2 Months Old

Mr. Reed turned 2 months old a week ago, and had his checkup a day or two later.  He slept through a good chunk of the appointment.

 He weighed in at 11 lbs 11.5 ounces, and was 24 inches long.  Still longer than he is heavy, but he's working on that. 

He's still as sweet as they come.  

 

 He loves for us to hold his hands so he can pull up to stand in our laps.  He's so proud and gets all excited, kind of bouncing and grunting at us all happily.

He doesn't get put down often, but when we do for a little tummy time each day, he's started acting like he'd like to roll over.  He hasn't really gotten close yet, but he sure plans on it happening before long.
 
He spends a lot more time awake, watching us, smiling, and chatting sometimes too.  

If I'm walking around, helping the big kids with something, or just distracted by anything really, I'll glance down and catch him gazing up at me with the sweetest look.  Or sometimes he'll get my attention with a little coo and smile when we make eye contact.  

That butt chin, man....

He's another expressive kid.  I crack up at the faces he makes.

One new one is the about to cry face.  Except he does it randomly, and he's not sad at all.  He just throws it in there between smiles.

 

 He's loving his tummy time lately.  Such hard work.

We love him so much. 

Wedding, Wedding, Giving Thanks

In the last couple of weeks, Reed attended his first wedding...

...had his first dance with a lovely lady...

....and also attended his second wedding.  Ha.

Yes, I did wear the same thing to both.  That dress is easy to nurse in, which keeps babies happy during weddings...the first of which was held outdoors in the rain.

I stood and nursed Reed during the whole ceremony, while Jess and Megan held umbrellas over us.  We moved inside for the reception, as you can see in the first couple pictures up there.

When we got back to the hotel, where Tyra was babysitting the big kids, she took our first ever attempt at a family picture, since becoming a family of 6.  We never took one in the hospital.  :(  

This first one wasn't the biggest success, for a variety of reasons.  Haha. 

That wedding required the little man's first trip to Phoenix.

The way there was much smoother than the way home, but we made it back.  We'd squeezed in a trip to Ikea, so that night Cason helped Jess put together his new dresser.  That called for a flying high five.

The next day we put together a toy storage shelf for the playroom, and Cason and Neely proudly helped with Reed's highchair.  (Not necessary for a while, but we may not be near an Ikea again by the time he needs it)

Reed also enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.  Our phones were dead for a good part of the day so we didn't really take pictures for most of it.  It was a nice one though, and felt relatively stress free too.  Ha.  We did get this picture of Reed loving Aunt Mollie...

 ...this one of him being cute when we came home...

...and Neely and Gia passed out together.

 Now, I'll finish with a picture of Reed napping in the cutest of ways.

...and Neely in her adorable new pajamas, which were also acquired on our Phoenix trip.

A Date with Neely

A couple of weekends ago, Paige and Cason spent the night with Lily.  Neely isn't quite old enough for sleepovers yet, but is old enough to be upset about not getting to go.  So we treated her to dinner at Burger King, where she could play.  That did the trick.

Sometimes those places are stressful for me, but this was a good experience.  The other kids were a little older than her, but there weren't too many and they were nice kids.  She made a few friends and it was really cool to sit and watch her in that environment without her siblings around.  Reed slept the whole time, so Jess and I just talked and watched her play.

Then we went home and cuddled up for a movie.

We got to sleep in and had a nice lazy morning.

Neely just kept on being fun to watch.  She got herself ready, backpack and all, and when we needed to go to the store, she insisted on bringing her puppies in a tupperware bin's lid with Reed's washcloths as blankets.

 Taking her on that little date made me realize she's one of the big kids now.  We need to start taking her out on little dates for some one-on-one time now that she's not the baby anymore.  She's been so sweet about that too, when she needs some attention she just asks me to cuddle her "wif two hands", but will settle for a cuddle "wif one hand" when I'm already holding Reed.

Popsicle Fruit

Two posts in one night, woohoo!  

Cason and Neely are really cute lately, they play so well together all day.  (Minus a few occasions when Neely raises her voice unnecessarily).  We've joked about her voice immodulation many a time anyway, and when she gets frustrated she turns into Jacob Silj.

She's said a lot of funny things lately, but one that comes to mind right now is when she told us "green popsicles are my favorite fruit."  Haha!

She and Cason help me with chores, and they take it very seriously.

Especially Cason-he will come to ME before I mention it and ask what chores he has that day.  He does them WELL too.  On Monday we clean the kitchen and his job is to wipe down the washer and dryer.  He gets a chair, and climbs up to wipe down the tops, and opens up the lids to clean the insides well too.  He's a hard workin' fella.

They like to draw together, and are both really into the Lego Ninjago show, so they have been drawing lots of related pictures.

I've been doing some of the work from the homeschool curriculum I used for Paige last year, and Neely likes to have an assignment too.  They get comfy and work away.

 

Neely will color and then tell me how "rainbowy" her pictures are.

Reed sleeps right through it.

 

We still love Paige too, I promise, but she's not as big into posing for pictures for me as she once was.  Ha.

 She is feeling pretty big these days, riding the bus, and getting to walk down to her friend Ivy's by herself once in a while after school.  (She hasn't noticed I spy on her while she walks "alone"-Ha!)

Angel Baby. Again.

I have a zillion pictures to post.  Reed continues to be a good, goooood boy.

He's sweet and content and very happy, but he's very thoughtful, and will just gaze at us, not necessarily smiling nonstop.  

He seems happy almost all of the time, just too busy staring and thinking to smile every moment. 

He is cute every moment though.

When he does smile, it's pretty awesome to behold.

He saw his first rainy day last week, and I took him outside to check it out.

I still think of him as our slender one, but actually he's starting to fill out a bit.

He's outgrowing a lot of his 0-3 month clothes now, so I'm making sure to put some of my favorites on him as much as I can.

 ...and had an excuse to pick up a couple of new items for him.

 He isn't neglected.

I love this picture, they're both making similar mischievous faces.

He loves his bath as long as we keep him warm, but isn't a big fan of the hydration station. 

We just stare at him, and ask each other how he's this wonderful.  Inexplicable.  How did we get another fantastic angel baby?