My boy

I just love my little boy so very much. He is growing up to be such a little man already and every day he blows my mind with how much he's learned. His personality is really starting to show and he's a mix of sweetness and crazy. I have no doubt he'll be jumping big cliffs on his skis but will slow down for his less experienced friends cause he has a tender heart that way. His vocabulary is blossoming though it's still a bit in the stage of just us understanding him. He is starting to develop his imagination and makes up stories or scenarios that he will go through. His favorite thing is to drive cars around.

Reed has been having a hard time with the sound "F" therefore fire truck is more like "pire truck" and fall down is more like "pall down". The "tr" sound is also difficult for him.. He will get upset if something is messy and want to "wash" it. He likes to use a "nakin" (napkin). I also love the way that he says broken - "bokey". Two words he uses a lot but can't be understood by anyone else is popsicle and cereal. I know what he is saying but they sound nothing like the right word. Colors are very tricky for him for some reason. A month ago, everything was red, now everything is blue no matter what color it really is.

At a play area at an airport on our trip, he was jumping from this plastic airplane to the ground. It was a good 4 foot drop for him. He would count - ready? 2, 4... then jump. A dad commented to me that he was fearless by jumping so far.

His potty training is going well, very well in the past few days. When I was working from home the other day, he used the potty all day long for all his business and only wet his pull up when he was napping. Thursday, he went twice in the potty at the daycare and then told Fogg he needed to poopy at home later. Typically, he will go right in his diaper if he has a diaper or pull up on. But he had a pull up on and still went to use the potty. He had a pull up on for a good 7 hours and never dirtied it! Maybe there is hope!

I got him a book about being a big brother which he seemed to respond to well. He is very affectionate to the baby - my belly. He will hug and kiss and be nice to the baby. He will also tell me that it's "kickin". I also tell him that sometimes it hurts and he will randomly come up to tell me that as well. One of my favorite things he has started to do is wrap his doggy in his blanky. He will ask me to "baby" it (swaddle) and then I hand it to him. He will carry the doggy around, rock it, lay it down for night-night. He is very gentle and nice. Funny how he has paid attention to how we treat him and does the same mannerisms to the doggy. Here he is holding the swaddled doggy in his carseat:He is also concerned the doggy goes potty. He will act out the doggy going poopy and explains he is pooping outside. He'll pretend that the doggy licks too.

The transition to the big boy bed has gone well. He has slept in it a full 3 nights in a row this week. He will go right to bed and we never have to go in to tell him to lay back down. He'll sleep all the way till 6:30ish in the morning. He will then just get up and come into our room. I'm very proud of him for not getting up at 4 in the morning, he is still sleeping to normal time.

He LOVES reading books. Every night, I lay down on the floor with him (which is getting increasingly difficult for me) and tell him we will read a few books. After a few (mostly when I'm tired of it) I tell him, just one more. He will look at me and say "one more? two?". I have to convince him that we'll read more tomorrow, that it's time for night-night now.

Well, that's my brag-fest for the day. Sorry you have to read my personal accounts (and records) of my kiddo. He really is the cutest kid ever!

Summer Vacation - Family Style

Well, we just got back from a nice long trip to both Branson, Missouri and Maine. We were gone a nice 11 days and we stayed plenty busy!

First stop was Branson for a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. We flew into Kansas City and then drove down to Branson (much cheaper for us though it took some extra time). Side note, there is NOTHING between KC and Branson, just a long straight road. Reed did great on the flight, here he is enjoying his mid-flight snack and drink.


Once we got there, first stop was Arthur Bryant's BBQ. It was classic. Because our flight was delayed and it took some time to get the rental car, we weren't eating lunch till about 3:30. Fogg was starving and had been waiting quite some time to eat this. Can you tell by the look on his face?


Then it was down to Branson. Dang, it's hot in MO! The next morning, we had breakfast with my Grandma Nickel. She had never met Reed and he warmed right up to her.

Playing tickle with Grandma

After a nap in the afternoon, we went to a family pool party where Reed enjoyed many jumps into the pool to G-Pa and Daddy.




Here is Grandma with Reed (on the left side of the picture) and my cousin Dacia's little boy Micah. Grandma was very excited about the two of them playing together (though they didn't interact too much). A funny thing happened though. Micah was running around the next day and Reed was watching him. Reed pointed to him and said "Reed!". He knew that Micah looked so much like him that he thought it was himself. He understands when a picture of himself or a mirror is Reed but doesn't get that he is Reed (does that make sense?). Anyway, it was funny that this kid looked so much like him he thought it was himself.


