Thursday, January 21, 2010

Reid is 11 months old!

On January 3rd, our not-so-little-Reider turned 11 months old! (Yes, I know I'm behind in blog posts.) It's hard for me to believe that my little baby boy is almost 1 - almost a toddler! Where has the year gone?!?

Reid truly remains one of the happiest kids I've ever seen - his smile lights up his mom and dad's lives in an instant. We couldn't be more blessed! I'll have stats (height, weight, etc) for him next month at his one-year check... but until then I wanted to record a few of my favorite things from this last month with Reid...


I love this little baby's bed head when he wakes up! He's FINALLY starting to get some hair and it's coming in fast! Sweet thing needs a trim, but I just can't bring myself to take him for a haircut yet... he's still just a baby. =)


...But a baby who is growing up all too quickly... Just the other day, Reid took 3 steps on his own! I was so excited but at the same time wanted to sit on his head to make him stop growing so fast. What an emotional roller-coaster motherhood will take you on! Reid really started standing pretty well on his own this month... and he cruises EVERYWHERE... but I have a feeling that my baby boy will be a true "toddler" very soon. I think he will start walking any day. In the mean time, mine and Ben's favorite sound throughout the day is his crazy laughter as he crawls as fast as he possibly can back to his Dad's office. For some reason, it's his favorite place to be (probably because there is so much he can destroy in there!)... and he's learned to force open closed doors... uh-oh... =)

The boy also (still) LOVES to eat... and he somehow manages to eat everything with just his two bottom teeth. (Although, two top teeth are starting to cut through...)


Reid is definitely off of baby food - he refuses anything that we try to spoon feed him and insists on doing it himself. So independent! (This has definitely turned my kitchen into a war zone of mess and food ALL over the floor, walls, chairs, you name it... but I wouldn't trade it.) He basically eats whatever Ben and I are eating...I just make sure to tear it up into tiny pieces for him... and we are even to the point of having to order him his own kids meal when we go out because he eats SO MUCH. Currently, some of his favorites are:

Cheese puffs
any kind of cereal bar
oatmeal
cheerios
sausage balls w/cheese
oranges
fruit snacks
Grilled cheese sandwiches
french fries (healthy...I know, I know)
Raisin toast
Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets
Green beans
Granola
...and sometimes bananas or carrotts

And a new favorite that we discovered last night.... BARBEQUE! Reid truly is a TEXAN! =)

He was so proud of himself for eating all of his dinner (BBQ, carrotts, corn, and oranges) that he was clapping and saying "YAY!"....

...which brings me to another new thing this month... CLAPPING! Reid loves to clap. He would prefer me to sing patty cake all day long... he claps and claps, then rolls it up, and throws it in the pan (as he throws his arms in the air). It's really cute! His Dad is also teaching him football calls (touchdown, holding, etc)... he normally does them on command. I'll need to post a video soon of those...

He's also very into dancing (we dance a lot around here)...and definitely knows the term "Shake your booty, Reid!".... (again... I know, I know... it's just so cute!)

Reider has also started waving (selectively)... Last Saturday we hosted a baby shower for some sweet friends of ours who just adopted a baby boy (YAY!!!)... Anyway, while the girls were downstairs setting up, Ben was upstairs with Reid and a couple of his little friends in the playroom. Long story short, you can see through the railings of our stairs at anyone coming through the front door. Reid stood there at the railing with his little arm reaching through as far as it would go waving and yelling "Hey!" to every person who walked through our door for the shower. He was definitely on the welcoming committee! He's a little charmer, that's for sure (and he knows it!).

He is only saying a few words at this point, but definitely understands most of what we say to him. He will say (selectively): Mama, Dadda, baba (bottle), zoom (car), Hey (to get our attention...working on that), he's working on 'Kitty', and he tries to sing patty cake (no one can understand what he's singing but me, of course...ha!). What has been really helpful, though, is that he now points at everything he wants... and I mean EVERYTHING. Sometimes, I have to admit, the pointing and grunting can get on your last nerve... but right now it's his way of communicating, so we'll take it!

And finally, here's a quick pic of me and the little man... as you can see... he still LOVES the camera (and LOVES looking at pictures of himself)! And, yes, he knows how to scroll the pictures on my iphone... he now thinks he needs his own...



We love you so very much, Reider - cannot wait to see what this next month brings!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

NEW YEAR'S 2010

We opted for a very low-key New Year's this year... wanted to bring it in together as a whole family, so the 3 of us and a small group of friends all headed out to dinner with all the kiddos. Brave? Very. But we had a fabulous time!!!

Reider and I before heading out...

The girls (and the kids, of course!)

