Reid's First Christmas

So here is the finished card from my last post...hope you and yours had a very merry CHRISTmas!!
A couple of weeks ago, we took Reid to the mall to see Santa for his first annual photo. It's one of those quintessential childhood things you just have to do. We got in line during Santa's "milk and cookie break" in hopes that it would be short. All in all, we really didn't have to wait too long...maybe 30 minutes once the line started moving. Reid was happy to watch everyone around us, especially the little girl behind us who was just beginning to walk.




The decorations were amazing--it was total advertisement for the newst Narnia movie, but even as an adult, the ice palace was gorgeous. Once you get inside it, it "snows" out of the ceiling. Let's just say it's great for the older kids (although pretty dumb that it's right before the pics b/c I'm pretty sure the kids all have the faux snow in their hair for pictures) , but we are still finding it in our stroller, lol. Jason tried to get a quick pic of us on the ice throne, but our turn was up next.



Mrs. Claus recommended that we back Reid into Santa so he wouldn't freak out. Worked like a charm. I wanted to see what he'd do once he saw Santa, so I turned him around once we were done. No freaking out, no tears...and we'd expected the scene from A Christmas Story!

Here's the official pic:

Grammy and Grumpy were kind enough to drive up from Houston for Reid's first Christmas (translation...we did not have to pack up the entire house plus the kitchen sink just for a couple of days). I always wanted to have our baby's first Christmas in our own house :) Don't let the picture fool you...Reid was not this happy little camper and fussed most of the time they were here (sorry, Mom and Dad!). He never really napped well, ate well, etc. I think my being off and his not seeing the sitter for two weeks has affected a lot--it makes his schedule totally different.

Showing off his new bib for Grammy and Grumpy:

We adults opened our gifts on Christmas Eve...

Christmas morning, Reid was obsessed with Grumpy and his hat.

Everyone changed after a Mexican fiesta breakfast, then it was time for the newest French to "open" his gifts. He was more into Dixie playing with the tissue paper (he is totally and completely obsessed with the cats lately!!) than the actual gifts, but he got a great assortment that he'll be able to use all year--they ranged from his current age all the way up to 12 months. Yay!

Photo Shoot

My friend Jen (who took Reid's newborn photos--she's amazing!) came to our house for a photo session. At first, things didn't go so well...

Thankfully, things looked up (for awhile at least ;) He did get pretty cranky for awhile, but mostly cooperated)

Yes, Santa...I've been good (mostly)!

Who, me???

No, really...the fish was THIS BIG!!!

What exactly do you call this doo-hicky?

Am I cute, or what??

Check out my baby blues...

And Mommy's personal favorite...Baby Santa on the blankie. So sweet!

December

The past few weeks were fast and furious, just as we figured they'd be. This time of the year is always, always crazy. Add a 6 month old and it's just plain nuts! The good news is that Reid seems to have settled on a formula (finally...for now, anyway). Oddly enough, it is the one he really liked a few months ago. Our pediatrician mentioned (in passing) that Enfamil Premium Lipil can be a little harder to digest than the older Enfamil Lipil. The premium is pretty much all I ever see anymore, so I just assumed it was the same thing with a different name, but I guess they've added a bunch of other junk to it that now makes it harder to digest. Reid is one of those kids who is affected by it, so it seems. Bad news...I can only find it at Kroger (the don't have the premium) and I won't be surprised if it's not around much longer. It also only comes in small cans...not exactly cost effective. Good news...he likes it and doesn't fuss when he eats. Still having some poopy issues (no, I will not give the dirty details except that I NEVER thought so much of our daily c0nversation would revolve around our baby's poop!!) and he is still spitting up after every other feeding or so, but he's been much happier...almost like a 'normal' baby (as far as eating), lol!

