The Best Part of 2011

Here is the best part of our 2011.  Reid is THE sweetest baby who smiles through his sore gums.  He is crawling, smiling all of the time, laughing, following his brother everywhere, pulling himself up, and has a radar on his mama at all times.  Evan is also the best big brother ever.  Everyone told us he'd be jealous and have fits and be ugly.  We haven't seen it.  He is so sweet to Reid.  He is such a good boy. 

Christmas 2011

Christmas was tons of fun for us this year.  Mike and Reid managed to get a little sick the week of Christmas, but they were on the mend by Christmas Eve.  (Evan and I didn't get sick - woo-hoo!)   On the 23rd, Evan and I went downtown to see a model train exhibit and then to lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory - we did this last year too.  He enjoyed it so much we had to repeat it!

On Christmas Eve we went to church in the late afternoon and then hung out with Andria and ate a homemade chicken dinner.  Evan was totally excited putting cookies out and checking NORAD to see where Santa was.  (He came to Indianapolis, Indiana, at 12:12 a.m.)

On Christmas morning, Ti (Andria) came over early and we were all up before Evan was.  The look on his face was so sweet when he saw that Santa had come and gone.  He was sad to see Hermey (our Elf on the Shelf) was gone, but he was happy he could hop on Santa's sleigh and catch a ride home to the North Pole.  It was a very Chicago Bears and Cars 2 Christmas.  Evan and Reid also scored on comfort.  Between them, they recieved 4 blankets and 2 pillows - including Evan's Chicago Bears Pillow Pet - appropriately named "Walter Payton."

Mom and Dad came down for brunch, and then we went to Mike's mom's house and stayed until 8 or so (I forgot to get out my camera there - but Mike was manning the video camera all day long - yay Mike!)

We also had our first snow of the year - a "warm" snow (32 degrees or so) - 2 days after Christmas.  Evan was loving it.  He played on the back deck while Mike was gone (and I couldn't go outside with Reid and him) and then they played in the dark out front after Mike got home.  It melted the next day.  :(

 Evan and I had the trolley at the Old Spaghetti Factory all to ourselves at one point.  :)

 Here's the permanent smile Evan had when he saw trains go by.

 Hermey was a good elf - and he never hung out in the same place twice - way to go Hermey!

 Here's Evan checking NORAD.

 Christmas Morning Reid

 Christmas - mid-morning nap!

 Papa and Mimi and Reid

 Evan - as soon as he opened "Walter Payton."

 Papa and Happy Reid

 This is Evan after I said, "Raise your hand if you're my angel!" 

 Here is Reid inspecting the pin he and Evan got for my mom.

 Reid loves Walter Payton too.

Mike and Evan putting a racetrack together on Christmas Day.

It's Been a Little While

It's been a little more than 3 weeks since my last post.  Mike and I were just talking tonight how much less time we have now that Reid is here.  We love every minute of it - but it's definitely different than just having Evan around. 

Reid is over 7 months old now - I actually did take pictures on the 6th - it just took me until the 18th to download them to the computer.  Reid is crawling now.  He was doing an Army crawl for a while, but last week he picked that belly up and started moving faster.  Evan is aware of all of the rules (Be gentle; don't share food - were the first two) which include closing the baby gates and putting toys in the living room - - away from Reid who doesn't know what is and isn't food. 

I've got nothing else - it's midnight, I should be asleep, but these are the only times I can update without being interrupted. 

 Decorating the Christmas Tree

 Evan and Reid's 1st Christmas ornaments

 Reid and his favorite toy - "Crunchy" a ladybug

 Crawling Reid

 Busted!  Reid is caught messing with the tree!

 Evan and Mike watching the parade in the small town near ours

 Still watching the parade

 This "float" was the end of the parade - they got it from the liquor store down the street and put it on a trailer.  Small town parade, for sure!

 Evan was driving the stroller - he hit the wall a couple of times.

 Reading Rudolph books

 Texting Santa

 Sweet Baby Reid at 7 months old!

 He has been working on teeth forever - none in yet - but THE happiest baby ever.

 Big brother Evan feeding Reid - this was even before the Elf on the Shelf showed up at our house and reported back to Santa at the end of the day.

We're on Year 5 of this Snoopy snowglobe from Lowe's.  Reid loves it too.  :)

Happy Birthday Papa!

Papa (my dad) turned 57 today!  Evan was visibly upset when he found out we weren't going to spend the day with him.  He was working most of the day today (since he is a church pastor and a hospice chaplain).  We went up to see him (and Mimi) on Thanksgiving Day though.  He got to take Evan to his first Komet hockey game on Thanksgiving night.  Evan (so I hear) was tickled.  He just loves his Papa.  We watch Berenstain Bears cartoon on Sprout.  There's one episode where one of Brother's friends says, "Your papa is the best."  Evan looked at me and said, "No.  MY papa is the best!"  It was so cute.  My dad has the love as big as two papas for Evan and Reid.  I've never seen him happier than when he's with them.  Happy birthday to the best papa in the world!

Six Months!

Reid turned six months old last Sunday.  We had a temporary loss of our camera-to-computer cord (it got mixed up with our video camera), so these pictures are a little delayed. 

At his six month check up last week, Reid weighed in at 27-3/4 inches and 18 pounds, 9 ounces.  Both are above average for babies his age. 

Reid loves cereal, pureed fruits and vegetables, remote controls, cell phones, anything he can chew on, and his big brother.  He has no interest in sitting up, but he can army crawl to anywhere he wants to go (typically he heads for Evan's Cars [think Lightening McQueen] or railroad tracks).

He jabbers and slobbers like it's going out of style.  He's a happy baby that sleeps most nights all the way through.  We haven't (knock on wood) had any "Evan-style" nights where he wakes up and is ready to play.

Man Time

"Mom, I will have man time with Dad and Reid because we're mans."  Evan Connors