Chi-town

I guess there is kinda a lot to catch up on, as I look through my pictures! Here are just a few cute pictures of Reed the other day:

Watching those feet moving!

He hung out in the sunshine for a long time, just playing with his own toes.

Then started doing funny things like this.

Isn't he just too cute?

Ok, then I took off to Chicago - without Fogg! I was stressed for weeks going into this trip, mostly cause I was afraid of flying by myself with a very active 11 month old little boy. The logistics went really well, all up until the flight got delayed by an hour. Fortunately, I had an empty seat next to me so Reed could just crawl around. But about an hour until landing, he got really tired and cranky. I had the screaming baby in the back! So we went in the bathroom, I let him scream, gave him a bottle then he konked out. He did pretty well considering, but it was still stressful for me!

The next morning, we got up to attend the March of Dimes, March for Babies walk! It was spectacular. There were so many people there and the weather ended up cooperating with us (it was supposed to thunderstorm) but instead it was partly cloudy, great temp, not a drop of rain. The 6.2 miles went pretty fast and it was great to talk about little Anna and catch up with old friends. Here is our little group walking for Anna (we raised over $1500 just in our little group!). On the left is Frank (Anna's dad), mom there in the back, Stacy pushing Reed in the stroller (Anna's Aunty), Gary (Anna's Grandpa), Kristen (Anna's mom), and Frank's mom (can't remember her name). Pam (Anna's Grandma, Kristen's mom) is somewhere in there too!

Then off to Kristen and Frank's house for a little BBQ. Here is Gary playing with Reed. It is so cool and fun to watch your best childhood friend's dad play with your kiddo. Brian (Gary's son, Stacy's husband, Kristen's brother) and I grew up together next door to each other from age 2 on. He is practically my brother, so it's really fun to see how we've all grown up and watching our families interact. Brian and Stacy had their little girl, Ava, only a few days before Anna's premature arrival (see previous posts for details). We got to hang out with Ava a bunch too, though Reed isn't very gentle with new babies, so we don't have pictures of them together.

Here is Brian with Reed later in the day. I went and spent the night with Brian and Stacy and it was so great to watch them together and catch up with them!

Darn cute pictures!

The next morning, Brian was off to the golf course (where he is the superintendent) and Stacy and I went to Dunkin Donuts! Here is Reed with his very first Munchkin!

He was pretty tired from all the running around, here he is crashed out in the car (all of his naps while I was there were in the car) on the way to lunch with Mom and Ann!

After lunch at Panera (another favorite that I don't get in Utah) we went over to an old stomping ground of Woodfield Mall, where Mom and Ann watched Reed in the play area while I got a little solo shopping in (how nice was that!)
Then off to my old house to pack up a few boxes and have dinner with Dad at Gino's (another Chicago favorite). Unfortunately, mom took my camera after this last picture, so I didn't have a camera to take pictures of Reed's first Chicago-style pizza! Then back to Sue and Jim's house (again forgot to take pictures of Reed at their house with them!) for the night. The next morning, we went through boxes, ran a few errands, including a stop at Portillo's (probably the last stop on the great Chicago food tour). They have the most amazing chocolate cake, so here is Reed enjoying that...

I think he might have been in a chocolate coma after that...

Then it was off to the airport for the ride home. Mom was with me this time, though the flight was more full. Again, it was hard to wrangle this child but we survived. He finally passed out as the wheels of the plane hit the ground in Salt Lake City. Oh well, he did alright, what more can you ask for with a child his age?

Well, that's the long and short of my trip back to Chi-town, glad to be home now, even though it's snowing as I type this, what's up with that spring?

Cheers~

eleven

So just the other day, Reed turned 11 months old. I'm having a hard time comprehending that he will be 1 year old in less than a month! Crazy! He is such a little person now, doing some funny things, discovering his surroundings and how things work. Here is a little list of things that little Reed is up to these days:

• Was throwing the ball to London the other day. London would drop the ball in Reed's lap and Reed would pick it up and throw it, London happily retrieved. It was adorably cute.
• The other day in the bath, Reed put his face under the water several times to test what it's like to hold his breath.
• He's been running his tough over his teeth, and exploring the inside of his mouth.
• Has one sign, which I think means just about everything and anything. He holds his hand palm up and brings his fingers in (like he is saying "come here"). Mostly, I think it means "I want that" or "more". He made it up himself, it is not an official sign.
• Gets angry when you take something away that he wants. He has a fake "cry" which is a very whiny cry, showing his teeth and staring at you for some sort of response.
  
• Loves to stand up on anything he can, walking along the couch or coffee table, trying to get on top.
• Goes up and down the stairs! He loves to crawl up and just the other day really learned how to go back down.
• Likes to put things in some sort of container. For example, he likes to throw his toys back in the toy bin, or fill up a bucket, or put toilet paper rolls in the toilet. He likes to open drawers and cabinets all over the house, pull things out then put them back in. In the pantry, he has 4 little water bottles that he will put in the box with the wine bottles, in the recycle bin, or in the reuseable grocery bags, then pull them all out again.
  
