As a matter of documentation, we are noting on here that Reed started stuttering within the last few days. He has had a tendency to repeat the first words of a sentence, but never been stuck on individual letters or sounds like he is doing now. It does not seem to frustrate or embarrass him yet, but he does talk to us about it being “hard to talk” sometimes.
What we have read says that there is no need for alarm yet, but we will be monitoring it from this point forward.
RB
A few weeks ago, Reed started waking up in the morning and coming into our room to climb into bed with us. Julie and I both grew up doing the same thing with our parents. In fact, we each have very distinct memories of either nuzzling in between our parents, or just talking an goofing around in their bed. (Most of the time, for me at least, it was on a lazy Saturday morning when my parents were trying to sleep-in.)
So, for the longest time, we had tried to pull Reed into our bed to just hang out and play or talk when he would get up a little too early for us, or we just were not ready to get on our feet and get him some breakfast. He would simply kick and whine when we pulled him up and insist on getting up (bossy!). Needless to say when he actually brought his blanket into our room and wanted to lay on our pillows, we were ecstatic (that might be overstating, but you get the idea). We might be able to actually trace the change of mind to a few weekend naps with Mommy in our bed… he got a taste of the Tempur-pedic and realized what he was missing.
Now, pretty much every morning for the last week, he will come into our room (usually while Julie is getting ready for work) and take Mommy’s place in our bed. He insists on having his own blanket cover him, and won’t have anything to do with our comforter. Then, when Ali wakes up, we go get her and add her to the mix. On the mornings that we do have the time to play around, we have some all-out rumbles with lots of giggling. (It usually ends with Julie or myself getting head-butted or punched in the eye by Reed.)
We are certainly okay with this behavior because Reed still sleeps a full night in his own bed and then comes to our room when he would normally be getting up for the day. He has always been a good sleeper, so it really doesn’t worry me too much that he would shun his own bed for ours. For now, we are enjoying that he wants to be with us because we know those days are numbered.
Randy posted some pictures from Reed’s party, and then I never wrote any text. Sorry about that.
I have the hardest time throwing parties for Reed because I still have no idea what to do with boys. I had been asking Reed for weeks and weeks what he wanted for his birthday party. All he ever said was that he wanted a blue party…with pink. It was rodeo time in San Antonio and we had been doing lots of cowboy/boots/horses things, so I decided to make it a cowboy party. My favorite thing about the party was the food. It was the easiest (and probably cheapest) food I have ever done for a party because it was all done in advance. I made slow cooker pinto beans, and then the next day turned the beans into baked beans (this was my first time to make pintos from scratch and they turned out great!). Then I made pulled pork sandwiches (again, in the slow cooker the day before). Reed has decided he LOVES coleslaw (seriously, who IS this kid??) so I made some of that too. The fun part was that I served the meal in aluminum pie tins.
The desserts included cow patties (Oreos covered with brownie), individual s’mores and a cow cake. Reed couldn’t get enough of the s’mores. I think I will be making those again, they were so fun and so portable.
Decorations were simple but fun. I used cowboy hats and bandanas, that were also favors, to decorate the dining room wall. Table tops were covered with burlap and this lovely blue paisley fabric that I found. I used mason jars filled with sand from the sand pit and white candles. I also used some purple flowers from the awesome mountain laurels trees in the neighborhood to fill mason jars for the centerpieces.
The weather was horrible for his party, so we didn’t get to play outside at all. I had ideas about stick horse races, or something with bubbles…but it didn’t happen. It was storming and freezing cold, so we stayed inside and just played. We did pull out the racetrack from Reed’s second birthday and it was a hit again.
We had a great time at Reed’s party this year. Hopefully next year he will give me a little more input besides ‘a blue party’.
Ali’s first birthday party was a delightful hit. I’d say it went off without a single hitch. Julie loves planning birthday parties for the kids, but I think this one was her favorite. She kept talking about how happy all the colors made her.
The theme was “rainbow”, and that assimilated itself most obviously in the cake and desserts. Julie made a rainbow-colored layer cake, where each layer was baked individually and colored. What came out was both beautiful and tasty!
As for the Birthday Girl, she was in the best mood the entire afternoon. We strategically timed the party for late afternoon, when she is at her best (when fully rested). She had a great nap and we fed her as soon as she woke up. She was primed and ready to be social when everyone came over. Reed, too, got a great nap and was very helpful and compliant for the most part.
*This post was obviously written by Randy and I will write a separate post with party details. I really loved this party and want to share all the fun stuff I did/found.*
Below is a sample of the pictures we took and a video of Ali getting into her first birthday cake (beautifully colored, I might add). Check out the Full Photo Album for more.
Reed is now proud to announce, “No More Diapers!” He is proud to proclaim that to anyone, and then follow up by telling everyone that, “Reed is choo-choo potty.”
Huh?
It took us a second to figure out…. Reed is potty trained!
That’s right, over the last few weeks it has been a progression of milestones with very little setbacks, and now Reed out of diapers completely.
Nothing like a little peer pressure to get the ball rolling, but in mid-Fall, Reed’s friend Caleb had made the move to underwear, and we made a big deal of it when his mom told us. From that point Reed finally wanted to try the little potty we had bought several months earlier.
We had tried a few days of underwear when we got home at night, but he always had accidents. We couldn’t get him to go sit on the potty, even if he didn’t have to go, so it was going to be up to him to make the move. Then one night after bath, he was running around butt-naked (which seems to happen regularly after bath time), and he announced he had to go potty. We got all excited and ran with him to the bathroom and had to pull the potty out for him to use. Success!! We of course made a big deal of it like you are supposed to do, and thought we had turned a corner.
