Randomness

I was trying out the different settings on our nice Canon and look what I found...a vampire bunny!  Hee hee...  Didn't know rabbits' eyes glowed red!

Reid continues to amaze us on a daily basis.  He has been totally obsessed with numbers for the past month.  He could recognize most of them by mid-summer, but then I got him a book called Baseball 1-2-3 and now he's hooked!  We let him pick three books to read each night before bed (time permitting), but it's been that same book three times for quite awhile.  He notices numbers on phones, shouts them out in the car (I never realized how many numbers are all over the dashboard in a car!), sees them all over my classroom at school, and points to them everywhere in the grocery store.  Cracks us up.  He also notices things I never thought he'd connect, not that I don't have faith in his smarts, but I just didn't know a two year old could make those connections.  For instance, in May we'd just started talking about happy and sad.  A day later, a baby was crying and he quipped, "Baby sad!  Baby sad!"  More recently, he knows that if Daddy's car is home, that means Daddy is home.  If Mommy gets out the can with the orange top, "Bad kitty, Samson!" a kitty had an accident.  Other Reid logic:

- If I sit on the potty, I get candy whether I go or not. (Thankfully, this is only one time per day ;)
- If we go down this aisle at Wal-Mart, I'll see cars.
- If Mommy doesn't turn left here, we aren't going home.
- If I go to time out, I get a hug and/or kiss after Mommy/Daddy talks to me.
- The dairy section at the store is always cold (but I'll touch it every time, just to check).

Get the picture?  He also cracks us up on a daily basis.  This day, he was putting on my shoes, unassisted, then running around and cracking us all up because he wouldn't get very far before falling very dramatically, laughing all the way.  Notice that they're also on the wrong feet:

And then he'd do a little victory dance if they stayed on awhile...

He also enjoys picking out his own clothes.  To ensure everything matches and it's something I actually want him to wear, I have his outfits paired ahead of time, and he only gets two choices.  If I let him choose, he would wear his new digger shirt every single day. Although he's becoming very independent on lots of things, he also vies for our attention on others.  He suddenly wanted to be fed by us again beginning two months ago.  I have to admit that I don't mind when it comes to applesauce and yogurt, but I want him to be able to feed himself...  And we go through stages of fits like this one.  I taped it because I realized we typically have photos/videos of all happy things, but it will be entertaining to remember times like these, too... Or maybe it'll just be blackmail for his engagement party someday...

Our friend Jamey came up and we actually got a sitter, Holli's daughter Bailey.  Holli is so wonderful she will even bring Bailey over and pick her up at the end of the night.  It also was a great photo op if you don't count the drool running down Reid's chin and his outfit that he very proudly picked out himself.  I needed a photo for the display case at school, but decided to go with an older one from last Fall, thanks to Mr. Wiggleworm.

We adults enjoyed some delicious sushi at Naan, then a nice bottle of pinot at Cru.  I really need to download a better camera app so the pictures turn out better...but you get the idea.  Good times!

August

On the way back from Laura's, Reid and I stopped at Grammy and Grumpy's for a quick break on the way back to Dallas.  SOMEone had screamed for half of the trip from Katy because he "accidentally" threw a car on the floor and mommy couldn't reach it.  On the way to change his diaper, he conveniently found a little sombrero and "Weid! Weid!" on the computer.  Too bad you can't see the ginormous grin he had...

He also remembered exactly where the piano was, and this time I got to video it.  Kind of dark, but you get the picture.  And no, I don't believe this kid has a chance in the music industry!

Back at home, Reid has been totally enjoying his two new cars from Aunt Lala's house.  Reid carried them around the entire time we were there, so she let us swipe 'em when Ben and Alex weren't looking since they don't really play with them anymore. Tragedy of all tragedies, the talking Lightening McQueen car (his favorite!) has disappeared...pretty sure he hid it in our house somewhere right before the trip.  But thankfully, he hasn't seemed to notice with the new ones here.  One McQueen I bought as a backup, and the other was very sweetly given to Reid when we visited my former student, Neil, and his family before they moved to China--they very generously passed along many wonderful books and toys for him to enjoy and for me to use at school.  When he learned how much Reid liked Lightening, he went right up to his room and brought down one to give him.  Needless to say, they've been inseperable.  

