Reed was 17 months old yesterday. It's hard to believe that he's already a walking, talking, toddler when sometimes I feel like I was just pregnant! Here are some recent milestones that he has reached.
Has a few new words - ba-bye (along with a wave), off, out, baby
He is eating from forks and spoons, and he's actually pretty good at it.
Got his last molar on the bottom right - finally!
Talks a lot in his language, asking "questions" and I just respond however I feel like it.
Gets into EVERYTHING! every cupboard, every drawer, every basket.
Lost his favorite blanky, new one to be purchased today. We have no idea where it is, but we suspect that he stashed it somewhere and we'll find it when cleaning out something bizarre.
We went to the zoo last weekend. It was so warm, weird for the end of October. We loved it and unfortunately couldn't stay for very long, so I'd love to go back before the snow falls. And I'd like to go NOT on a Saturday with some more friends. Reed really did love it and would have spent way more time at each exhibit if I had let him. Next time.
Staring at the carousel, he was fascinated by it.
He got to ride the lady bug, shoving his hand in his mouth to get that tooth out! He thought it was fun, didn't want to get off when it was over.
Reed posing with his friends, from left to right, Reed, Carden, Brooklyn, Ashton. Notice Reed is petting the statue.
Reed's absolute favorite animal was the giraffe, he just sat there staring as above. Then he started to talk to them. So cute!
Oh and he liked the train ride too, he smiled the whole ride.
Ok, here is the long story of the backyard as it's been mentioned in a few previous posts. At the beginning of the summer, our neighbors asked if they could access their backyard through our side yard in order to do an addition to the back of their home. They agreed to pay for the repairs for the damage incurred. The addition was to include an extended basement as well as a main floor. We said that we would take some of the dirt from the excavation of the basement in order to flatten out our yard.
Fast forward, we have a severely damaged side yard and mound of dirt in our backyard. We didn't anticipate having so much dirt so Fogg was able to borrow a machine from a friend of ours to start getting rid of this dirt. While he had the machine, he decided to do some much needed rock work on our walkout from the basement. Well, this machine was not quite big enough to move some of the massive rocks, and one got stuck, as you can see in some pictures below. Also, we planned on digging out some of the yard next to the walkout and under the deck to put in a patio and as we started, a very smart neighbor of ours (who was around when the house was being built and is also a general contractor) said that we can't take the dirt around the foundation or we will ruin it during the freeze/thaw cycle. Crap, we already dug up the sprinklers, took off the stairs to the deck, and put a few good holes in the ground. So now we have a torn up yard, large mound of dirt, and rocks all over the place. Time to call in the pros.
We had a guy come in and fix our rock wall, build a new walkout with rock stairs and level out the yard. A few weekends of digging trenches for sprinkler lines and drains and putting in the patio space by us. Sprinkler guys to finish our work and lay sod. So lots and lots of money out the door which we didn't really expect to do. We literally and figuratively dug ourselves a hole we couldn't get out of. We aren't too psyched about the money we had to spend but are happy about the end being in sight. Our yard is MUCH flatter than it was at the beginning of the summer, which is super great. The yard sloped towards the house so water was a problem. Lots of steps in our remodel process and pretty much eliminated that problem. Also, with Reed running around now, we won't worry about him rolling down the hill, now all we have to worry about is falling off the rock walls. And we'll have a nice patio in the back to hang out next summer. We will also install a shed in the spring to house our lawnmower, snowblower and various yard tools. Eventually a new deck will be put up but we need to get more money first!
So without further ado, here are the before and after pictures of our backyard project.
Before and After of the walkout:
See the rock there in the center? That's the one Fogg couldn't move past that point.
Before and after from the doorway of the walkout:
Before and After from the doorway of the walkout: The rock that is stuck in the middle. Gone!
Before and After of the whole back of the house:
Before and After of the walkout from the deck: There is that pesky rock again! It's now the top step on the far left of the picture!
Here is a walking tour of the new grass from the side of the house to the back:
New tier in the upper corner of the yard to transition to the other tiers better.
Now looking back from where we just came from:
Ta Da! We are done (well almost)
Thanks for taking the tour today, hope you enjoyed it. Left on the to-do list is to finish that patio on the right of the picture above and to install the shed that will be next to the tree that you can see on the left side of this picture (in above pictures it's where there is the blue pool). Please send money or workers if you'd like to see either of those things happen soon ;) Just kidding - sort of.
We found Reed a new toy. We'll new to us anyway. I used to think that Reed needed all *NEW* things but I've come to see the light that there is really no good reason why it needs to be new, some things can be used, and it's better that way! I'm less attached to new things, as used things have been broken in and if this thing breaks it's not a big deal, especially since I've only spent a few bucks on it! Anyway, we've been on the search for some sort of "riding" toy for Reed and just the right one came along for $8 and a few zip ties. He LOVES it and didn't get off of it all weekend. Also, it's like all the machines we've had in our backyard so he was pretty excited to get to do it himself.
