it!

skinnytaste.com

3. Going to Target during the time when a senior living residence took a "field trip" there. Talk about making you smile! We have actually been there one other time when this precious little group was there. I am thinking we will start going every Monday around noon. :) One lady asked me, "What isle can I find one of those?" (referring to Reid). Adorable!!

And just because I love this...
emilyleypaper.com

4 months!

Well, it's been another wonderful month! We are having so much fun being parents and making lots of sweet memories as a family!
Reid is growing, growing, growing! We go next week to his 4 month check up and I am excited to find out just how much he's grown. He is wearing size 2 diapers and loves getting his diaper changed! Every time I put him on the changing pad he gives me a huge smile! It's pretty funny. He is still wearing 6-12 month clothes. He is eating every 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Every once in a while he will go 4 hours between feedings, but that's rare. He's up to drinking 6 oz with his bedtime bottle from Daddy. He's not a great sleeper, but I know that will come with time. He takes 3-4 naps a day and they are usually 30-45 minutes each. He's napped for 2 hours straight a couple of times and I was so surprised! He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on the night and wakes up between 7:00 and 8:00. He still gets up 2 (sometimes 3) times during the night.
He looks just like Daddy in this picture!

Reid just rolled over from back to tummy for the first time a couple of days ago and hasn't done it since. He's "talking" and smiling so much! I absolutely love it! He is also starting to giggle every now and then. So fun! He's discovered his foot this month and thinks it's the greatest thing ever! We also have a thumb sucker as of last week. He's starting to be able to intentionally put things into his mouth. He's drooling a TON, so I won't be surprised if we have a tooth soon! How is he old enough to already be getting a tooth? :( He is still enjoying the same awake time activities as last month in addition to his jumperoo! We put it together a couple of nights ago and I think he really likes it! His feet don't quite touch the ground yet. We've also been going on morning walks a few days a week now that it's cooling off a little bit! He's just the sweetest, happiest, most easy going baby. I fall more in love with him every day.

Precious, Precious Reid...we adore you!!!

It took me all morning to write this post. Our morning was absolutely crazy and I just have to laugh! Reid woke up from his nap after about 20 minutes (when I started writing) crying. He never wakes up from naps crying! I rocked him and tried to feed him and he just screamed for about 30 minutes. While I was trying to calm him down, the doorbell rang 3 times in a row, the dogs started howling, and the phone was ringing all simultaneously. We are changing alarm companies and the man was here to install our new one. He was supposed to come yesterday and instead showed up today so I wasn't prepared for a visitor. I am sure he thought I was a complete nutcase. I had to put Reid in the swing (still screaming, poor baby) so I could chase our maniac dogs around the house to put them away. I managed to catch Chloie and just gave up on Annabelle. She was following him around trying to lick him. I apologized profusely for the house being a disaster, my dog chasing him, and my baby screaming. He was really sweet and said "I have a two year old, just wait." That's always encouraging! :) Reid is really good so mornings like today get me a little frazzled. My father in law came over to help me while the alarm guy finished up. I love having family so close! :) Some days I just feel like such a typical clueless new mom! The songs "Just Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Vassar, "It Won't Be Like This For Long" by Darius Rucker, and "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins all describe how I feel today. I cherish every single day.