Oatmeal suddenly clicked one day. He couldn't get enough and now often grabs my hand to attempt to feed himself, which sometimes results in gagging himself instead. Pretty funny! We had to stop oatmeal for about a week b/c the pediatrician was wondering if Reid has a gluten intolerance. We're still not exactly sure, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference when we did stop...except that he quit sleeping through the night for a few days, but that could've been from the 6 mo. shots. He did NOT react well to those, so I ended up having to take a day off of work to take care of him. He cried ALL DAY LONG. Not fun, but I wasn't about to send him to the sitter like that, not knowing if he was really okay or not.

We pinch pennies anywhere we can these days. A couple of years ago, Jason and I took a little drive over on the east side of McKinney because it was a nice day. We happened upon a little thrift store (just like a garage sale, but all in one building!) and didn't think much of it at the time, but now I visit it regularly. Kids outgrow stuff so fast that it's pretty silly to pay full price (or even half price!) for clothes. This place has really cute, gently used clothes for dirt cheap. Disinfect/wash and viola! New wardrobe :) Jason actually found this little dinosaur outfit:

Reid and I are a part of a playgroup where all the moms are teachers. My friend Emily organized it b/c we were all jealous of the SAHM (stay at home moms) who get to have playdates anytime. Somehow, this was only the second one Reid and I had been to. They meet once a month, but one time he was sick, one time I was sick, two times it was the same night as Bible study, etc. So we made it to the Christmas one and had so much fun! We missed the big photo of all the kids because Reid can't really sit up by himself yet, but here's a glimpse of the hilarity of attempting to get so many kids under the age of 2 into one photo:

Here's Reid with Emily's little girl, Molly. Emily and I are still amazed that two years ago at this time, we were meeting at Starbucks to do a Bible study on the topic of infertility. God is amazing!




Jason's dad flew in from Houston to watch Reid (Thank you, Papa!!) while we went to Jason's company party. Bruce is amazing with kids and Reid giggled, smiled, and cooed all day.



We all had lunch at Nate's and walked around the Village at Fairview. They have an amazing Christmas tree set up and it was a beautiful day, so we paused for a photo op. It was soooo bright...


Three generations of French boys:

I hadn't dressed up in so long that I forgot what I used to do! I guess Jason and I clean up pretty well, lol. This isn't the best pic, but the full length one turned out blurry.

His company party had a yummy dinner. As tradition goes (with our laughable bad luck, or "lack of luck"?) he won 4 tickets to Holiday in the Park at 6 Flags. We really wanted the Wal-Mart gift card for diapers... but beggers can't be choosers. And later on, little did Jason know he'd be part of the entertainment! I only got a quick second on video and he'd kill me if he knew this was posted (not a problem since he doesn't read the blog, hahaha!), but here's a peek.

5 months

Yes, he is actually 6 mo. as of yesterday, but here are the last few pics from his 5th month. I had time to upload them the last Sunday of Thanksgiving break, but then never got to journal.

Check out the onesie (and no, we didn't buy it, lol) and how much his hair is beginning to come in:

Eating his hands...

A big gummer (not sure how much longer those will last since teeth can now come in anytime!)

And eating has definitely gotten better all of a sudden. Here's when he was just really getting interested in eating with a spoon (pardon the retarded noises I make...that's the only way he'd open his mouth)...and then last week (once the fever broke), he suddenly decided he LOVED oatmeal and would grab my hand trying to get it into his mouth faster! I was planning on introducing solids that week, but with the fever and recovering, we opted not to. Then, the Similac Sensitive totally messed up his #2 schedule, so the poor little guy had to drink prune juice (I'll tell the whole story the next time I post).

During the break, Jason went to the Saints/Cowboys game with his family (I didn't have any interest in going to the game with a baby--who ended up being sick anyway--and thought my folks would still be here, so I opted out). Reid and I bundled up and went for an evening walk to look at the Christmas lights. Remind you of any particular snowsuit in A Christmas Story?

Laura had told me how you should record them crying at a few stages (and I'm sure it'll crack him up when he's older), so we took some video before we found out he had fever. Thankfully he is better this week.