The guys

The whole crew - love these friends and love that our kids are all growing up together!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (Reid didn't make it till midnight ;))

On New Years Day, Ben and I actually escaped for a few hours and went to the first movie (in a theatre) that we've seen since the little man has been born. We had such a fun date! While we were out, Reider got to hang with his Doc and KK. I should have warned the poor kid that KK would make him eat black-eyed peas and cornbread... his face says it all...

Ok, KK... I'll try them if you say so...

Hey... these things aren't so bad!

And I loved this picture! Reid has a wagon at our house and the same wagon at Doc and KK's house. One of his favorite things to do is to put his books, balls, and cars inside the wagon... then climb in and play...


Happy New Year and many blessings for your family in 2010!

Michael Reid's First Christmas - 2009

Thank goodness blogger is cooperating with me tonight in uploading photos because I've got LOTS to catch you all up on... First up: REID'S FIRST CHRISTMAS!

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited our family was to celebrate Michael Reid's first Christmas this year... Many of you who have been following our entire adoption journey know how bittersweet Christmas 2008 was for us. How different this year was! How abundant were God's blessings in 2009 - we truly could not think of anything else but celebration this year. Celebration of our Savior's birth... and celebration of all the Lord has done for us this past year in blessing us with this beautiful baby boy. Many, many tears were happily cried by this momma. =)

DISCLAIMER: Throughout the Christmas holidays, I was "fortunate" enough to get the flu. Bleh. Just telling you all this right now before you take a look at these pictures and see how incredibly sick I look.

We started off the Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve where we spent a wonderful evening with Ben's family. We all went to the candlelight service at his parent's church, then back over to the Grandma and Grandpa's house for a huge dinner and then on to open many, many presents!

Here's a pic of our little man at the Christmas Eve service... so handsome!

Our little fam...

Reid and Grandma

Goofing off with Uncle Jeff and Grandpa

Hanging out with Uncle Joe and Aunt Candice

Reid didn't quite know what to think about all of the presents, but he definitely had a great time opening them all! I think the two HUGE hits of the evening were... his new mega blocks table:

And his new wagon... thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

It was getting really late, but sweet Reid still insisted on wagon rides. =)

Christmas morning came bright and early! We decided that Santa Clause would visit Reid at home before we headed over to KK and Doc's for rest of the day. Here are my two men coming down the stairs...

And Reider and I walking in to see what all Santa had brought...

By far and away, Reid's favorite gift from Santa... the ball pit. (Seemed like a GREAT idea at the time... you can ask me later how much I love it now as I chase balls all over the house. Reid's favorite pass time is throwing them down the stairs...one. by. one. Ha!)


Santa delivered lots of other goodies including cars, balls, Reid's very own cell phone, drums, and the list goes on...

However... Reid insisted on EVERYTHING being opened and brought back into the ball pit. =) Here he is sending his peeps a Merry Christmas text on his new phone that talks to him...

Mommy trying to make Reid sit still long enough to take a picture...

We also had a WONDERFUL surprise by having the FIRST EVER WHITE CHRISTMAS in Dallas/Fort Worth... so beautiful!! I took this pic as we headed out the door to celebrate with my side of the family...

Family pics at Doc & KK's

The whole crew

I love this picture of my two men... they look so much alike! AMAZING!

Reider and Doc - loves his Doc!

Hangin' with Uncle Craig

By the time we began opening gifts over at Doc and KK's... Reid had this gig figured out. He thought EVERY present was for him, and was beside himself in giddy excitement!



At one point, he was rolling around in all the paper he was laughing so hard...

I loved this picture. Aunt Neely gave Doc a picture for his office... Reid loves his Doc and crawled over as fast as possible to kiss him in the picture.

And... the favorite pic of the day... We have a Baylor / UT / A&M war going on in the Floyd casa...poor Reid isn't going to know who to cheer for (BAYLOR...cough, cough). But Uncle Craig loved that Reid was wearing A&M maroon, so he "tried" getting a pic with Reid and his tshirt which read "Real Men Bleed Maroon." Clearly, Dad wasn't going for it...


There are so many more pictures that I would love to share - we truly had a blessed Christmas (and our gameroom is now overrun with toys, toys, and more toys...). I wouldn't trade this time for all the world. Hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday as well!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

COMING SOON!

Good grief... it certainly has been WAY TOO long since I've blogged... I'm so far behind and have much to update everyone on (and many cute pics of the little guy)! But... just got back into town tonight... too tired to write anything that remotely makes sense... So...

COMING SOON (by the end of the week, I hope):

1. Christmas Blog
2. New Years Blog
3. 11-month old Reider blog =)
4. And January 9th blog

Until then... take care!