A Change is Gonna Come

We had a lot of brother together time this month as we spent nearly two weeks home with mom - mostly times of fun and laughing, but also times of tormenting one another.

In August, we learned that baby JoJo is indeed a boy! Lots of boys at our house!

Everything looked healthy and mom is feeling well. Hope the second half goes as smoothly as the first.

Lots of changes were in store this month. August 31st marked our last day with Johanna and Kaya. Johanna had taken care of me since I was 18 months old and had taken care of Reid since he was 3 months old, so it was hard to say goodbye, but we needed to move on. Mom took off the first two weeks in September to stay home with us and help us transition to our new schools and daycares. Reid loves, loves, loves to eat! Each morning he greeted us with a big cheesy grin. More changes for him - he's now completely off all bottles and solely on cow's milk.

We spent mornings at the playgrounds. Reid is now climbing on everything.

I still love slides. Weee!

Reid loves to swing too!

Weee!

Cooper has learned to swing by himself, pumping his legs, going all the way to the moon!

We took a trip to the zoo.

Mom hadn't taken me to the zoo in a long time. I'd been going to zoo classes for a while, so I led Mom and Reid around the zoo and told them everything I knew. Here's me with an ostrich. Look how close he is!

Me and Reid under an ostrich's bum, hehe. It was a wonderful day! When we left the zoo, we were greeted with a flat tire. Despite all that, we still had a fantastic time.

We found time to do lots of shopping and new underwear was on the agenda. Who needs toys when there's lots of underwear to sort and organize?

There was lots of time for playing at home as well. Reid loves anything to do with cars or balls. He is 13 months old now. He's added a few words like car, choo-choo, bite, ba-ba (bottle) to his vocabulary.

We had one weekend where Mom and Dad were both home, so Mom requested that we pretend to be fancy and go spend one night in a hotel. She just requested a big bathtub and an indoor pool. So, we headed to Providence, RI for one day of swimming and hot tubbing, followed by the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox game. We were pretty tired from swimming in the morning, so we only made it to the fifth inning before heading home, but it was pretty cool, and there was even a grand slam in the first inning. I was a little bit upset about not catching a foul ball, but as we were leaving, they were throwing little soft baseballs into the crowd and Dad caught one for me. I was pumped! We went swimming again the next morning before heading out. It was a nice little vacation.

Aside from Hurricane Irene which caused some mild basement flooding and lots of downed limbs in the backyard, we had pretty nice weather and lots of time to play outside.

Then, on September 8th, I started my first day of pre-K at Mount Alvernia Academy. I was soooo excited about starting school. It was pouring down rain and cold that day, but I was excited to take my backpack and new lunch box, and head out on my adventure.

In my booster seat on the way there. Mom and Dad both were able to bring me on my first day. My class has 32 kids in it but we're divided up into small teams so that the class size seems smaller. I'm on the Red Team.

I was all grins as I came home from school! I loved it. I loved my teachers. I made lots of crafts. The first day it was raining so we didn't get to play on the playground but we did play in the gym. It was an awesome day. I even came home talking about my new friends Pujipt and Gracie. (More about Pujipt in a minute). If you know me, you know I can't remember anyone's names, so to remember to new friends' names was a big deal.

I was all grins to go back to school the next day.

Mom and Dad thought "Pujipt" was a very interesting name and were curious to see how exactly this name was spelled. As Mom walked me into school the next day, she scanned the classroom for signs of Pujipt. The only "P" name on the roster was Paula and that didn't sound right. Hmmmm. Turns out, "Pujipt" is really Bridget! Bridget and I have been best school buddies since school started. I love my teacher Mrs Kelly, as well as my other teachers. I even got to hold the flag one day. As much as I love my new friends and new school, I miss my best buddy Kaya, though I've gotten to talk to her on the phone several times about our new schools.

The two remaining days of stay cation left Mommy and Reid home alone with each other while I was at school. Reid started a new daycare on September 12 that only allows him to take one nap per day, so Mom has spent the last two weeks getting him used to that schedule. Sometimes the poor guy just gets tired though, so on this particular day, Reid had just played too hard. He grabbed his paci and his blankie, and crawled right up into Mommy's lap for a little cuddle and cat nap. He is a sweet brother.

Speaking of Mommy's lap and more sweet brothers, here's a picture of Mommy's belly at 22 weeks. Things are going well for everyone. Reid survived his first day of daycare, as it was likely more traumatic for Mommy than him, and I totally love my new school. Sometimes change is a good thing.

Reid Turns One!

Happy baby boy had a big first birthday this month! Yay for Reid! He really is this happy all the time. A few days before the big day, an early birthday present from Gigi and Bubba arrived - an activity cube. It was fun for big and small kids.

This is Reid's serious face.

Not to be left out, Mom had to take some cute pictures of me as well.

Usually, either Mom or Dad is busy too busy with work to do much one on one time with each kid, but this day, we lucked out. Mom stayed home to play with Reid while Dad took me to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It was a great day!

Looking at bugs through the magnifying glass.

Mimi and Papaw came up for the week before Reid's birthday to visit. We had a great visit. One of the highlights was a trip to Onset Beach in Cape Cod for the day. This beach is a quiet beach located in Buzzard's Bay, so the waves were small and quiet. Reid who is usually terrified of the water, decided this wasn't too bad.

In fact, it was pretty fun!

Papaw bought us a tub full of new beach toys including this awesome boat.

Reid loves to stand up! He crawls super fast, so while he likes to stand up, he currently has no interest in walking anywhere. He can drink standing up and shake his booty, but nowhere near steps!

Papaw liked to hang out with Reid splashing in the water.

And Reid didn't even eat too much sand!

All cleaned up with Papaw.

Me posing at the pier. After the beach trip, we stopped at a local restaurant and had a yummy lunch. It was a super great day!

August 6th came around and it was time for Reid's birthday. Check this link if you need a reminder about his dramatic entrance into the world one short year ago. We decided on a low key backyard pirate themed birthday party for our boy who loves to growl, "Aarrrrgh!"

Reid is a great little brother. He's a pretty easy kid - he's great at playing in the floor with his toys by himself. He loves playing with balls and cars - a typical boy. Throwing and catching a ball just lights up his face. He has several words - mama, dada, ball (of course), book, baba (bottle), down (usually said right before he everything off the coffee table or when standing up in the bath tub), bye bye, and car. He'll repeat other things, but those are the ones you hear pretty consistently. He smiles with his whole face. He has three snuggle teeth - two on top and one on the bottom, but they're only part of the way through. He loves to eat most anything, but will throw it on the floor or at you when he's done. He weighed 22lbs 3 oz. He's a great sleeper too. We are so glad to have him in our family.

Reid's party just consisted of Mom and Dad, Mimi and Papaw, me, Kaya, and her parents. We had a summer time baby on purpose just for outside parties, so this was ideal.

We started off with a little baseball.

Even Reid got in on the action.

Reid and Johanna

Then it was time for dinner. Papaw cooked his famous flank steak and twice baked potatoes, plus they also brought us back some fruit from a farm stand in Maine.

A pirate themed cake for our pirate boy.

Happy birthday to Reid!

Not too big a fan of the cake, Reid grabbed it and threw it on the ground.

Oh well, more cake and ice cream for me!

The highlight of the party was the treasure chest piñata. Reid got a whack at it.

So did I!

Kaya too!

It took several hits and several hits from grown ups before the piñata hit the ground. Then it took several more beatings on the ground by the kids before out came the treasure.

Reid wasn't about to miss out on the treasure!

Then, present time!

After a long day and finally some much needed baths, we cuddled Mommy.

Happy birthday little man. We sure do love you a lot!