It's actually gotten to be a problem sometimes because Reid just has to take them upstairs at night, then downstairs again in the morning.  No big deal until he's tripping, dropping, and worrying about them all the way up/down the staircase...which means he refuses to hold on to the rail, my hand, or the wall.  Eek!  He does manage pretty well, but I'd rather hold them ("NO, Mommy!") while he safely clambers up.  It is pretty stinkin' cute, though!

He very carefully lines them up in places all over the house.  Much to my dismay, they HAD to (all) come with us to the grocery store one day and he screamed half of the time because he couldn't manage to hold them all while he tried to steer the little cart.  I made it a much shorter trip than I'd planned and two of the cars went to time out in Mommy's purse.  Nearly every night, he tucks the cars into the crib bumper and tells them each, "Ni night, car!" just before we say our prayers.  Just tonight, he panicked when he realized the cars were not in bed with him.  I assured him I'd tuck the cars in downstairs...

Other things we did before I went back to work?  Lots of sitting on the potty.  Not because he actually wants to go, but because that's the only place I will read the super annoying Truckery Rhymes book (I'm not being mean...I just got soooo tired of reading it 50 bajillion times a day so we read it exclusively in the downstairs restroom in hopes of enticing him to use the potty) since it's too long for bedtime.  Well, that, and he's figured out he gets two "candies" (pretzel M&M's) for sitting on the potty whether he goes or not.  Smart kid.

Still a super picky eater.  Unless you count "uffins" (Little Debbie blueberry mini muffins, which he would eat at any hour of the day if you'd let him), candy, cookies (although he will only eat chocolate chip), and this Sam's Club zucchini bread.

He also loves the Reid books I made for him.  "Baby Reid!" will keep him entertained for hours, and he loves seeing pictures of himself, Daddy, Mommy, and the cats.

We finally had one more playdate with Violet.  We're sad that she is going to preschool, but Lacy (her mommy) and I are planning on getting them together after school during the year.  They've changed quite a bit since their first playdate, when Reid was about five weeks old...

Aunt Lala's House

I am enjoying my last few days of freedom.  I've pretty much always hated August... It means back to school, crazy schedules, and lots of work, stress, and anxiety.  Thankfully, this summer has seemed somewhat productive and longer than the previous two.  Reid is at a fun (yet trying) age and we have made many enjoyable memories.

Lots of them happened at Aunt Lala's house last week! It was so fun to visit, but the time flew by, just as I knew it would.  He made himself right at home and proceeded to dive into all of Ben and Alex's toy cars and diggers.  Car heaven!!  I just thought he was playing, but Laura noticed he had actually sorted them as he lined them up.  If you can't make it out in the picture, there's a spot for pickup trucks, a spot for diggers, a spot for small regular cars, medium regular cars, large diggers, and the best one, a spot for ??? (anything that didn't seem to fit into a category, like a helicopter)...  Didn't teach him that, and apparently he's been doing that all along at home, but we don't have enough cars for me to have noticed he was categorizing them.  I just thought he was assigning each vehicle a parking spot each day!

Reid had his first trip to the movies!  I can't say he thoroughly enjoyed it, but for a two year old I think he did pretty well.  The theater close to them in Katy has a kids' series during the summer and you can see a movie for *gasp* ONE dollar!!  Laura is always on the lookout for fun things to do and that was the perfect idea for Reid...if he didn't make it through an hour long Winnie the Pooh, it was just a buck. 

Thankfully, I had just introduced him to popcorn the week before.  I've been putting off introducing it since popcorn is a choking hazard, but so far he's carefully chewed it.  Reid loved the popcorn and previews, but when he was out of popcorn he told me, "All done!" and promptly prepared to walk down the stairs to leave.  I pulled out a small package of M&M's, which he devoured, and he did the same thing.  One bag of Teddy Grahams later, I realized that Reid, too, must not be a Pooh fan.  So we called it a day and headed for the lobby, to ogle over "candies! Candies!" in the display case, then drive a pretend tank in the arcade part.  Luckily, the movie only lasted another ten minutes or so and I didn't have too long to entertain him.
 

