4th of July

We were so fortunate that Great Grandma Will came all the way from Maryland to stay with us! This is the first great grandparent that Reid has gotten to meet, so we were quite excited that she was willing to take a little detour (she flew to Houston, then Dallas, then back to Houston the next day to visit the rest of the family) to come see us. Thankfully, Reid was pretty good (until bedtime, at least) when she came last Wednesday. But then on Thursday morning, he was a holy terror...screaming and crying for no apparent reason (laughingly we always say, "Could he be teething?" which seems to be the answer to everything, hahaha). Of course, I'd forgotten to take a picture the day before, so he didn't quite cooperate, but Grandma looks great!



The Fourth of July weekend was nice. We had a chance to enjoy some quality family time and even took a hike the morning of the Fourth. That afternoon was so hot that Reid needed a popsicle, which he loved.

"Hmmm...this stuff is cold!"

"How do I eat this, again? I've only had one in my life before..."

"Mom, I'd rather you get your hands sticky--I'll just eat it."

Our little firecracker (and boy, was he that afternoon!):

His new favorite trick? Emptying whatever happens to be at arm's reach in the pantry (or fridge, or cabinet, or shelf...need I go on?).



I'd also taken him to the park earlier that week so we could have a walk with new scenery. There also happen to be ducks and geese that are fun to feed, too. I gave Reid some bread to throw at the ducks, but he decided to eat his. Oddly enough, there was one snotty goose who would only drink water out of the doggie water fountain, not the pond. Hilarious!




He also loves to chase you to the back door, so we have to be careful when opening it (especially when coming back into the house, now). Of course, he didn't perform on demand here, but he was awfully proud of his clapping. It cracked me up the other day because I turned on the tv to find some music for us and the channel it happened to be on had "Family Feud" playing. All the people clapped for somebody's answer, so Reid clapped right along with them.

Our Little Junebug

June has flown by. I can't believe it will be July by the end of this week! I'm trying to not have the "mental countdown" going until school starts, like last year (I cried every single day at the thought of leaving Reid in just a few weeks), but to be greatly thankful for the time off that I can spend with him. Here are some of the things we have done so far this summer.

"Pleeeease, Mom...can we go to Italy?" Reid loves to fling magazines off of the coffee table. I have had to rethink my childproofing and put LOTS of things away for now, but I don't want him to think everything is off limits, so he gets by with that...



"What?? I need a haircut? And Daddy's gonna do it??" (and please note the onesy 'Hello, I'm Mr. Adorable'...couldn't pass that one up at Target last year!)



Oh, and Mommy's favorite (do you sense the sarcasm?)... Throwing food! Of all things, he managed to get a hold of an entire container of prunes, which ended up all over the floor, the tile, the fridge...you get the picture. Senor El Pruno:


And his mess! (No the carpet did not clean up well. Looks like our first casualty ala baby.)


Sporting the new haircut


And who could forget about all the cat terrorization? Reid is becoming a master of annoying Dixie. She just stands her ground and hisses (thank goodness for declawing!) Jason discovered that Reid has been saying their names (and we're not sure how long he's done this because Dixie is "Di" or "Dix" and Samson is "Sa" or "Sas") Here's what Samson does...and we're pretty sure he actually enjoys the torture.



And his newest trick? He can't walk yet, but he taught himself how to do the stairs! I showed him (one time) how to put his leg up onto the next step, and he was off! I couldn't believe how fast he went the very first day--tried to film it, but it was hard to do one handed so I had to wait for a day where Jason was home. I have tried to upload it for three days, but it won't :(

The Evolution of Crawling

So I was totally and completely worried that my son seemed to be the only 10 month old around who wasn't crawling. I probably wouldn't have worried too much, but at Reid's 9 month well check, our normally very laid back doctor informed me that if he wasn't crawling by 10 months, I needed to call and get the number for ECI (Early Childhood Intervention). Of course the teacher in me panicked once 10 months rolled around. I actually called about a week before he hit ten months, and it took an entire month after that for them to come out for an evaluation (my only complaint about them at all--the ECI program and people have been absolutely wonderful!!!). He did show a gross motor delay at that time, so he qualified. They come twice a month to "play" (at least that's what Reid thinks we're doing) and the best part is that it's at our house so that he's in his own familiar, comfy environment. Here's how the "crawling" started off, back at 10 months. I called it his "funky" crawl.



And then it progressed to this a few weeks later...




And became the "inchworm" about a week after that.




And finally, voila! Army crawling.



A few weeks later, the traditional crawl! At first, he would only crawl traditionally if he were going a short distance and he'd army crawl everywhere else. Now, he traditionally crawls everywhere unless he's on tile/wood floors (army crawling is still much faster sometimes, he's realized) or is really tired. And just as of this week, he can put it into "hypercrawl" mode if he's feeling pretty spunky, such as when he's chasing one of the poor kitties or being chased by Mommy or Daddy. So fun! Haven't gotten that on video just yet. And looking back...yes, I am thankful he wasn't mobile until later. He is now into EVERYthing!!

Reid's First Birthday Party

Still not sure where his first year went, but I have been busy planning this little guy's first birthday party for a week. All the cutesy "party packages" were very tempting, but being that he won't remember any of this later on, I decided to invest in the trusty ol' dollar store for decorations. Turns out that I should have gotten the balloons there, too, instead of going to the ghetto Kroger in Conroe (took a good 30 minutes and the balloons were deflated the next morning even though they were a dollar a piece!). But who can have a kids' birthday party without balloons? I was happy Reid enjoyed them so much...

