Happy Birthday Reed!

Just one year ago today, Reed was coping with life in the outside world and Chris and I were coming up to speed with our taking care of a newborn skills. This year has brought many challenges for all three of us but oh so much fun. Reed has certainly made our lives different, in a great way! We can't even imagine what our lives were like just over a year ago without him. He is such a wonderful gift and we are so thankful for every day that we get to spend with him!

Stats (available following his doctor's appointment):
Weight: 23 lbs. 5 oz. (55th percentile) He's only gained a pound in 3 months. The doctor says it's normal.
Height: 32 inches (95th percentile)

At 12 Months:

• He is such a great little eater. Very rarely does he spit something out after he puts it into his mouth. He will, however, eat a few bites of something and then decide he doesn't want it anymore. We are still feeding him baby food every now and then in addition to real food just to make sure he is getting enough fruits and vegetables.


• He absolutely loves mandarin oranges as well as peaches, pears and hot dogs.


• He has cut most of his molars, but as you can see below he still has one or two that are driving him crazy. Fortunate for us, he really hasn't been too cranky while cutting his teeth.


• He is slowly converting to one nap a day. Unfortunately, he still hasn't figured out that this one nap needs to be at least 3 hours long.


• He is a little talker these days. He says dada, mama, car, go, bottle, hi, and bye bye. He can also sign "more" when he wants more food. So smart!


• He is still wearing size 5 diapers.


• He is getting close to being in 24 month clothing. He is so tall and skinny.


• He loves going for rides in his little red wagon. He also loves riding in PawPaw's golf cart. He gets a tad bit upset when either of them stops.


• He loves to dance. As soon as any music comes on he starts moving and it is adorable.


• He is a pro at playing by himself. This does help me get things done during the day.


• He continues to cry when we drop him off in the play area at the gym or at the nursery at church, but he gets over it very quickly.


• He loves his Dada!


• He really enjoyed his birthday cake, although I am not sure if it agreed with him. He didn't sleep very well last night, probably too much sugar.


• He has a very easy going personality, which I think he gets from me. He handled his birthday party so well and never got cranky or whined during all the craziness.


• He had his first drink of whole milk this morning and he didn't even act like it was any different from formula! He's so good with change, thank goodness!

12 Months!

Silly boy!

Sweet boy!

Just before he pushed both of them off the chair.

"Huh, I can't possibly be one!"

My, how he's grown! And, might I add, how much cuter he's gotten!!!

We celebrated Reed's first birthday with a party at our home yesterday. Reed is so very lucky to have family and friends who love him so much! We are so grateful to all of our family and friends who made it to the party. Reed was super excited to see everyone! Thanks for all the awesome gifts too.....Reed has literally bounced from toy to toy all day today. He just didn't know what to play with.

Mini photo session before the party started!

Such a big boy!

"Man, these molars are killing me!"

Reed's yummy cake made by Kelly Cakes in Roswell.

Birthday Banner made by LePoppyDesign. I found it on Etsy, so awesome!

"I can eat this? Are you sure?"

Yummmmm.

Party hat, of course he didn't wear it very long.

Isn't he cute in his diaper cover?!?!

Our little family, just one year ago today.

And now!

We spent Reed's first official birthday together as a family. We went to church, had brunch at J. Christopher's, napped and played hard the rest of the day. I think Reed had a great first birthday. He's a pretty lucky kid and we are certainly lucky to have him in our lives!!! Happy Birthday Reed! We love you very much!

Absent.

I have been way absent from the blog recently. You may have noticed that we have a little boy that will be 1 in six days, so his party planning is consuming my life. I have also been working on my high school reunion along with pre-planning for other parties that are on the horizon. It is going to be a super busy fall, but hopefully things can get somewhat back to normal in the blog world once we have the BIG party out of the way this weekend.

A semi-wasted trip finds something cool!

A few weekends ago I had the brilliant idea of going to check out a portion of the world's longest yard sale. I had dreams of yard after yard of antiques that were begging to be a fixture in our home. Oh, how wrong I was. As Chris put it, "this is just a bunch of junk." While I do think one person's trash is another person's treasure, we were not at all lucky in finding any treasures for our home. While we were disappointed with the lack of purchases, we did stumble upon something pretty cool. Hang Gliding! Because we were so bummed, we made a stop to check out the gorgeous views on top of Lookout Mountain. Then, we noticed them, hang gliders were jumping off cliffs and the most surprising part, being pulled up into the sky by airplanes. Whoa!

Reed and Daddy with the view!

Reed and Me

Check out the hang glider in the middle of the picture. This one had jumped from a cliff just south of us.

Hang glider being pulled behind a plane. They would eventually detach and float to the ground.

If you are interested in taking up hang gliding, I think there is a training process but you can check out all the information by clicking on the link below. Don't worry, I won't be doing this EVER!

Lookout Mountain Flight Park

Where were you on Thursday night?

You should've been at the Sarah McLachlan concert with Chris and me. Yes, I did make Chris go with me! And, honestly, he likes her just as much as I do so don't worry about him.

Unfortunately, Lilith Fair's stop in Atlanta got canceled, but Sarah (yes, we are on a first name basis now, lol) was nice enough to do a show in Atlanta outside of the tour. I debated whether or not to go but I knew that I would regret it, so I purchased the tickets the day before the concert. von Grey opened the show. They are a group consisting of four sisters ranging from 10 to 15 years old. Not necessarily someone you would expect to open for SM, but they apparently won a contest to play at Lilith Fair. Since Lilith Fair didn't happen here, SM offered them the chance to open for just her. They were really great and very talented. It should be interesting to see how their music career progresses.

Now, onto Sarah....she was absolutely wonderful, as anyone might expect. As Chris put it, "they probably don't have to do any digital remastering of her voice". She has the most beautiful voice. I was a little disappointed that she didn't sing my favorite song, Fear, but she sang the rest of her big hits. It was an awesome show. We certainly hope that she returns to Atlanta again!

A big thanks to my parents for keeping Reed for us while we enjoyed a night out alone!

Me and my extremely sweet husband!

Just a snippit of Sarah's awesomeness!

Happy Birthday Griffin!

We headed to Summerville last weekend to celebrate Griffin's birthday at a pool party! We all had a great time! Happy Birthday Griffin! We love you!

The birthday boy getting ready to blow out his candles!

Showing off his master candle blowing out skills.

Griffin is such a sweet boy...he made sure to say thank you after he opened each gift.

Who's that kid with the crazy hair? LOL!

Lots of kiddos in Mike Mike and Kath's pool!

Don't go!

Reed and I have been going to the local YMCA for about two weeks, so that I can finally work on returning to the skinnier version of myself. The first week was fabulous. I dropped Reed off, he didn't even look at me twice after I put him in the play area. This week, it's been a completely different story. He screams at the top of his lungs. When I dropped him off yesterday, I could hear him screaming at the bottom of stairs. Poor little guy! Not to worry, he didn't scream the entire hour that I was gone. I gave them strict instructions to come get me if he continued to cry. Thankfully, he gets over it within a few minutes, however, it makes it really hard to leave him. I was hoping that we would skip this stage but it looks like it has just started. So, be thinking about us as we deal with the onset of separation anxiety. I can't imagine what he would do if I went back to work!