One of the best side affects from Reed starting day care 5 weeks ago is that now he spends 9 hours a day in a room with 11 other children. When he gets home all he wants is some love and attention from us!!! It has been so wonderful for him to come running to my arms and want hugs and kisses. Maybe I should have sent him to day care a long time ago…

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

This was a big month of changes for Reed. On the development side, he has pushed out around 6 teeth in the span of only 3 weeks! He’s been a constant drooler, as seen by the constant ring around his neckline of any shirt he wears. He is also pushing his limits on stairs by taking little steps up without the aide of a handhold or even bending over to step up. He is doing the same thing going down little steps, but that is a little uneasy for us to watch since it is inevitable he will bite it one time… but he IS pretty resilient.

The biggest change for Reed this month was his move from the nanny to full-time daycare. We had already discussed the change for the fall, but the nanny’s own situation had changed where she would need to leave by 4:45pm everyday. That just wasn’t going to work for either of us working parents, so we had to jump on the situation and find what was available. Luv ‘N Care is literally right across the street from our neighborhood. It was our first choice of 3 options, and they had an immediate opening for his age range. We made the move and gave the notice to the nanny that we would be leaving after one more week. The nanny was very sad to see Reed go, but we took pictures of her and the boys, and framed them for a “thank you” gift to her.

We also had to inform Granny B about the change… you see she has grown quite accustomed to watching her first grandchild about once a week, so we knew this was going to be the hardest bombshell to drop. Her response: “Well, you are not paying me, so couldn’t you just keep bringing him here one day a week?” Not so fast, Mom…. I mean Grandma…. sorry. She did understand and knew it wouldn’t last forever…. but then she can always just wait for the next one to come around.

RB

I feel like a broken record because I am always telling people that everyday Reed does new things.  But it’s true.  All of you mommies know it too.

Reed is a great eater, but he is less reluctant to eat new foods if he watches someone else eat it first.  The latest example of this is watermelon.  I have been trying to feed him watermelon for a week or so.  The first time he watched someone else eat it he was all over it.  The next night he wouldn’t touch it.  I asked Randy to take a bite so Reed would eat.  Sure enough, as soon as someone else was enjoying the deliciousness Reed was all over it.  Weird little copycat.

He still doesn’t speak english very often, but he definitely talks all the time.  So far he says mama, dada, and what’s that.  He is starting to try to mimic me when I speak to him, but he is definitely behind on the verbal progress.  I am hoping that when we move him to day care in the fall the structure and curriculum will help him become more verbal.  (I also better watch what I wish for!)

Reed has become my little climber.  We bought him a small table and chairs from IKEA several months ago and the first thing he did was climb into the chair and try to climb on the table.  He also has decided that he likes to get into the bathtub by himself (when there is no water) to play with his toys.  He doesn’t even mind that in order to get in the tub he has to bump his head.  Hilarious.

Reed loves books.  Most of the time we put him to bed with a few books.  If he isn’t angry about going to sleep he will turn the pages for a little while and then put himself to sleep.  In the morning he will wake up and start babbling.  30 minutes later I will walk in his room and he is reading his books to himself.  I absolutely love that time of the morning.  It might be my favorite time of the day.

This kid is also obsessed with water.  As you can see from the previous post he loves the slip n slide.  He also loves to play in any puddle or container of water he can find.  Unfortunately this often includes him playing with the water cooler and Logan’s water dish.  Call me a bad mom, but I let him play.  I don’t care if he is in the backyard and splashing to hs heart’s content in the water trough or spilling water all over the bathroom floor.  I just love to see how happy playing in water makes him. 

One last thing…he is finally good at drinking out of a straw.  He likes to take a big drink of my water right after I get it from the water cooler.  Of course the water is very cold so he makes the funniest face.  (As soon as we get home tonight I will have Randy post a picture of his face after he gets his little brain freeze.  It’s hilarious)

There are so many fun little stories I could tell about sweet Reed.  It makes me realize that I need to update the blog more often because I hate writing long posts like this and no one wants to read a 2 page blog post!  I will try to work on that 🙂