23 Months!

Just one month until the big 2!  Wow!

Stats:
Height: Tall
Weight: Skinny

At 23 Months:

• Reed can say his prayers.  It is the sweetest thing in the world.  When I asked him one night if he wanted to say his prayers, he just started saying them out of the blue.  After he finished saying his prayers he leaned over and kissed me and said "God bless you", because this is what Chris always says to him after his prayers.  So sweet!
• He loves to march.  He even started taking longer strides while walking on the sidewalk and swinging his arms.  If marching, a golf club is on his shoulder (I guess portraying his gun) and he swings the other arm, hilarious.
• Reed says "dag gum it".  My fault.  Must. watch. what. we. say.
• He often says that things are "like" something even though they are exactly what he says.  We aren't "like" people so not sure where that came from.  After he roars he says "like a lion" or he sings the "I love you, you love me" Barney song and he says "like Barney" or things are "like fun".
• He has learned to walk backwards this month and very quickly I might add.  Most of the time he is walking backwards he is actually marching, because the kid loves to march.
• After singing "Jesus Loves Me" to me one night he clapped and said "yay mommy, it's good".  He can also sing Rock-a-bye-Baby and a number of other songs.
• The big change in Reed recently is the fact that he is super duper whiney.  It is super duper annoying.  What to do with him?  Well, we have been getting many emails regarding this subject, so it is apparently normal, but we were hoping for some help with the issue.  One of the suggestions said that once they start to whine clasp your hands over your ears and say that you can't hear them when they are like that.  It has worked pretty well.  It hasn't completely stopped the whining but once we cover our ears, he actually stops whining and tells us what he wants.  Our kid is a little too smart for his own our good, after we were telling him to do something at breakfast the other morning he said "I can't hear you".  Oh me.
• Reed jumped for the first time this month when he actually meant to.  He has jumped on accident before but didn't know it.  This time we asked him to bounce while dancing and he just jumped off the ground.  Yay Reed!
• He now makes commands such as "wait Daddy", "stop" and "c'mon".
• After he coughed the other morning, he said "goodness".  He also says things like "oh dear", "oh my" and "geez".
• He can identify all his shapes and colors but he has to want to do it otherwise he just ignores us.
• He can also count to 10 and maybe even to 19 on some days.  He can even count down from 5 to 1, probably because of the "Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon" song.
• He is still waking up in the middle of the night, which means that Chris or I only get to sleep in our own bed for half the night and then we must migrate to the bed in Reed's room.  It is exhausting.
• He absolutely loves to play hide and seek, which Teal introduced to him recently.  He always wants to be the seeker.  He will cover his eyes and sometimes tells us "no peeking", since that's what we have to tell him the majority of the time.  Yesterday, while I was in a pretty good hiding place he said "mommy, where are you".  

23 Months!

He is such a big boy now.  

He kept telling me that he was sleepy.

Cheesin'

Look at that sweet face!

"It's so funny!"

This kid loves to run!!

Longitude - 0˚

Being the nerd that I am, I knew that we had to visit Greenwich before heading back to the States.  The reason being is that Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World, each year ends and begins here.  And probably the main reason that anyone comes to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich is to straddle the Prime Meridian Line, therefore having one foot in the Western Hemisphere and another in the Eastern Hemisphere, at Longitude - 0˚.

The top of the Royal Observatory.

Chris in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Me and Reed trying it out.  He thought it was hilarious that I was moving his feet apart.  Who knows why?!?

Borough Market and Kew Gardens

With only a few weeks remaining before we head home, we decided to make a list of things we had yet to see that we must check out before we leave and things that we want to repeat.  This weekend included some firsts and a couple of repeats.  On Saturday, we ventured down to Borough Market again to sample cheeses, eat croissants and other yummy foods and stand in the longest line ever for coffee at Monmouth Coffee.  This is probably Chris's favorite place in London!  After we got our fill of the market, we made our way to Kew Gardens.  It is a gigantic piece of land with many, many different kinds of trees and flowers growing there.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the season for some things to be in bloom, but it was a beautiful place.

One of the many greenhouses at Kew Gardens.

A ginormous palm.  Apparently it is one of the largest indoor plants.

Japanese gardens.

California Redwoods in the UK!  Now, we've made it our goal to actually see one in California!

And another greenhouse.  The flowers here were beautiful!

I just might figure this out!

I am now in week 3 of my photography class.  This week started the use of manual mode on my camera.  While I have been super nervous about controlling all the aspects of the camera, I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is.  Not super easy, but easy enough.  It is really awesome to see what my camera can do when I actually know how to work it!  I am super pumped about the potential to take great pictures of my family myself!!  Let me know what you all think of my pics below.

