Seriously.  My sweet little boy is 8 months old today!!  I have truly loved every minute of his life, even when he was testing my patience. 

He got his first tooth on Halloween night, and the strange part is it was the top left tooth, not one on the bottom.  A small percentage of children get their top teeth first, but the vast majority get the bottoms first.  Saturday night the poor kid was screaming and screaming.  I put oragel on his bottom gums but it did no good.  It wasn’t until a good hour later that Randy suggested I put it on his top gums.  As soon as I did I felt his tooth and his pain was relieved.  Terrible mom of the month award goes to me!!

This morning Reed got his H1N1 vaccine.  I know there is much debate about whether or not to give this vaccine to your children, but I trust our pediatrician completely.  He endorsed it, so we got it!  Reed didn’t even cry.  (Is that because he is a sweet boy, or because he has been given so many shots that it doesn’t even phase him anymore?)

Finally, Reed is in a mommy phase.  I have patiently awaited the day that he would choose me over Randy and its finally here!  For the last 2 weeks or so he has consistently reached for me.  We went to a high school volleyball game on Monday night to see one of our former player’s playoff game.  When we coached sweet Lauren she was in 7th grade.  Now she is a senior!!  What the heck??  Randy tried to hold Reed to give me a break but Reed was having none of that.  (Of course I loved it!!)

Month 7 was a big one for Mr. Reed.  He figured out how to crawl and the same day figured out how much fun it is to pull up and stand.  Now he cruises around all the time and although I think it will be a little while before he walks, he is definitely on the path.  As soon as Brody (his daytime playmate who is 2.5 months older) learns to walk Reed will be right behind him.

He isn’t a chatterbox, but tends to sings his words more than speak them.  Ya-Ya keeps telling me I need to play music for him because he likes the sing-song noises more than plain words.  His little face does light up every Sunday when Mark starts playing, so I guess she’s right.

Reed loves Logan, and Logan allows him to.  Reed has decided it is super fun to crawl up Logan’s body when he is laying on the ground.  if dogs could roll their eyes, Logan does it.

Reed’s other favorite thing to crawl on is me!!  Every night when I get home from work I make dinner for Randy and Reed and then Reed and I play on the floor until its bedtime.  I know it is weird and not productive at all…but I LOVE letting him crawl all over me.  Except when he pulls my hair or scratches my face, but thats a small price to pay!!

Last Friday Reed gave his first kiss.  And the lucky recipient was my little sister Diana Beth.  When I was home on maternity leave Diana spent 3-4 days a week with us just hanging out and playing.  Since I have been back at work and she is back in school Reed doesn’t see her as much.  She was leaving Friday night and he intentionally pulled her mouth to his and gave her a big slobbery open mouth kiss.  Disgusting, but so sweet!!  The best part is that her birthday was the next day and it was the best birthday present!!

Yesterday I picked Reed up from Randy’s mom’s house after work.  I picked him up from his exersaucer and he hugged me for a minute.  Then he looked around and decided he wanted to say bye to Granny B because he reached out for her.  That was the first time he has done that too. 

Strangely, my feelings weren’t hurt that those two milestones happened to someone else.   Both Diana and Barbara love him so much that it made me happy he showed them his love too.  (But he better start loving on his mother a little more!!!!)

Reed has started to show a lot of favoritism to his left hand when he grabs toys and then shakes them up and down in excitement. He almost always does this with his left hand, and has even shifted an item from his right to his left only to then shake it up and down.

We know it is very early to tell, as we have heard that this kind of development isn’t usually significant until about 12 months, but we also know that “lefthandedness” runs in both families. However, I think Reed would be the first MALE lefty. We shall see….

RB

We started with the nanny, Kelsey, about 2 weeks ago. She speaks about as much English as I do Spanish, so it is a challenge when I don’t have either one of the other couple there to translate for us. However, she is great with the kids and took to Reed immediately. (who wouldn’t?)

Anyway, Kelsey took Reed into the play room on the first morning that Julie and I dropped him off. Without even asking what he was capable of, she set him on the ground and sat behind him. He was sitting all on his own!! Julie and I were dumbfounded because we had not even TRIED to sit him up yet, and here he was, sitting all on his own (although very wobbly still)! Needless to say we were immediately pleased with Kelsey even though she really had not done anything yet… I guess it was just a realization that allowing Reed to have other influences in his life was going to make him grow in ways that we would not have done ourselves.

Now, with this new found independence, when we set Reed on the ground, there is a good chance he is going to get SUPER excited and squeal at the top of his lungs. Most of the time it’s so bad it makes him cough. I swear he is going to lose his voice over it sometime. He is certainly more entertaining and interactive when he is sitting on his own.

-RB

In the spirit of not being one of those women that always brags about how “fabulous” her kid is I don’t normally like to go on and on about how great I think my kid is.  Today I’m going to do it so that I remember how easy he makes our lives to compare against baby #2.  As far as I know all kids are like this. (Reed is 5 months, 3 weeks old. )

Reed doesn’t spit up.  Seriously.  Every now and then the child will spit up a mouthful if he has over eaten, but that’s it.  Up until a few weeks ago when we started him on solid foods he had never even worn a bib.  Now that he eats solid food he needs a bib, but once he’s out of the high chair the bib comes off.  I never understood why all the diaper bag lists online say to pack an extra change of clothes for you and the baby in the diaper bag.  Not once has he spit up on me in public where I needed to change my shirt or his outfit.

