Big Saturday for Reid!

We had a big Saturday yesterday! Jenny went out to run some long overdue errands, and since Reid is not quite ready to help me with the yard work, we decided to hang out in the morning and watch some of the new 2009 AMA Motocross season that we had recorded on the old DVR.

Reid had a round of vaccinations on Thursday morning and was not quite feeling himself on Friday and even on Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon, though, he was acting much more like himself, so we decided to head on over to the Martini’s for the evening to grill and hang out.

Before heading out, Reid spent some quality play time on his “jungle mat”. For the first time, he was clearly reaching out and grabbing objects that he wanted rather than just wiggling about! We had a wonderful dinner with Kellie, Dave, and Sara, who was in from Dallas visiting for the weekend with her little girl, Kate. Kate  seemed to really like Ethan’s motorcycle. Reid cannot wait to get his little butt-cheeks on Ethan’s sweet ride. Kellie managed a squeeze or two in between all the cooking.Dave and Ethan also managed to get some good snuggles with Reid. At times, everyone even snuggled him all at once!Towards the end of the evening, Sara rocked Reid to sleep. She did such a good job that he managed to sleep from about 9pm. He slept through the car ride home, getting him out of the car, upstairs and into his cribby, and then he managed to sleep straight through the whole night until 6am this morning. That is officially Reid’s first night sleeping all the way through, and hopefully the start of something new!

Eight Week Stats

Reid’s two month check-up was today.  He’s grown a lot since his last check-up!  Here are his stats:

Weight:  13lbs 1 oz (82 percentile)

Height: 25 in  (97 percentile)

Latest milestones:  sleeping for 7 hour stretches in the evenings, happily kicking and playing when on his back or tummy, coos and other happy sounds, reacting to us with big open-mouth smiles, and moving up to the next size diapers!

New Friends: the Foyt Twins

Our friends Nate and Vicky had twins eleven days before we had Reid.  Sophia and Jacob are adorable!  Reid and I went to visit and spend the afternoon with them one day last week, after yoga class.

Vicky is a rock-star momma and even though newborn twins are a ton of work, she’s clearly loving it!  Her day is filled with twice the diapers, twice the feedings, and as she told me, “twice the smiles.”  :-) Don’t tell Jacob, but I think Reid and Sophia were trying to hold hands!

Bath Time

Reid seems to really love baths!  We haven’t been able to take photos at bath time in a long time because it takes four hands to wash our squirmy, slippery baby!  (In fact, this was the last photo at bath time from his second week.) So while the Flores family here visiting, we had Aunt Stephanie take some pictures of Baby Reid enjoying a tubby. In the bath, he opens his big eyes wide and sits very calm. And after baths, we love to wrap him in a towel and talk with him.

Family-filled Holiday Weekend!

On Friday, my mom came down to spend the day with me and Reid.Later that night, the Flores family came down and stayed through Sunday.  We haven’t seen them since we were in the hospital and were so excited to have them here!  We sure did miss them!   

It was a great weekend!! 

My cousin Marianne is coming for a visit next… We can’t wait for her to meet Reid!

“How is Sadie Belle?”

We’ve had lots of friends and family ask us how Sadie Belle is adjusting to the baby.

She doesn’t like to hear him cry, and will come get me if I’m in the other room, even if Jer has it under control!  I think she blames me for this new person invading her once-happy, peaceful home.

One day when we first got home with Reid and he was crying up a storm, she came and licked my leg when Jer was trying to console him in the other room.  I imagined her trying to tell us to, “DO SOMETHING!!  MAKE IT STOP!!”

She’s protective, and often sleeps near his bassinette.She’s really curious about him……or maybe she just is realizing that he gets the majority of the attention, and she better stick close.And even though she’s going on more walks than she did in the last month of my pregnancy, and we are trying to give her as much attention as possible……we think she’s feeling a little left out! So if you come to visit, she’ll probably ask you for some love and attention.  :-) We think Reid and Sadie will be great playmates someday.  She is a great dog and we imagine he’ll love her as much as we do!

My Little Yogi

Reid’s Aunt Stephanie made him this cute little onesie.  So I though he should wear it to our second baby yoga class.   He’s such a happy little baby!

The local NPR station KUT came to record the sounds of a baby yoga class.  It was noisy!  So when our Austin friends hear that segment on KUT, you can know that Reid is in the chorus! :)

Get to Know Reid @ Seven Weeks

I have always heard about how babies change so much,  and I can say that our little guy is changing every week!  It seems like he is discovering more every day, and charming us with even bigger smiles.  The pictures show you how cute he is, but here’s a glimpse at the personality of Baby Reid. Likes:   being outside and looking at the trees; walks in the jogging stroller; being on his “jungle mat" and playing with all the dangling toys; his swing; bath time; being rocked to sleep; burping; and ceiling fans.

Dislikes:  being hungry; being cold; messy diapers; and being swaddled when he thinks it is not time for sleeping. 