Up All Night

I am really liking the adorable and funny new show called "Up All Night"! It's pretty cute! Chris and I have nothing in common with the couple on the show other than the fact that we both have babies. UP ALL NIGHT is what we were last night. :) It all started yesterday morning. I went in to get Reid up for the day and to my surprise, he was on his tummy! I think he had just rolled over before I went in there because I heard him squealing in the monitor! :) I was beginning to think that he was never going to roll over. Well, apparently he figured it out. We had still been swaddling him with the Miracle Blanket, but were in the process of phasing it out. We were down to only swaddling one arm and leaving his legs and other arm out. I was worried when I saw that he was on his tummy because the swaddle had gotten twisted weirdly around him in the process of rolling over. I decided yesterday that if he was going to be rolling around now, we would stop swaddling and use a wearable blanket instead. It worked well for his naps yesterday and he ended up not even rolling over at all during his naps. He did it a few times while we were playing though. So last night we put him to bed in the wearable blanket. He slept for about 4 hours. Normally he goes 5 hours before waking up the first time. It made me wonder if he didn't feel secure without the swaddle. I went in his room, fed and rocked him and then put him back down. Well, he thought it was play time and spent the next 30 minutes smiling and trying to roll over. I stood there watching for a while and eventually helped him onto his tummy to see if he would sleep. He immediately went to sleep so I decided to try letting him sleep that way. I went back to bed and laid awake for about 2 hours because I was worried! I know plenty of babies sleep on their tummies, but he never has so it made me nervous. I went in to check on him a couple of times and then I finally went to sleep. I had only been asleep for around an hour and a half when Reid decided it was time to wake up again! This time after I fed him and rocked him, I went ahead and just put him on his tummy to try to avoid him spending time attempting to roll onto it. Well, this time he wanted nothing to do with it. He started grunting and holding his neck up. I flipped him over to his back and he started attempting to roll over again. After standing by his crib half asleep contemplating what to do, I decided to swaddle him in the Miracle Blanket with both arms this time, hoping it would keep him from wiggling around and trying to roll. It worked and he went to sleep on his back until about 8 this morning. I guess we are back tracking on the swaddle thing. I think once he is able to roll over without 30 minutes of effort first, I will stop swaddling and just let him roll around until he's comfortable. Being a mom is really confusing sometimes/all the time. I am sure this little synopsis didn't make any sense because I am sleep deprived. :) Even on tough nights I am so thankful for the gift of mommyhood.

my sunshine...

Yesterday I boo-hooed as I sang one of my favorite songs, to my favorite baby boy, in my favorite place in the house...

I never want to forget those sweet moments.
The tears may have been a result of reading this poem. My mom had shared the last part with me before, but I have never read the whole thing. I love it.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hurlburt Hamilton (1958)

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo,

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo,

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

weekend and worries

We had a fun weekend! Chris went to a men's retreat with our church, so Reid, Chloie, Annabelle, and I all packed up and headed to Mumsie and Popsie's house! We spent Friday night and Saturday night there and had a relaxing, low key weekend. It was cloudy and a little drizzly (shocking!) so we hung out inside all weekend. It was so nice. Reid did great being away from home. He's just so laid back. I love it! We think he was feeling a little under the weather. Luckily he didn't have a fever, but he sounded congested. Guinny came over on Saturday and we loved seeing her! Daddy and Reid were happy to see each other this morning! :)Today I was thinking about a couple of silly things that I worried about before Reid was born. I worried about pretty much everything, but these particular things turned out to be perfectly fine and looking back, I shouldn't have spent so much time stressing about them! The first is the dogs. I was convinced that they would either hate the baby, hate us for bringing a baby home, and/or be too much to handle along with a baby. They have done better than I could have ever imagined. Yes, Annabelle smothers Reid with kisses pretty much every chance she gets and yes, it is slightly annoying, but I am so glad that she loves him! Chloie ignores him for the most part. I am sooo relieved with how well they have done! I also worried A LOT about not getting sleep. I have always been someone that requires a good amount of sleep, which may have something to do with the fact that I spent 8 hours a day with 22 kids for the last 6 years. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to function without sleep. It has been much easier than I thought! Reid still wakes up at least twice a night, but I secretly kind of like it. I love that special time that we get together and I think I will miss it when he actually does sleep through the night.

Finally, on a totally unrelated thought, I am so over this shedding thing. It is driving me absolutely insane. I can't even believe I have any hair left on my head.

Joy!

What has Reid been up to?

*Growing beautiful eyelashes (he can thank Daddy for those eyes!)...*Sitting in his bumbo...
*Getting licked by Annabelle...
*Drooling A LOT and loving Sophie the giraffe...
*Watching college football with Daddy...

*Having a slumber party with Mumsie, Popsie, and Alli and watching his first Aggie football game...
*Going on his first real outdoor walk (it was a blissful 82 degrees today!)...
*Being adorable...

Then and Now

Gig 'Em Aggies! :)Mommy and Reid

The Adorable Little Blue Gem

Dear Adorable Little Blue Seahorse,
Thank you for calming my son down instantly when I waited too long to put him down for his nap this afternoon. Your glowing tummy and peaceful music are magical.
Love,
Reid's Mommy