We tried the swing set on our neighborhood playground for the first time (he's still not quite ready for it, but it was still cute)

On Thanksgiving Day, he was definitely feeling better (but was still cranky the rest of the break as he caught up) and demonstrated his new tummy time grins.

Thanksgiving

"Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." John 11:41

Okay, so obviously I am not (even comparable to!!!!!) Jesus, but wow...as I read one of my devotionals this morning, I realized that I couldn't have ever said it more eloquently myself. I am beyond grateful for all He has done in my life. And as Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, it truly is "in His time." This year, especially, with the birth of our little Reid, I am truly thankful for ALL He has provided for us. (and if you can't read his bib, it says "Thank Heaven for little boys")

In true Shepherd fashion (have I ever mentioned we rarely ever celebrated anything on the "correct" day growing up? One of the many perks you get when your dad is a pilot...and it has worked out just beautifully as Laura and I have gotten older b/c it allows us to share holiday times with in-laws, etc.), my family and the French family combined our Thanksgiving last night at Steven and Aimee's house in Frisco. We had so much fun and it was wonderful seeing everyone.

Aunt Kristen needed some Reid time:

And of course he wouldn't look at the camera (we really, really need a camera with a faster shutter speed!!)

The French boys:

Hayden sweetly brought several little pumpkins to show Baby Reid (and I love how the pic captured him whispering!)

Shepherds and a French Shepherd:

The "kids' table" (I always LOVED that when I was a kid...and look how cute it is...just their size!)

The only thing that would've made this more perfect would've been my sister and her family, but since she came to see Reid after he was born, they stayed in Australia this year. Wish those plane tickets weren't sooooooo expensive... (we even looked into flying over there for Christmas, but it was absolUTELY ridiculous...not to mention 30+ hours long!)

Another thing I am quite thankful for? A well baby! Since the last post, I'd tried the tried and true "resetting" of Reid's sleep schedule with a low dose of Tylenol (yes, that's called desperation!! He'd only had Tylenol once in his life before that!) for three nights in a row. But finally last Thursday, I just still had a feeling something was wrong, so ran him to the doctor before the weekend hit. No ear infection, apparently not close to teething (yet he drools EVERYwhere and chews on EVERYthing, lol!), throat fine, etc... The doc said to change him to the sensitive formula--long story short, we tried several formulas (which resulted in one constipated baby!) and then he ended up with a virus, unrelated I'm sure, but talk about Murphy's Law. So we were back at the dr's office yesterday since he'd had fever for four days. Thankfully, it finally broke last night and our little happy guy was mostly back today--tired, but smiling and talking instead of his pitiful "whale song" as my dad called it. Looking forward to a healthy, cuddly, family-of-three-plus-two-kitties kind of weekend :)

Babies and time changes don't mix...

It's official. Reid has his own agenda, and it's not exactly the one we'd have picked for him. Before the time change last week, he was doing pretty well as far as sleeping through the night (I classify "sleeping through the night" as me not having to get up during the night and him making it until 5:30am). THEN, the time change hit. I had actually attempted to slowly acclimate him to these "new" times by 15 or 20 minutes per day, but all hell broke loose on Saturday--he didn't sleep well, didn't nap well, didn't eat well...so there went my grand idea. Basically, he didn't have a single night last week where I got up less than five times. Most nights, I gave up and "slept" (if you can classify 20-30 minute catnaps as sleep) in the guest room since it's closer to the nursery. The worst night, he woke up 14 times! No, he's not teething. Nothing in his routine has changed. He's eating plenty, believe me (and just to make sure, I also started adding a T. of oatmeal to his morning bottle, too!!). Not sure what this new "sleeping" is, but we suuuure don't like it. I basically didn't get more than two consecutive hours of sleep for an entire week. But how can you resist a face like this??