Here he is showing me how to put things in the bucket
Look out, doggy (which I've named Oscar) wants in!
Looking where to take Oscar
Pulling the levers, Oscar is on his way!
There you go Oscar!
Hot choco explosion... we just let him play in it, it was mess anyway.
Another funny story, no pictures and you'll see why in a second. I was watching tv, just hanging out with Reed on Saturday morning, he was running around the house, just doing what he usually does, play with toys, play with London's water bowl, play with the measuring cups, etc. Anyway, it was quiet for like seriously 2 seconds so I look behind me and Reed was standing on the kitchen counter island, Fogg's coffee cup in hand, about to take a swig! He had pulled a stool out (if you haven't been to my house, they are kinda tall), climbed up it, stood on top of it, then climbed onto the counter, stood up, grabbed the cup! As I got up and ran over there, he hesitated with drinking the coffee and I was able to grab the cup, found out it was empty, and grabbed him off the counter! No time to grab a camera, and also kinda unsafe... Anyway, hawkeyes on that kid from now on!
We are getting SOOO close to finishing the backyard project! A few more pictures of the after and I'll post the final results. But here is a sneak peek of what the final product is looking like.
No patience with sitting for a picture anymore - see ya! Cheers~
As many of you know, my husband is from Pittsburgh. My in-laws still live there, all of them. Surprisingly, Fogg is a big Steeler's fan (Stiller's if you are from the 'burgh). Anyway, we have been blessed by the cutest Steeler's outfits from Dick and Fran. If you recall, this is what Reed looked like about a year ago in the outfit that Grandma and Papa got for him. Here is today's outfit! I totally love it, so darn cute. And of course he is sitting on the tractor that is currently in our backyard, I couldn't get him off of it! Thanks Grandma and Papa Fogg! We love you!
Some other things that Reed has learned to do that I forgot to post earlier or new things he learned since then:
He can say "hot". He will hold his hand up sideways, whisper "hot" and it always ends with a "th" sound. And he won't SAY it, only whisper it. But he understands what it means, the stovetop is hot, the grill is hot, the fireplace is hot. His food can be hot but he fails to understand that time removes the hot and won't try it again later. But he will blow on it to cool it off...
When asked to go get a book, he will run over to his little library, pick out one of the 5 books he enjoys the most (That's Not my Teddy, That's Not my Bear, First Words, Neighborhood Numbers, or Animals) and will bring it over for you to read to him. Maybe he will make it through half the book, before he heads back for another. Oh, he also enjoys The Birthday Box (from his aunt Georgette and Uncle Dale).
He will talk on the phone. Grabs anything that resembles a phone (camera, video camera, phone, remote) and will talk on it. He will always hold it upside down and backwards which is really funny and walk around, head cocked to the side, talking, complete with arm gestures, voice inflection and pauses. Every time I try to get it on video he will stop. One day I'll get it!
We have been doing skype video calls for a little bit, mostly with Fogg's parents and brother's family. Usually Reed doesn't really get that the people on the screen are interacting with him. I think he believes that it's like a TV show. But just this week he has been interacting with people on the other side. On Saturday, we were skyping with Fogg's parents and Reed gave them a high five, talked to them, gave them kisses. Last night, we skyped with April. He was a bit tired, as it was bed time and he was distracted but he still interacted with her. Fun!
Reed is starting to really be able to communicate what he wants. He was making a bunch of noise yesterday morning, so I went in to get him before I usually do. I typically get myself ready a little then get his bottle, feed London and then go get him. He's grown accustomed to me walking in with his bottle ready to go. When I walked in yesterday morning, I didn't have the bottle with me yet. He looked at me and said "ba?" like "mom, where is my bottle?"
Reed was playing on Saturday and found himself my cleaning bucket. He was carrying it around, doing a variety of activities such as standing on it while it was upside down, putting things in it and then he started climbing in it. He sat down and I thought it was kinda funny so I carried him around - my own bucket boy! He loved it and stayed in there for quite some time.
Staring at the carousel, he was fascinated by it.
He got to ride the lady bug, shoving his hand in his mouth to get that tooth out! He thought it was fun, didn't want to get off when it was over.
Reed posing with his friends, from left to right, Reed, Carden, Brooklyn, Ashton.
Reed's absolute favorite animal was the giraffe, he just sat there staring as above. Then he started to talk to them. So cute!
Oh and he liked the train ride too, he smiled the whole ride.