The birthday boy's throne:

I couldn't scrimp on the cake... It HAD to be Randalls :) I was slightly disappointed that they had no white cakes with the yummy, crusty white icing, so Papa French lucked out with his fave--chocolate with white icing. It was delicious, though!

The birthday boy and Mommy

Our little family

Adding the final touch (a birthday bib) before chow down time...

3...2...1... Ick!! Reid didn't enjoy his cake at all! He whined when he realized it was sticky and stuck to him...


...so I tried spoon feeding it to him, thinking that would be more enjoyable. But apparently he doesn't have a sweet tooth (yet, anyways!). Still not a fan of cake.


Cousins Alex and Ben were so cute and thoroughly enjoyed the "Happy Birthday" song as they waited very patiently for cake.


The whole crew. It was fun! Hopefully, next year he will enjoy it a little bit more :)

1 Year Old!!!

So our little guy is one year old as of Friday!!! I had quite a shock when I opened up my weekly Babycenter email and it said, "Your toddler, week 1" instead of "your baby..." like always. Eek!




He's grown up soooo fast, and I feel soooo guilty about having to work and missing out on so much his first year. It's crazy to think back to June 3, 2010 at 3am, when it all began! I missed the last day of school, so the very end of this year was kind of surreal. Here's a look back in pictures... (and I couldn't resist this first one since it says how his first b-day went! Hopefully his little party will be better) I tried to get them all lying down, but it got increasingly harder as he became more mobile. That's why some of them aren't the best ;) From about 7 months on, I also got one of him sitting up, but you can't really compare the leg length as well that way.

Not a single day goes by (and they go so quickly!!) where Jason and I don't count our blessings. Reid has not been the easiest baby on the planet, by far, but we wouldn't change it for the world! We love our little gift from God :)

Houston Trip

On Mother's Day weekend, we took a trip to Houston for the Carlin's Kentucky Derby party. Our voyage started after my kindergarten field trip to the zoo...needless to say, I was exhausted. But I left school as quickly as possible, grabbed Reid from the sitter, chunked a few more things into the car, and we headed to Jason's office. Thankfully, once we'd bypassed Dallas Friday afternoon downtown traffic, the rest of the trip wasn't too bad. We stopped midway and decided to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Much to our surprise, Reid loved ALL of the Mexican food (none was too spicy at this place, and he'd eaten all the ingredients before, so I felt safe feeding him that as his finger food for the night). Refried beans, cheese enchilada, rice, tortilla...we finally had to just stop feeding him for fear he might pop!

The Frenches were gracious enough to host us on Friday night. Poor Reid didn't get to bed until nearly 10pm, but was up bright and early at his usual time the next morning, of course. We played, visited with Papa, Grammy, and Grumpy (unfortunately, Mamere had to work), and as soon as Reid was down for his nap, Jason and I took off to the Heights. As any Carlin event goes, it was tons of fun and done first class! Here are the ladies:

Jason and me:

We had a blast and were so thankful Papa and Mamere were willing to watch him so we could have an overnight date. It was wonderful to catch up with our old Houston friends and make a few new ones, too.

On the way back, I insisted we stop in Allen for pictures in the bluebonnets (the only ones I could find this year!). They were kind of sparse, but it was better than nothing... The pretty orange flowers were actually more picturesque.

Our Easter bunny, a week later (Easter wasn't so pretty this year or we'd have taken them on the actual day).

Ooh! An egg!

Why can't I eat this, again?

10 months

Wow--it has been a busy month! I can't believe our little guy is officially 10 months old, as of today. In true working mommy fashion, I am a month behind (think of it as a "month in review"). Here are his 10 month shots. He does a lot better sitting up, but the lying down really shows how l-o-n-g he's gotten.



We made our first venture to the pool. He wasn't too sure at first (and in his defense, the water was very chilly, being so early in the season and although it was 90 degrees, the sun was behind the clouds). We didn't stay long, but overall I'd say he enjoyed it. (Please ignore the post-baby mommy body...I didn't see sun all last summer, so this is the whitest I've been in years!!!!)

Reid enjoyed his first hike (of course, all he really had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride),

He spent most of the time chewing on the new backpack.

Began to hold his own bottle at home (he's apparently been doing for months at the sitter's!)

Enjoyed his very first Easter,

Complete with lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, where he loved the bread...

And didn't seem to care one way or another for the lemon...

Tried on Daddy's new hat (we are going to a Kentucky Derby party this weekend)...

Had a few playdates (I think I already posted the Easter egg hunt where the most pictures were taken)

And, oddly enough, tasted his first beer. It's kind of a running joke on the French side of the family because both older cousins would grab their Daddy's beer bottles and refuse to let go. Apparently, it does run in the family. Little bugger had his mouth on it in the blink of an eye.

Funniest thing all month? Our picky eater (who loves all carbs and meats, but hates any veggie/fruit finger foods) decided he likes (no, LOVES!) sauteed mushrooms. I sauteed one as a joke, just with a teensy amount of butter so it wouldn't stick to the pan, then cut it all up to be bite-sized. We laughed because I was pretty sure he'd make a face and refuse to eat it, but he wolfed it down in about 2.5 seconds!