I also got to catch up with a lot of my cousins. I believe that all but 3 of my cousins (and families) were there. The following day we had a nice family reunion and birthday party for Grandma Nickel (turning 90 in October!). We had some nice photos taken by a talented cousin and I hope to get a copy soon. We stayed busy the rest of the afternoon trying to stay cool at the pool and eating ice cream. We had dinner with Grandma and one of my aunt and uncles, then went to spend a little time with my cousin Dacia.

me and Grandma

Grandma playing with Reed
Reed is giving Grandma a goodbye hug.

Early the next morning, we left Branson for the drive north to KC and fly out to Boston. It was a full day of travel but Reed did great. We got to Fogg's cousin Susan's for dinner. Tuesday we went downtown Boston to explore a bit. We went to the aquarium and Reed seemed to enjoy that quite a bit. We also headed to Boston Common to check out the ducks. We met up with Fogg's cousin Leslie and her hubby Eric and two girls Abby and Emily. If you didn't know (which I didn't) there is a book called Make Way for Ducklings which is fairly famous. It's about the ducks that make their way to the Boston Common Public Garden Duck Pond. There are bronze statues of the ducks there. The kids sat on them.

Watching the penguins at the aquarium.

touch pool, though he really only cared about the water rather than touching a crab or whatever

Emily, Abby and Reed on the ducks in Boston Common

After some ice cream we headed back to Leslie's house and had a nice BBQ and some more pool time. Reed had a great time playing with Leslie's girls. Wednesday morning, we headed up north towards Maine. We had a nice stop in Freeport to do a little shopping and eating then drove the rest of the way up to Bangor to meet up with Dale and Georgette, Gabby, Gram, Aunt Carol, Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindy. Gram and Carol made us some dinner and we sat around enjoying each others company. Reed took right to cousin Gabby and the two of them were all over the place having a grand old time.

Smelling Gram's flowers.

Caught red handed! They had been eating fresh strawberries and their hands were stained red.

Playing with Gram and her tractors.

Bob's beautiful backyard

Dale and the kids feeding the ducks one morning.

We spent the next few days just hanging out in Bangor. Fogg and Dale went fishing one morning, Georgette and I and the kids did a little LL Bean outlet shopping, we visited the tractor supply store, ate dinner at Gram's, ate breakfast at Gram's, had lunch at Sea Dog Brewery, and generally just hung out at Bob and Cindy's fabulous house. It is so quiet and relaxing there with several porches to sit on and enjoy the view, plenty of great company and lots of food. Reed especially enjoyed the many tractors to play on. Bob took him on a nice ride on the BIG tractor, here is Reed raising and lowering the bucket in front.

Another view of Bob and Cindy's backyard, vintage tractor, duck pond, lilypads, ducks.

Late Friday night, April, my bestest friend, came in to spend the weekend with us for her 30th birthday! Saturday we showed her Stephen King's house, around Bangor a little then spent most of the day just hanging around in the sun and chatting with the family. We had a nice big family BBQ too.

The fam (most of it anyway - missing Dick and Fran) - Fogg, Reed, me, Gabby, Dale, Georgette, Dana, Carol, Cindy, Sa, Bob and Gram.

Well into Saturday night and Sunday morning, the partying continued with drinks celebrating April's birthday. I went to bed early, this pregnant body can't stay up that late! Classic Fogg and April:

Cheers to April's 30th birthday at midnight!

We left Bangor on Sunday morning and drove down to Camden to have lunch on the dock after visiting with Aunt Sa in Belfast for a few minutes. We walked around a little then drove down to Freeport. We had a fabulous birthday dinner for April in Freeport on the porch of the Jameson Tavern.

Visiting Aunt Sa

Fogg and Reed in front of the Mercantile ship - it was built early 1900's and still does multi-day cruises.

Reed and Aunti April

Monday, it was finally time to start making our way back to Utah. We spent some time at the docks in Freeport then said good bye to April so she could fly back to NY.

With just the 3 of us left, we went to Old Orchard Beach for about an hour to let Reed play in the ocean. He loved running in and out of the waves.



After that, it's boring travel back to Boston and a flight back to Utah. We were exhausted from our trip, we need a vacation after that to recover! It was so great to catch up with both of our grandmother's and spend some time with extended family. With another member on the way, we aren't sure how much more traveling we can do so far away. It's nice to explore new areas (and old ones) and spend quality time with family.

We loved our time with all of our family and love watching Reed form relationships with our own grandmothers (his great grandmother's!), our aunts and uncles, our cousins, his aunts and uncles, his cousins and second cousins and friends that are as close as family. Reed traveled well, maybe even better than Fogg and I! He is right back to his home routine, thankfully, and we escaped without sickness! Thank you to everyone that hosted us and saved us bundles of money!

