This has by far been the longest we have gone on this blog without posting. It’s not for lack of activity for sure. It’s mostly laziness, or we could also blame my hosting company that has not been as reliable as in the past, but in general… it’s just laziness.
Here are the “catch up” posts so that you don’t miss any of them:
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
Stay tuned for more, the holidays are coming and so is Alison. There’s bound to be some blog material in there somewhere.
RB
Reed’s second Halloween was certainly more interactive than his first. As you may remember, as a Garden Gnome, he pretty much just sat there for us to take pictures, and Trick-or-Treating was us following the older kids around with Reed in a stroller. This year was our first as parents of a child that got excited about candy.
Reed as been blessed with a fairly round noggin and his bleach blond hair makes him look pretty much bald. He’s a little short and stocky with a pretty calm demeanor… remind you of anyone? Charlie Brown, of course!!
I’ll credit Julie with this costume yet again, but she nailed it… and probably at the perfect age. She found a “Cartoon Charlie” shirt online a few months ago and had to guess at what size he would be come October. Luckily she guessed right. The other trick was finding some black shorts in the Fall, when all the summer clothes were gone… Walmart came to the rescue… in the clearance rack. She then found some little brown converse tennis shoes that rounded out the costume. However, there was something missing that need to make this a “costume” and not just an outfit…. Snoopy!!
I scoured the stores on the afternoon of Halloween, looking for a store that would have a Snoopy doll. Target… no. Walmart…. no. Off to the mall. There were no stores that had Peanuts merch!! Finally I stepped into the Build-A-Bear and asked where I could find a Snoopy doll. Fortunately the lady there had seen some stuff at the Hallmark store just a few shops down. I thought to myself… Hallmark? Probably the last place I would have looked. Lo-and-behold, the store had tons of options! I asked why the scarcity on the Peanuts merch, and the cashier replied, “Hallmark own the rights to Peanuts.” Well… there you go.
Back to Snoopy. I picked out the best option that Reed could possibly carry around in his backpack while he was trick-or-treating around. Reed has never taken an interest in stuffed animals, so this was a long shot, but I figured it would be good for some pictures at the very least. To both of our surprise, Reed latched onto Snoopy when I came home and pulled him out! He immediately carried him around and treated him like is new favorite toy. It was perfect! Score one for Dad.
This was Reed’s first year to trick-or-treat. There are plenty of older kids in our friend group that Reed just had to follow in order to catch on. He caught on pretty quick that all he had to do was hold out his basket and these people would put stuff in it…pretty easy. The hard part was keeping up with all those kids with much longer legs!!
We brought along the wagon as the group of adults moved down the street with the kids. Reed would go to a few houses and then need a rest, as he used the time to also sort through his loot. “Pregnant Peyton Manning” pulled the wagon down the street as “Nolan Ryan” followed “Charlie Brown” up to the front doors.
We had a blast, and Reed did too. It was fun to watch him learn such a big tradition right in front of our eyes as he started grasping what was going on around him.
RB
The annual tailgate has changed in persona over the years, and probably the most in the last 2 or 3. Gone are the days of drinking heavily, pitching washers and watching every down of the Aggie game (in person or on TV). This year was a full-blown kidfest, and it’s only the beginning. There were 4 toddlers, an infant, and 4 pregnant mothers!
The game against Mizzou was a blowout loss. It’s probably a good thing that it wasn’t close (or even a win) because most of the dads spent their time chasing and entertaining the toddlers. Scott and I, along with John and Amanda, attempted a game of washers off to the side… but after only 2 turns Scott and I were called back to the front line of duty. (Sorry Amanda!)
I have a feeling these toddler years will be a struggle for any of us to really visit and relax at our annual tailgate. We still look forward to them and enjoy the interaction of our kids for the time being. I promise one day in the future we will again be able to enjoy an entire adult beverage without forgetting where we set it down to chase our kids.
-RB
Meghan and Wade Stryk have become great friends of ours after originally being introduced by Chris and Alison Berry. Since then we have been to their destination wedding in Cozumel (see Babymoon 2008) and stayed in contact as Julie and Meghan shared part of their pregnancy.
We are happy to announce Porter Rose Stryk!!
She comes in at 7lbs, 4 oz and 19 inches long. Mom and Dad were beaming when we went to visit them in the hospital and Porter looked great.
Congrats, Wade and Meghan!! We look forward to Porter and Alison getting to know each other.