• He likes any part of the house that we don't want him in - the office (where he pulls out all the paper stacked up for the printer), in the pantry, laundry room, bathrooms. He loves the dishwasher, you can barely open it and he is on his way to it.
  
• He eats quite a bit, at least three meals a day, sometimes a second dinner. He loves to eat all kinds of new foods, picking them up himself. He likes to share with London too. He loves banana's and any other fruit, pasta with pesto, sweet potatoes, toast, and carrots. He is not really a fan of cheerios (but maybe cause I got the plain rather than honey nut).
  
• He weighs about 20 pounds right now.
  
• Hates wearing hats of any type.
• Sucks his thumb when he is tired and sleeps really good. He sleeps from about 8pm to 6-7am every day. Unfortunately, he has had a few nightmares, screaming in the middle of the night :(
• Loves his mama and dada, and his LaLa. He especially loves Nana Branch (who watches him twice a week). He flaps like a bird when we get there.

Only a month more until his birthday party, I'm looking forward to it, mostly cause it's going to be a time of just hanging out, BBQ, and playing games.

Cheers~

March for Babies

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm following through with my promise to do a March of Dimes, March for Babies walk in remembrance of little Anna Vitek. I'm trying to raise money for it and I need your help! Just $10 would be awesome if you can swing it! I'm walking 6.2 miles with my baby boy to help raise awareness and money for this awesome cause! So please, pretty please, donate at the link below!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=3424469&ct=4&w=4310698&u=mfogg

Thank you!

Easter, baby locks and other random-ness

So that is London, being the "Easter Dog". HA! Anyway, I'm totally lame and forgot to take pictures on actual Easter. So these are a day later, recreated. Oh well, at least I got some! Easter is one of my fav holiday's (mostly cause I was born on Easter morning and I feel a connection with it). I made a basket for each person, but didn't recreate those ones, only Reed's. Here he is with the one I made and with items from the ones from LaLa, Gramma and Papa, and Nana Branch.He did not enjoy the bunny ears
He did enjoy the cups though

He really likes the little monkey

We had to put some locks on cabinets that Reed has been getting into. He has learned to open the doors and drawers. There are some that he really likes, the measuring cups and tupperware, also likes the corner cabinet with his sippy cups and other assorted baby items. But just in case, we put the lock on the cleaning agent cabinet, with the counter wipes and cleaners and detergents. Well, not sure it was affective. That is what he went for! The actual lock itself was pretty interesting. He got pretty frustrated at that thing, trying to get it off!

Here is the "other random-ness" part of the post. Here is Reed wanting to use the mouse like dad:

And we went to Amy's birthday party. Here is Reed playing with Jane (Amy's daughter) and her dad Pete:

Oh and he got this walker for Easter, he likes it sometimes, and when he does it, he is SO proud of himself.

Happy Buble Day

My day started yesterday with lots of new snow and a skype from April "Happy Buble Day!". So all day I said that to people (most people just rolled their eyes and thought me a fool).

After a change of clothes, I was off to Cafe Med to meet up with the rest of the gals, Mom, Apes and Candace. We had a yummy dinner of baba ganoush, falafel, and curry. A hilarious drive over to the E-center and we were in! We walked down to our incredibly good seats, unfortunately, however, we were sitting in front of the family that I have nicknamed "the douche family", and next to Alice and Harry. You will see later in my story why these people have been named as such. I took this picture of "Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan". We laughed till we cried about it:

Anywhoo, after dumping a ridiculous amount of money on a t-shirt, we settled in to our seats to be greeted by a fantastic opener, Naturally 7.

Naturally 7 is an acapella group that is simply amazing. Candace's mouth dropped open at one point when her little crush, the skinny bass sang.

Douche Family took this picture when I still liked them:

This is the best of four attempts at a picture together:

Thanks for the tickets Mom, it was AMAZING!!!!

Up comes the music, down went the lights and on comes our boyfriend!

After the first song of Cry Me a River, he sang All of Me. I turn around to notice that most people are sitting down when the mom of Douche Family asked me to sit down because her son couldn't see. Really lady? Anyway, kinda ruined the song for me as I affectionately came up with their name. Also, who sits on the floor, pays top dollar and doesn't stand up? What is up with Utahn's and their ridiculous concert going habits? Looking forward to Candace's take on it... A few songs later, during something very soft and sweet, Alice and Harry, our overweight and grumpy old neighbors, spent the entire song arguing about how to turn the camera on. Anyway, they ended up leaving before the encore, so we could leave our seats to watch Michael closer.

Here he is singing his last song, it's always the same one - "singing this song for you..."

Sadly, he finally left and we all had to go home. We love you Michael!!!!