Just Like Daddy!

So, Reese is a total Daddy's Boy. While there is no denying he is my child, he definitely has some of his Daddy's habits. He's also starting to look a little more like Cameron as he's getting older. Here are some pictures of him trying to be just like his Daddy!

Trying to fill Daddy's shoes!


Think I'm gonna have another clean freak on my hands!

As Reese says: "Mess! Clean it up!"

Putting on his "oderant"

Easter 2011

***Disclaimer!!! The pictures in this post are all kinds of unorganized because Blogger is stupid. Sorry!******


Easter is one of my favorite times of the year, if not my favorite (probably a close tie with Christmas). It is a time where we can reflect on Jesus' ultimate sacrifice so that we may be forgiven for our imperfections. I just love the music, the meaning, and all things bunny.

We started out our Easter festivities with coloring eggs. Reese kept wanting to dip the eggs in the dye with his fingers. It almost got really messy! After the eggs dried, we put stickers on them. Reese would put one sticker on an egg and point to another egg and say "One more!". Our celebrating was derailed slightly when Reese slipped in the bathtub and smacked his face on the side. We ran up to the After Hours to have them check it out. Call over-cautious, but under his eye was bleeding and swelling. He was pretty pitiful! He recovered very quickly, though!

Sunday morning we woke up to find out what the Easter Bunny brought. Reese was very excited about his "Melmo" doll and books. He also wanted to break out the finger paint, but of course that's gonna be for another day! We went to church and after a wonderful service, we proceded out to the rock garden to release balloons. Reese was a little sad to see his balloons drift away!

After church, we headed to Cochran for the Annual Easter Lunch and Easter Egg Hunt. It was a lot of fun! There's always way too much food and the kids always have a blast hunting around 500 eggs. Reese had been to his cousin's birthday party the day before and hunted eggs then, so he was a pro at it now. And by pro, I mean, he was a pro and finding the egg, opening it, seeing what was inside, playing with whatever was inside, putting in his basket, and then moving on the next egg! It was quite precious! We had a very nice Easter this year.

PRAISE GOD, CHRIST IT RISEN!



Inspecting a new egg

Awaiting the hunt



All the kids waiting

Reese would pick up his basket and go "heavy!" Too cute!

Riding the tractor with "Gandaddy".
Reese and Papa
Family picture
Cute boy!
All the balloons
This is my family's stained glass window at our church. When Reese gets older he'll probably hate us for this picture!! Reese's shiner is starting to show up

"MELMO!!"

Coloring eggs with Mommy

Easter Bunny was good to Reese!

Check-up with Dr. C

Here are Reese's official 18-month stats:

26lbs
32 inches
18.75 inches head circumference

Right down the middle for everything! This visit was the first time that he really understood where he was and was very reluctant to go back to the exam room. Once Dr. C came in and Reese got to play with his stethascope, he was okay. In fact, he whined when the doc left the room because he wanted the stethascope back! Dr. C said Reese looked perfect and he was very happy with how advanced he is with his talking. We don't have to go back for 6 months. Cameron and I are so blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful, smart little boy!

18 Months!

Dear Reese,

You are one and a half years old! Your Mommy has become a bona-fide slacker when it comes to the blog. You keep us so busy I hardly have time to update things. I feel like I have blinked and you turned into a little boy. You are becoming so much more expressive and able to comminucate what you want. We are working on teaching you to use your words instead of whining to get what you want. So far you are learning very quickly! If you need or want anything you grab our hands and drag us around saying "Help!". Most of the time you can articulate what you want. Reese, you are developing such good manners. You routinely say "please" and "thank you". There is very little that you can't say or at least that you won't try to say. I know I'm biased, but I think you have an advanced vocabulary for your age! I don't know of many 18 month olds that can say walrus (and actually be holding a walrus when saying it!). You have also recently learned to count to three. You point to different things and count "one, two, freeee!" usually followed by a "yay, Reese!".

Your schedule has changed since last month. You are still waking up between 7 and 7:30am. We eat breakfast around 8:15-8:30 and then we play all morning until lunch around 11:45. Then you take a wonderfully long nap from about 12:30 until 3 or 3:30. Then we play, play, play until supper around 6. Bathtime is after that and we start winding down around 7 for bed at 7:30. You made a fairly easy adjustment to one nap, which Mommy and Daddy appreciate!

Reese, you are so great with people and are such a ham. It may take you a few minutes to warm up to someone new, but after you do they are usually eating out of your hand! You recognize and call most regular people in you life by name. You know "Mommy, Daddy, Emmie, Gandaddy (all 3 Grandaddies), Ganma (Grandma), Me-Mommy (G-Mommie), Etan (Ethan), Ma-Ma (2 Ma-Mas), Bandi (Brandi), Jackie (babysitter Jaclyn), and Amber".

Right now you are wearing 18-24 month shirts and mostly 18 month pants. You are getting into a size 5 in shoes. Still wearing size 4 diapers. We'll find out your official stats Monday when we go to the doctor.