-RB
It is clear that our annual river trip to New Braunfels with the Pikes has become the “Reed and Kate” show. Nobody that has ever taken a weekend trip with a toddler will ever argue otherwise. Last year was the first year with kids, but we could still dictate where to put the child down and count on them staying put for the most part. This year was the first sign of things to come… mobile children with a mind of their own!
But I digress, as frustrating as parenting is sometime, the rewards are ten-fold. We absolutely loved watching the interaction of Reed with Kate, and vice-versa.
After eating at the Gristmill on Firday night, we hung out in the picnic/waiting area and let the kids climb on the benches and chase each other around. Kate is 5 months older than Reed and it is still very apparent in her motor skills and physical ability. Kate was up and down on the benches, while Reed would still be struggling to swing a leg up and shift his weight. The ride home was even more entertaining!!
We made one more side trip during the weekend to Landa Park. We rode the train and then had a picnic next to one of the playgrounds. The kids were in heaven. Reed had a great time climbing up and around firetruck play-set that had a double slide. The best part is that he could do the whole thing all by himself! At one point during our picnic lunch, ran over to go climb and go down down the slide one more time… then came back to sit down and eat his sandwich. 🙂
The rest of the weekend, we hung around the condo and the river. The water was WAY too cold for the kids, but we did splash around on the steps where they could easily sit and stick their feet in. One of the best features of this condo is the large grassy area between the river and the condo. It is literally a mini park with sidewalks, numerous picnic tables and a half-dozen BBQ grills. We played out there a lot and even chose to eat our chicken fajita meal down by the water.
It is worth noting that the weather was AWESOME. After the week of rain that San Antonio had the week before, we were concerned about needing some indoor activities as backup. A cool front blew in Saturday night and it made Sunday and Monday mornings so crisp and cool.
Next year’s trip will be even more interesting. Both Julie and Sarah are due in January, so bigger toddlers plus infants should make for a bonafide three-ring circus.
-RB
Reed’s thin, blonde hair has been developing a little curl in the back for the last few months. Julie has intentionally nixed any attempts to trim is up so that the kid can show somewhat of a head of hair, instead of just a bald dome. It is finally thickening so she gave the official thumbs-up to my Mom to bring her scissors when they came over for a family BBQ yesterday.
-RB
I am officially a crazy pregnant lady. Remember my post a while back where I talked about the bedding I bought when I was only 6 weeks pregnant and how excited I was about it because it would be perfect for either a boy or a girl? That was before I found out she is a girl. Now I have crossed over to the dark side that I really didn’t think I would ever cross. I love pink. (Who the heck am I??) My friend Katy (the designer and owner of Caden Lane and Nursery Couture) talked me into exchanging the blue bedding for the pink set in the same pattern. Too bad we had already bought 2 gallons of blue paint to match the blue bedding. I have no idea what we are going to do with that paint. Maybe Reed’s room needs to be re-decorated…just kidding Randy!!
I have turned into ‘Mommy of a little girl’ pink freak. I guess it goes to show that you never really know how you will respond until you are in the situation.
-JB
It’s a GIRL!!
It is truly awesome when God listens to your heart and not your mouth. Julie and I told each other repeatedly that we would be happy either way, whether Baby #2 was going to be a boy or a girl. We both certainly wanted a boy first, and if you asked Julie, she would tell you that she saw herself as more of a “boys mom”. As for me, I always wanted a brother, so it would be great for me to see Reed grow up with a brother so close in age. But the truth is, neither of us want a single-sex set of offspring, so why not make sure we eliminate that right off the bat. We have also had our girl name picked out for almost a year now, so as it was with Reed (no girl name to speak of), we were bound to have a girl.
So, about the name… there is quite a bit of significance to Alison Michelle. Her namesakes are two important women to our family.
Alison Renee Berry
Alison was a very important person to Julie and I. She and her husband, Chris, were part of the young couples group that welcomed us into their group when we first joined University United Methodist Church. It was through this small group that we became plugged-in to the church and made it our home. We bonded with Chris and Alison as couples and individuals, we shared many memories over 4 years. Unfortunately, Alison’s job required her to be on the road 90% of the time, and on one routine trip between Lockhart and Austin on October 1, 2009, she was the victim of a head-on collision.
If you asked Alison if she had two “L”s in her name or not, she always responded that her name was Alison, not ALLison. So we are going to keep it that way.