Needless to say, we're hoping this week's sleeping will be better. Or at least an improvement of some sort!! It's been a challenge to figure out what this kiddo needs to wear each day with the weather changing so much...one day it's freezing, the next we're back in the 70's again... Sadly enough, a couple of the outfits he has have only been worn once, like this one. It has a little matching jacket, too, but since he barely fit into it this one time, I'm thinking that it was probably the one and only time...


Bath time has turned into a very wet experience. (for me, that is...he splashes so much water out on some nights that I'm not quite sure we got all his parts sudzed up...) He loooves his baths! They stay relatively short (about 10 minutes) and sweet since his last bottle is right afterward and he's ready to eat, but he's all smiles.




Some of his new favorite pasttimes:

Reading with Daddy! Oddly enough, they are reading Food and Wine magazine. We joke that maybe he'll be our little sommalier someday. (Well, he was obsessed with staring at glasses of wine the first month we brought him home from the hospital....but only white. Guess red didn't have the same appeal, lol.)

Chewing on anything (everything!) he can get his hands on.

...watch out, kitties!

And finally, opening Christmas presents early, just like Aunt Laura :) He loves it already!

Our little guy is beginning to make crawling motions (uh, oh, Christmas tree!). Daddy got to see the first propulsion that morning, and here's the closest he's come since then...

Reid's First Halloween

Reid is officially a bouncy baby. Well, he has been for quite some time... Whereas most babies enjoy being rocked, Reid often won't calm down unless he's jiggled. We might as well just have an exercise ball in the nursery rather than a glider. (but the glider is more enjoyable for us adults) So his latest feat is finding a way to make his swing into a bouncy seat...




Or better yet, get Daddy to play WHILE bouncing in his swing...





So I'm kind of a freak about the "Baby's first ___" bibs. They're perfect picture makers for the scrapbook because you know exactly when you took the picture! Thanksgiving was the only one I hadn't found yet, so I was quite the happy camper when Ross had this cute one for $2.99. It took about 10 pictures to get him looking at the camera and smiling while being able to actually read what it said, but it turned out cute! We have quickly realized it'd probably be a good investment to get a faster camera (or camera with a faster shutter) one of these days...

Long story short, any of you who know us well have probably heard about our "giraffe necks" (a dr. during my first year on my own after college attributed my neck pain to that...having a long, thin neck...and since then we laugh that Jason has the same problem), so when I found this adorable outfit at a garage sale for $6, I couldn't pass it up. Especially when all of the other outfits I found were upwards of $30+. It was sized as a 9 mo. outfit (but for being that inexpensive, I figured we'd try it), so I never figured it'd fit, but Reid is so long that it was absolutely perfect!

We are not big advocates of Halloween seeing as how it often represents so many evil things in the world, but from the innocent dress up/kids love candy part, it's kind of fun. Plus it's a great photo op! Our neighbors had a great little scene with fall flowers and pumpkins set up (and the sunlight hits it just right in the afternoons), so we opted for a few pics there.

Obviously, Reid can't exactly totally hold himself up nor sit independently quite yet, so there are hands in every pic. I know I'm biased, but what a cutie!

We realized this would be his one and only FIRST Halloween, and he seemed to actually like his costume, so we left him in it and took a little trip to our favorite grocery/gourmet/everything store, Market Street. It was really fun to watch all the oohing and ahhing over the "baby giraffe."

Poor little guy was all tuckered out once we got back into the car. I didn't have the heart to wake him (and he actually took a good 35 minute nap) and the picture op was just too adorable!

We trick-or-treated at the neighbor's house simply for the camcorder memories, then got him home for his normal bath/bedtime routine. I got his bath ready and he was just too darn cute rolling around on the floor to pass this up, snoring giraffe noises and all:

So it started out as a pretty awful day--up 5 times Saturday night/Sunday morning, I got called out of church (for the 5th Sunday in a row, I believe) by the nursery, then he was a little cranky man. But the sweet afternoon by far made up for the rest of the day!! We loved our little giraffe :)