Now, time to count down to this new baby!

Congrats

Two amazing women in my life gave birth in the past week. I'm so overwhelmingly excited for them due to their stories.

Kristen was my neighbor growing up. She was the big sister I didn't have and she babysat us more times that I'm sure she cares to remember. She lost her little girl Anna last year due to a very premature birth and 9 day fight. I was so sad for her and her husband Frank. Last week, Kristen gave birth to a full term, healthy, happy and perfect little boy - Franklin. I'm so excited for Kristen and Frank to have and to hold this precious little boy!

Katie is a great friend who was a little afraid of being pregnant/having a baby (to say the least). I was overjoyed when she told me they were expecting! She had a great pregnancy and was due on July 4th (but no baby arrived!). After a week of waiting, she went into labor and had a beautiful little girl on Sunday night. There is no name decided yet and I hope to meet her this week!

Congrats to my dear friends and I wish you nothing but happiness and healthy perfect babies to help you grow old!

Cheers~

Big Boy Room

Well, I got Reed's Big Boy Room finished on Saturday morning and he wanted to take his first nap in there that afternoon. First, here are the pictures of the room:

His bed and sleeping area.

A cute street rug and a space for him to play. The window seat cushion has a road on it if you can't see, made by Grandma Fogg. She also made him that steering wheel pillow you can see on his bed. I put the hooks low so he can hang up his own robe and towels.

Freshly painted dresser and a bookshelf. I'm sure the shelf will get filled up eventually, I just didn't have much to put there yet. I painted the picture hanging above the bookshelf.

Dresser. I hoped it would look like a toolchest but it really just looks like a red dresser. Oh well, it's a nice size for the room and I didn't have to buy new furniture, only repaint something old. In fact, the only furniture I bought was the bed (a deal at $27 total) and the bookshelves.

I thought a little shelf for books so he can get them out himself was a nice idea. I also put that white board with magnets. He loves it so far.

So after I finished, I asked him if he would like to take a nap in his big boy room or his crib. He wanted to sleep in the new room. I told him that he had to stay in his bed and that if he got out he would have to sleep in his old room. I let him be for about 10 minutes then went to check on him. He had turned on the clock radio, moved the picture to his nightstand and was playing with the magnets. When I walked in, he ran back to the bed and had a sad look on his face like he knew he did wrong. I told him that he needed to get in bed and go to sleep or he would have to go to the crib. He jumped right in bed and that was that. This is him a few minutes later:

That night he wanted to sleep in his room again, we had a few back and forth to the old room to read books and rock in the chair but eventually he ended up in the big boy bed. When I checked on him a half hour later, he was in his bed but wide awake. He wanted to see daddy then me to rock him in the chair again. Then he pointed to his crib and that's where he slept that night. Sunday he took a nap in his big boy bed again and did great - went right to sleep. Sunday night we tried it again and he again, went right to sleep! So he slept the whole night on Sunday night in the big boy bed! I was a little conflicted about it, happy that it was that easy to get him transitioned but a little sad that he really is getting to be a big boy. I worried that he would wake up in the middle of the night confused or scared but he didn't. He got up around 6am and came into our room. I woke up to the sweet voice saying "mom? mommy?". Then he snuggled with me a few minutes before we got up for the day. He did so great! Hopefully it'll continue to be a great transition and he'll keep sleeping in there, not waking up too early or wanting to go back to the crib. I've been told that transitioning the older child to a bed long before the new baby arrives is a good idea so they don't feel "kicked out" of their room. If this continues, he'll be in his new room a full 3 months before the baby comes. That'll give us plenty of time to work out the kinks of a new room.

On Saturday afternoon, Reed saw my camera out from when I was taking pictures of his room. He grabbed it and handed it to me saying "picture. me." Then he took off running around the house. He wanted me to take pictures of him lapping the main floor. Here is his series of 5 laps:

Think he enjoys running? Yeah, it's summer, he doesn't wear clothes - so sue me! Actually, we got him a water table (on clearance no less!) and he was playing with it on the deck and didn't want his clothes wet. He just spent the rest of the afternoon nakey. He's wearing pull-ups cause we are still working on potty training. He does great when he is completely naked but with a pull-up or diaper, he still goes in it. We had one poop in the potty on Saturday morning and he asked when we were in public Sunday to go potty - two good successes. We are still working on it but it's hard for him when we are out and his has a diaper on to remember to ask to go potty. We'll get there!

That's all for the haps right now~