Michelle Lynn Reasonover
Michelle was my sweet older sister. She was two years older than me and like Alison; her life was cut too short. On October 15, 1995 my sister was killed in a drunk driving accident at the tender age of 18. It wasn’t until a few years later that I realized how I wanted to honor her life and who she helped me become by naming my daughter after her.
I loved both of these women dearly. Some of you might think it is a little morbid to name your tiny baby after two women whose lives were cut short. All I know is that it was the best possible way I could think of to honor their memories and who they were to me. However, you better believe little Alison will be on lockdown the month of October (every October!!)
-RB & JB
Julie and my Mom have been saying it for a while, Reed is ALL BOY. He is very physical and adventurous all the time. Now he is adding independence and stubbornness on top of that.
He enjoys hiding now and can often be found in the pantry (for more than one reason), closets, and various small spaces next to appliances around the house. He is also climbing on everything he can pull himself up onto. A common one is the couch, but we are trying to quickly curb the fun of standing on the couch… “On your bottom, Reed” is often used a few times before a firm spank is needed for backup. He is certainly pushing his limits now.
He has 11 teeth now by Julie’s count. About once a week he will wake up in the middle of the night to no other explanation than teething pain. A little Oragel and he is back to sleep. Rarely do we have episodes in the middle of the day.
There are a few stories we have to document as well…
Reed is very aware of shoes these days. He loves having his tennis shoes on, they seem to give him more confidence when running around. But he also likes to pick up our shoes and bring them to us. He will even attempt to put them on our feet if we are not wearing any at the moment. We have learned that if we do not put the shoes on that he has brought to us, there will be a fit to endure!! He tries to put his own on and it frustrates him to no end. Even his Crocs that just slip on. He gets the idea, but doesn’t have the mechanics yet to flip them over or push his foot hard enough to get them on. Most of the time he will bring his shoes to us, then sit down on the ground with his foot up. He will take one shoe and place it on his foot, but then point at it for us to fix it.
We went to an ENT consultation for Reed to get tubes in his ears (separate post on that coming later). While in the waiting room, Reed got angry with us trying to keep him confined and he threw his sippy-cup on the floor. For the first time ever, the top flew off and his water spilled over the carpeted floor. “Uh Oh!!,” Reed said. While we quickly picked up the cup to save the rest of the water, Reed surveyed the situation and then went over to console table where there was a box of tissues just within his reach. He stretched for a tissue and then came over to the wet carpet and spread the tissue out over the wet spot. He began dabbing the wet spot and even wiping it side-to-side! Julie and I just looked at each other in amazement. Then he gathered the wet tissue and took it over to the trash can next to the console table and repeated the whole process about three times! We were amazed and excited because neither of us had taught him that. We can only assume they have done such a thing at daycare, which just solidified that it has been the best decision we have made for him thus far. We are truly happy with his progress in the last few months and there is no doubt he is thriving in a much more structured environment.
-RB
Reed LLLLOOOOOVVVVES water. He loves splashing in it, he loves getting sprayed in the face with it, he loves being wet.
There is never a dull moment when Reed is around water. Bath time is always fun and a happy time. Whenever we are in the backyard we have to restrain him from getting in the dog water bowl (as we found out on Easter). Kiddie pools are always a hit. But the best one so far has to be during a recent rain storm.
It was early evening and I had just finished the rush to mow the grass before the clouds rolled in. We were inside and it had already started raining. Reed caught a glimpse of the older kids running around in the cul-de-sac through the window next to the door. He proceeded to open the door (he can do that now) and walk out to the covered entryway porch. We watched the whole thing play out… after all he was in a very good mood that night, and it is always fun to watch his mind work.
He stood on the front porch and yelled out the kids that were running up and down the street, playing in the pouring rain. Reed wanted to be out there SOO bad! Well, there wasn’t anything stopping him… he can negotiate the stairs himself, so I was there with him in case he needed me.
As he eased down the stairs, he stepped farther into the rain, and he started to get very excited about the constant drops on the back of his head and in his face when he looked up. He had a huge grin on his face by the time he reached the last step and stood up. He then wandered into the front yard and driveway and absolutely loved it.
It wasn’t a very intimidating rain storm, but strong enough to start making puddles in the street for the kids to pounce through. Reed wanted some of that too, so hear is where Dad stripped down to his shorts and went out to join him.
I got the wagon and carted him around the street and made sure to go fast enough to splash some puddles. I loved it and so did he.
I’m glad I followed his lead and remembered for a short moment what it was like to play in the rain and splash in the puddles.
RB