We love you very much!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

'Scuse the paci...he found it on the floor and popped it in his mouth!

Cute boy!

Lately...

I stink, I know. We've been so busy it's been hard to find time to post. Reese will be 18 months tomorrow, so I promise to do a post on all the fun things he is doing. We also have a lot going on in the next few weeks so I'll be posting about all the activities going on. In the meantime, enjoy this little pic of my happy little sud-head!

Ella

Our family suffered a great loss this weekend. Our 3 year old Miniature Australian Shepherd, Ella, passed away very unexpectedly Friday afternoon. To avoid a long, boring post here's the short version:

Ella came down with a condition that has a very sudden onset in previously healthy dogs called Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE). She was bleeding in her intestinal tract. They do not know what causes this, but obviously it is not a good thing, but not always fatal. The vet, Dr. Felix, was very concerned about her when we brought her in and did his absolute best to save her. He told me that she developed a secondary condition called Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) which basically overloads her ability to clot which results in her not being able to clot. He told me that this condition is almost always fatal. So, from what I gather, she basically bled out. She went from bad to worse very quickly and died around 3:45 in the afternoon.

I'm not sure that it has really sunk in that she is just gone. She was such a huge part of our family. Cameron and I got her for Christmas the year we got married and she quickly became our "baby". Ella earned the nickname "Silly" and would respond just as quickly to that as she would her real name! She was a spunky, loving, very smart girl. Ella was the first inside dog I've ever had. She was very good with Reese and very tolerant of his tugs, yanks, and hugs. She had also managed to win over our old cat, Carter and the two of them finally became friends.

I'm sure, in time, we'll be alright. There is a huge emptiness in our house now and while I'm sure we'll get another puppy eventually, Ella will never be replaced or forgotten.

We'll miss you, sweet Eleanor.

Sweet Sixteen!

Dear Reese,
Where has the time gone, my sweet baby?! I don't even know if I can call you a baby anymore because the only "baby"ish things about you these days are pacis, diapers, and your crib. You are growing so much and learning and absorbing so much everyday. It's hard to realize the baby days are gone.

You are so smart and pick up new things all the time. You are regularly saying about 15-20 words. These are all the words you can say, some more regularly than others: Mommy/Mama, Daddy/Dada, Papa, Emmie, Amber (your babysitter), truck, book, dog, cat, bobble (bottle), milk, juice, cheese, light, more, gone-gone, bye bye, hey, right back, up, off, cracker, cookie, night night, hot, duck, diaper, nap, teeth, eye, nose, and ear. Pretty much anything we ask you to say you do your best to repeat it. You are starting to say things that resemble please, thank you, and love you. You are such a sweet little boy and love to give sugars and hugs and squeezes. You can tell us what the cow, dog, cat, duck, and lion all say and point to some body parts if we ask you. You're still working on getting those everytime. You may point to your nose instead of eye, but I'm impressed with how often you do get it right!

Eating is getting better, but is still a challenge. You're eating breakfast around 8:30, lunch around 12:30, and supper around 6. You don't really care for meat too much. You will eat hot dog, fried chicken, and fish sticks. We did discover recently that you like ketchup so we might try that to sneak in a few more meats! You are a carb lover, too. You love macaroni and cheese, bread, corn, butter beans, and noodles. You absolutely love broccoli and are kinda getting to like squash and asparagus a little too. You get fruit at every meal and really like it. As of last week you are completely bottle free. You had been down to a morning bottle and a bedtime bottle for a long time. A few weeks ago we dropped the morning bottle and now you don't get one at all! You get a sippy cup full of milk in the mornings and before bed and then at least one more sippy cup full during the day. You also love fruit juice. And water, but only out of Mommy or Daddy's glass with a straw!

Right now you are taking two naps a day still. You wake up around 7:30am and go down for a nap around 9:45-10 and sleep for 1.5-2hrs. Then you are awake till about 2 and sleep till about 3:30-4. You don't always go right to sleep but are content to roll around your crib for a little while. You really like your bed and rarely like to be rocked at night. Most nights you reach for your bed after your story. The only time you get a paci is nap/bedtime or in the car when you're being fussy! You are still waking up in the night some, but Daddy usually comforts you and you go back to sleep. We are trying to get you to snuggle with your lion and blanket for comfort instead of us, but sometimes you want your Daddy (but unfortunately not Mommy right now...you're still very much in the Daddy's boy phase).

You are wearing some 12 month size pants and very few 12 month size shirts, but are mostly in 18 month clothes. Some of your shirts and pjs are 24 month. You also are still in size 4 diapers. As of your last doctor's visit, which was about 2 weeks ago, you weighed 24.7lbs and were 31.5ins tall. You are a skinny boy!!

Reese, we love you so much and cannot being to express the joy you bring into our lives. I only have one request...quit growing up so fast!!

love,
Mommy and Daddy

Reminder of where we were 16 months ago!