Nicknames (and who calls him what): Mr. Wiggles (Jenny), The Fat Man (Jer), Little Buddy (Jer)

Sleep habits:  he is finally starting to sleep for longer stretches.  Last night he slept for seven hours straight!  (Let’s hope this is the start of something….knocking on wood…)  He is also sleeping in his crib now, rather than in the bassinette in our room.  I didn’t expect him to “graduate” so soon, but he seems to be sleeping much better.

Eating habits:  he is still a champion eater!  Jer gives him a bottle a few times a week to give me a break and to spend quality time with Reid.

Lessons learned:  Let Reid “ask” for a diaper change.  Otherwise, he’s likely to poo on the changing table.  And then again… Heard enough yet?!

Bragging rights:   He is really observant and holds his head up well.  He also has the biggest, best smile in the world.  Seriously. It’s the best.  Come and visit him and he’ll show off his best features!

Reid in a word (or maybe a couple words…):  Observant.  Happy. 

Shhhh…

We don’t want to jinx it, but Reid has been a VERY good sleeper this past week.  He’s been going down between 9 p.m. and midnight and sleeping for five to seven hours.  YAY!  Now if only we’d learn to go to bed when he does, we’d be in good shape.  Let’s hope this continues!! 

We also figured out that he sleeps much better in his own room rather than in the bassinette in our room.  We have a lot of light in the morning, not to mention that with the whole family snoozing in one room, we were all waking each other up!

Here are some pics of sleepy Reid…

In his crib… In the bassinette downstairs…On the blanket that Grandma made him…Is there anything better than a sleeping baby?! 

Sweet dreams, Little Man!

Off-Roading with Reid

I think Reid will eventually make a great little riding partner. He’s not quite ready for his first dirt bike, but I’m pretty sure a Yamaha PW50 will eventually be his first set of gas-powered wheels.

You’ve got to start somewhere. Luckily our wonderful friends The Hofers hooked us up with a lean and mean jogging stroller that comes equipped with some large tires and a nice set of shocks.

Until he’s ready for the next step, I think this stroller is going to be Reid’s off-road weapon of choice. A couple of weeks ago we took Reid out to one of our favorite local parks: St. Edwards Park. This place has varied terrain, lots of trees, rocks, and some great trails that are great for hiking and trail running. I’ve used this park to train for many of my backpacking excursions. One of the best things about St. Edwards Park is that it is only a few miles from our house, tucked right into the edge of the wonderful Texas Hill Country.

First Baby Yoga Class

Yesterday I took Reid to a postnatal yoga class for the first time.  It was really nice to see some of the Mommas that I took big belly classes with throughout my pregnancy, and to see their babies!

As usual, Reid was quiet and observant, then he was ready for a nap.  :-)

I didn’t get a chance to snap a photo while we were there – I kind of had my hands full!!  But here we are once we got home. 

It was a really nice way to spend the morning!

Six Weeks

Our sweet little guy is six weeks old today!

He had a really busy week this week!

On Sunday, his Grandma and Grandpa came down for an afternoon visit.  Reid had a very sleepy day and just woke up to eat and for diaper changes!  Not very social!!  :-)  We went out to Lake Travis for lunch and had a nice visit on our patio afterwards.

We also had visits with friends, Zanna & Sarah on Monday and Charlie & Stacey on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I didn’t remember to pull out my camera for either of our visits! Bummer!  Next time…

Reid met Raquel who was just born last Sunday (May 3)!  Her momma, Amie, and I had close due dates (4 weeks) and were good buddies throughout our pregnancies.  They live in our neighborhood and we’d go on walks or to Big Belly Yoga together.  Here are Reid and Raquel:

On Friday, we went over to Gran Susan’s house so she could finally meet Reid!  (Susan is my good friend Kellie’s mom :-) )  Ethan is a little sweetie and showed lots of love to Reid and me, “AJ.”

Our good friend Brad also came by his mom’s house to meet Reid.We had a great visit!  Next time, hopefully Kellie can be there!!  :-) 

Fun Photo #2

Our next Fun Photo comes from a solo backpacking trip I took up to The Cabin. The photo was actually taken during my drive home to Cincinnati, which took me through the small town of Oil City, Pennsylvania along the Allegheny River.

This is a photo of the “Tri-City Monument Co.”. Notice the sense of humor in the sign on the side of the building (click photo for larger image)…

Photo Album: Cabin, Solo Trip, October 1997

First Play Date

I’m sure there are many, many more play dates in our future but this first one was a lot of fun! 

Reid has two new friends:  Cabo and Ava.  All three babies were born within days of each other!

Beautiful little Ava was born on March 26.

Reid’s birthday was March 28.

And sweet Cabo’s birthday was March 30.

My good friend Amie also stopped by during her lunch break.  Her due date was Friday so she was getting a taste of what’s to come for her!  Maybe the time with three babies was all she needed to encourage her little one!  Amie welcomed her daughter Raquel Eve early this morning!  Congrats, Amie!!