We tried the next weekend with just underwear and added the reward of candy (since Halloween had just passed and we had a stockpile). He still was late in telling us and went through several pairs of underwear. We realized our best success was with him butt-naked. Why? I suppose he didn’t feel that safety net and knew he had to do something about it.
So, Thanksgiving weekend, we were home for the extended time with not much going on. We decided to let Reed run around the house naked from the waist down, and focus on going to the potty. Sure enough he started to learn the sensation and could tell us ahead of time, every time. We added underwear as reward after a period of time, and by then he figured out what was going on. He was very persistent about the candy as well.
At this point, he was in underwear all day, and would change to a diaper for naps and bed time. There were many times that he woke up dry, and only after getting up and walking around did he use his diaper. He had a few accidents at school, so we would pack a few changes of clothes for him every day.
Then the accidents seemed to stop and one weekend he gave us a hard time about putting a diaper on for his nap. We let him sleep without one, and sure enough, he woke up dry and went potty shortly after getting up. Success!! We got more persistent about going potty before getting in bed, and now after starting the whole process just weeks ago, he is sleeping through the night completely dry, and has never wet the bed.
He is still using his little potty at home, but he is not scared to sit on a regular toilet at someone else’ house, or even in a public restroom. He is pretty much independent when we are home, except if the light is off. He will make the move to a regular toilet in is his own time… as we have learned with so many other things about Reed.
-RB
Reed got his twin-size bed today. We are still shopping for a headboard and so forth, but the mattress and frame are in place to see how he does. Fortunately he has already learned not to roll very much in his sleep from using the crib as a daybed. We felt he would do just fine and not fall very much on a bigger bed.
He was super excited to help me move his crib over to the other side of the room, and then bring the parts of the new frame and the bed into his room. Once we got it set up, the steps to get up and down that he got from Aunt June (a loooong time ago), work perfect to for climbing back up.
When it comes to college athletics, I have fallen deeply in love with Texas A&M University. I give the credit to my wife and in-laws, as they have opened the door to Aggieland for me and shown me what a great institution it is. Since my alma mater, UTSA, did not have a football team, it was easy to change my affiliation to the Aggies. As we all know in Texas, in a football stadium is where affiliations and rivalries are born and live.
This season, UTSA fielded its very first football team, and the city of San Antonio has fallen behind them 100-percent. The amount of support from alumni, sponsors, and even the Chamber of Commerce is unbelievable. They are playing their games in the Alamodome, which is notable for its size and location downtown… the perfect place for a city to show up and embrace a new team (just ask the New Orleans Saints).
The first UTSA football game was played while we were out of town. The school set a goal to break the “first game for a program” attendance record that was held by the South Florida Bulls in 1997 at 49,212. UTSA shattered that record by filling the ‘Dome with 56,743!
Thanks to a phone call from a friend (Adam) with an extra ticket, I got to go to UTSA’s second game. This required that I gear up for game day with a UTSA shirt. Thank goodness the HEB grocery store a full display of shirts since the Academy sporting goods store was sold out! (See what I mean about support?!)
Game day came and I got there early to tailgate with my sister and her friends. I must say that there was a whole lot more tailgaters than I expected. That is one thing I have done a lot of with my family at A&M, and it was good to see that UTSA was doing what it could in the confines of the downtown Alamodome. There were two parking lots of tailgaters: students and alumni/season ticket holders. I’ll let you guess which one was crazier.
Adam and I made our way into the ‘Dome. I have been there for many football games, but NEVER have I sat front row on the 40 yard line! We were even on the UTSA sideline, so watching the entire UTSA football program operate on game day was amazing to see. I must admit that I got a little choked up thinking about my time at UTSA and how big this move is to field a football team. Like it or not, more pride is born from supporting athletics than anything else a university has to offer its students and alumni. I was certainly filled with pride when I watched what MY alma mater was doing on the field and in the stands.
What a great time it is to be a Roadrunner!
-RB
We descended upon Blanco, Texas for the weekend, along with 5 other families from around the state. Six families, most with multiple children, and ALL of them under 5 years old!
We needed a LARGE place to accommodate such a big group, and I give credit to Summer for finding this place. The property is right on the Blanco River, which under normal circumstances, would have been a great place to hang out. Given our extreme drought conditions, the river had dried up to nothing more than a few large ponds in this area. However, the house, pool, and accommodations more than made up for the lost river time.
To summarize the weekend’s activities, it went something like this:
Wake up, eat breakfast, play, swim in the pool, eat lunch, nap, play, swim in the pool, eat dinner, play, get the kids to bed, relax (Women=chat, Men=watch football), sleep… repeat.
We had a few significant events that made for a great weekend with friends. First and foremost, it was opening weekend for college football. This house had a bonafide “Man Cave” with a projection screen TV, wet bar, bathroom and wine cellar (empty). Every night seemed to provide a great game match-up to get excited about (Fri: Baylor/TCU, Sat: Oregon/LSU, Sunday: SMU/A&M). Second, on Sunday morning, a cool front blew in that gave us a nice change of pace from the 100 degree weather we had been experiencing for months. It was literally a breath of fresh air for everyone to just hang out outside and enjoy. And finally, it was my birthday on Sunday, and this trip allowed me a great place to just spend it with my family and celebrate with friends.
-RB