 I mistakenly thought that Reid would love their neighborhood pool this year since he can walk.  It has a regular pool, a pool with water slides, a great splashpad/pool, and a large baby pool.  I didn't think to get a picture of the whole shabang, but it's a pretty cool place.  As soon as we walked in, he was fixated with the huge water slide (you have to be a certain height and be able to swim w/o floaties) and continuously gravitated toward it.  He immediately went to time out, twice in a row.  Luckily, there were two smaller water slides (but you still can't use floaties) where one adult could help him up the stairs (I was worried about him slipping!) and one could catch him at the bottom of the water slide.  He loved that a few times, then was fixated with the big slide once again.  If he couldn't go on that, he didn't want to play, so we sat and had a l-o-n-g snack break while Ben and Alex played.  Of course, when they were done and dried off, Reid announced, "Pool!" and promptly jumped into the baby pool.  Sheesh.  This kid has amazing timing.

 Back at the house, Reid wanted to try out all the fun things in their garage...the bike, trike, battery-operated jeeps, and a little ride on thingee.  I gave in and let him ride the trike for a few minutes (notice how he wouldn't use the pedals and screeched at me when I tried to help him out).  He didn't seem to mind the heat and humidity, but I sure did!  

 The next day we skipped the pool and played in our backyard.  Laura set up the sprinkler under the trampoline for the midday fun.  Again, I thought Reid would love it, but he jumped for a second and was "All done!"  Alex wetting his hair in this bucket was waaay more fun, apparently.

The older kids had fun jumping and I got to meet a few of the neighborhood kids.  Reid did enjoy attempting to drink out of the sprinkler, which was entertaining to us adults.

The next morning, we got going a little earlier so the kids could play outside without melting.  All three of the boys were excited about Ben's jeep.

First, Reid rode with Ben.  Ben, of course, had to make sure he was buckled in.  Such a good little rule follower and sweet big cousin to watch out for Reid!  He was a very safe driver and mainly stuck to variations of the same circle around the park.  Ben is very observant, too, and noticed that Reid liked when he went over the little hill, so he made sure to do that with each pass.

 But Alex decided that he wanted to drive his jeep, too, so he and Laura went back to the house to retrieve it.  As soon as they were back, Reid decided he wanted to ride with Alex, who is a little more adventurous in his driving.  Two little daredevils...   They rode all around the park, not going on the same path twice.  Just about when we mommies were going to melt, Alex's jeep battery slowed down, signaling the need to go home.

We drove to this cool splash area later.  You can't really see everything from the picture, but it had a ship theme and tons of areas to play in.  We had it all to ourselves! 

 Reid, of course, was not interested in playing.  He hung around Laura and me, slowly enjoying some pita chips and the ducks.  One duck noticed his chip and snatched it out of Reid's hand, which he thought was hilarious (but it scared me! Still not sure if it actually bit him, but didn't leave a mark...).  Right out of the car, he was saying, "Kak, kak, kak!" (quack, quack, quack) and thought they were hilarious.  He even named two, Poop and Green.  I'm sure you can gather where Poop duck got his name, and Green duck had green feathers. 

Laura gave Ben her old cell phone from Australia since it didn't work here in the States.  Ben thought it was the greatest thing ever!   It had a few songs on it, which became the soundtrack for the week, but oddly enough he and Alex loved the cell phone rings even more.  Laura and I got a kick out of it because it was the original Nokia ringtone that provided so much entertainment.  We dubbed it the Nokia Dance, but by the time I ran to get my camera, the best dancing was already over.  At least you get the idea...

We had so much fun with Aunt Lala and the cousins!   Time flew by and I wish we didn't live so far apart, but I'm sure thankful they aren't half a world apart any longer.  And just so they didn't forget about him, Reid left a little parting parking spot for one of the cars...