One of my favorite models!

Total candid moment!  Love it!

And my other favorite model!

The Carlocks in London!

We had a fabulous time hosting our good friends Teal and Laren Carlock and their son Tripp in London.  Reed and I spent a good bit of time with them sightseeing during the week and Chris was lucky enough to have the weekend and a few days at the start of this week to spend with them.  We were so sad to see them go on Wednesday, but we look forward to eating all the fried food we can manage at the Texas State Fair in October.  Woohoo!!!

Tripp, Laren and Teal in Trafalgar Square.

The Guys at the British Open.  It's too bad they didn't snap a picture during the downpour.  At least it brightened up for them in the afternoon.

And, look at these two cuties sporting their British Open tees that their dads brought back for them.

And the Carlocks at Tower Bridge.

We were absolutely honored that the Carlocks made the long trek to London to visit us while we are living here.  Love you guys!  Looking forward to our Texas visit!

Monkey Meekles!

We were really lucky to discover a fun music class, Monkey Music, held weekly just down the street from our place here in London.  Reed absolutely loved going to "class" each week and he would literally run out the door when I said it was time for Monkey Music.  He calls it "Monkey Meekles" and will only sometimes say "music".  Last Thursday was our very last Monkey Music class due to their summer hiatus and our return to the States.  It was a sad day for me because I know how much he loves it.  I will definitely be on the lookout for a great music class for him to take once we get home!

Giving Monkey a kiss.  Reed is way timid and shy in class and will never go give Monkey a kiss until everyone gives him one and then Miss Jane has to move his way a little.

He's never too shy to do a little dancing though!

Playing the drums, his favorite instrument.

Bubble time!  Can you tell he loves it?!?!

Reed showing up his certificate with Miss Jane.

Playtime!

Reed and I headed to the mall the other day for some much needed time out of the house and some retail therapy.  There is a small area for the kiddos to play but Reed was only there for a few minutes before he decided it was time to go find Buzz at the Disney store.

Silly goose!

A decision needs to be made.

In just over 6 short weeks (do you think I have mentioned the countdown enough yet?  lol!), we will be making our way back to the home we purchased and only lived in for six months prior to moving across the pond.  While we are seriously looking forward to being back home in Georgia, I am dreading coming back to a home that needs some serious decorating help.  So, I thought I would start posting the things I have been thinking about or considering and hopefully get some feedback from you all.

So, let's first start with paint colors.  Our entire downstairs and upstairs hallway is in serious need of re-painting.  The colors are just a little too gold for me and it certainly can't hurt to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls to make the home feel a little more new.  Below are a few pictures of the colors of the downstairs as it appears now, sitting all lonesome by itself in Georgia.

The Foyer, before it was our house, but you can still see the yellowy tone of the entryway.

Dining Room, the chairs made their way back to the store but the gold wall color remains.

Chris' Office/Study

Living Room

Okay, now let's take a look at the colors I am thinking would work in these rooms.  Please ignore the giant blue room.  There really isn't that much of the room that is blue although this kind of makes it feel like the ceiling, floors, walls, everything is blue, lol!  It really is a pretty Pottery Barn-like blue.

Option 1:  Go with more neutral tones that are more on the brown side than the gold side.  I feel like the green study/office could potentially work with this color scheme but not sure.  Does gray in the dining room work with this?  I don't know, I don't know.

Option 2:  Paint the main areas of the house a very light gray.  It seems that gray is in right now, but will it go away?  Does it matter as long as long as we love it?  Hmmm.....

Option 3:  Choose the easy way out and paint all the main areas of the home white.

Now it's your turn, what do you all think?  Any thoughts or suggestions on a color scheme.  Does your house have colors that you love?  I think the hardest part is trying to define what I want the overall feel of our house to be.  It's so hard considering everything needs to be decorated, not just one room.  Hopefully you all can help.

More sights with the ladies!

Aunt Jean, Joyce, Doris and Jo at Buckingham Palace.  Reed has been to the changing of the guard so many times that he is usually marching instead of walking, lol!

At Windsor Castle.  I wish this wasn't so dark!

Doing their most favorite thing in London, taking the tube, haha!

The London Eye

In front of the Orangery at Kensington Palace.

The Golden Girls or The Beatles?

We ventured to Abbey Road for the first time this past Sunday on the last day of "the ladies'" visit.  It was fun to walk across the street and mimic The Beatles.  It was even more fun to see all the many people on the street doing it too.

Abbey Road!

And our version.  We are missing just a few, we'll call it a 2 and 1/3 rendition.

The wall outside of Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles recorded the album.  Many had expressed their love for them on the wall.

Doris defacing public property, lol!