The child doesn’t cry.  Several times a week we are asked by strangers and friends alike “is he always like this?”  The answer is yes.  He really is always like that.  Reed definitely has Randy’s laid back, happy personality.  He likes to play by himself and really likes to roll around on the ground on his blanket.  All alone.  He also loves to play in his exersaucer (thank you Swayzes for lending it to us!!).  He will entertain himself in there for 30 minutes to an hour before he gets tired of it.

Finally to the best part, sleep.  Reed loves his crib and loves to sleep (just like his mommy).  At night I try to feed him one last time around 9-9:30.  Many nights he is wide awake right after I feed him.  I change his diaper and put him in his crib wide awake.  I will hear him for 10 minutes or so rolling around, and then nothing.  I go back in to check on him and he will be sound asleep.  He does this almost every night.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times he has woken up in the night (since he started sleeping through the night around 7 weeks).  He then wakes up somewhere between 5 and 6am to eat again.  When I’m done feeding him he goes right back to sleep until Randy wakes him up at 8 to head to the nanny.  He takes a 30-60 minute morning nap and a several hour afternoon nap (again, he really likes to put himself to sleep).  Then we start it all over again.

Reed, you are a wonderful kid and you make us so very happy!!!

Mom

Reed has been learning to eat solid foods the last few weeks and it really is fun.  We of course startd with rice cereal and oatmeal and are following the rules of introducing one food every 3-4 days to make sure he isn’t allergic to anything.  The really fun part is that I’m making his baby food.  It truly is so easy that I can’t imagine I will stop.

The first time Ya-Ya fed Reed oatmeal she reported to me that he “ate it like a wild man”!  I just loved that expression.  He still loves his cereal and applesauce but wasn’t so fond of avocado or green beans.  Yesterday on my day off I roasted a butternut squash and cooked peas.  He seriously ate the squash like a wild man.  I have never seen him so excited about food before.  He probably ate 3 or 4 tablespoons and would have kept going.

As a sidenote, I am finally reaching the emotional stage.  I kept expecting to be weepy as he got bigger and started changing or at least when I went back to work.  I got nostalgic, but never weepy.  For some reason the emotions have hit me like a tidal wave the last 3 days.  Every morning when I go in his room and see that he is wide awake but just laying there quietly waiting for us to be ready to get him I start to tear up.  This is followed by a prayer of praise because I never imagined I would get such a wonderful baby and definitely never imagind I would love him THIS much.  I love you little boy!!!

J

Somewhere around mid-July, Reed turned into this fully-interactive, crowd-pleasing baby boy that soaks up the attention and throws out smiles like they are going out of style. Seriously, we’ve heard from the day he was born that this kid was “cute”, but now he is starting to show a lot more personality to back it up. We are also continually amazed at his even-tempered nature that keeps him calm in even the most stressful situations.

The past month has shown a lot of developments that make him a much more interactive baby. He is rolling over, first from back to front and now recently from front to back. We put him on his activity mat on the floor in the nursery, and come back to find him several feet and degrees off of his original spot. He is reaching for things now, so toys and items less than a foot away are very attainable. He will also notice us across the room and smile or laugh if we provoke him, but often he just does it on his own.

As for eating, he is now on solids, starting with rice cereal and applesauce, and now we have been into oatmeal and carrots. I gave him some of my sweet potatoes once (since it already looked like baby food) and he loved that as well… so that will probably be next. We have a high-chair now that he does very well in and it will soon completely replace the Bumbo – his fat legs are simply getting too big for it.

This has been a great month for us as the summer comes to an end. The kid certainly spent more time than normal in the pool, which was necessary in this south Texas drought. Now Ya-Ya has gone back to work, and we will soon start up with a nanny, so the quality time with the grandmas will reduce significantly; but nonetheless, it was a great summer and we are forever grateful to the support of our families during Reed’s initial months of development.

-RB

Here are some great pics over the last few weeks.

Reed’s 4 month appointment with Dr. Purnell was on July 6th.  Dr. Purnell says he looks great and is chunking up nicely.  He also said we are free to start cereal as soon as Reed acts interested.  We haven’t started just yet, but I’m sure we will in the next week.  He got all of his shots and I was expecting a rough afternoon so I stayed home with him.  Thankfully he did great.  Right after his shots he nursed and then fell asleep for a few hours.  When he woke up he was his normal smiley self.  Praise the Lord for the small gifts.

Full Photo Gallery

His stats are good:

Weight: 15 pounds 10 ounces (he has almost doubled his birth weight!) – 75th%

Length:  26 inches – 65th%

Over the July 4th weekend Reed changed so much.  All of a sudden he found his voice.  Not only is he louder, but he is also more vocal.  Sometimes I can’t get that child to hush (wonder where he gets that from…)  He also looks different.  He now looks like a baby, not a skinny little infant.   He found his feet and loves to pull them up any chance he gets.  He also tries to pull himself up from lying flat on his back to sitting up (obviously he can’t get very far, but he is constantly trying).

Every mom says the same thing, but I just love this kid so much.  I love coming home every night knowing that I get to play with him for a few hours.  Listening to his little voice when he laughs and talks to me is my favorite sound in the whole world.

JB