Walt and His Shadow

Reed had a wonderful treat today. Walt came over while his mommy and daddy when to their granny's funeral.



Reed loved Walt, and he REALLY loved Walt's cars. Walt was pretty thrilled with Reed's toy selection as well.

Walt kept wondering why Reed was a baby.



Reed and Walt enjoyed playing in Reed's room, but they spent their fair share of time in the family room. Abbey described it as a back-and-forth train between the rooms.



Walt thought Reed's big bottle was really funny!



Walt taught Reed how to stand on his stool. That's good, because until now, we have not been able to get the point of the stool across to Reed.



Walt is an incredibly smart and well-mannered boy! He was so nice to Reed and was a great example for Reed.



I think that it wore both of the boys out, because when I got home from the funeral, they were both snoozing!

It's Mama's Birthday and I Can Smile if I Want To!

The good ole Reed that we all know and love was back today! He was so happy! Check out the wetness on his clothes, that is from slobber, not from juice!



Today was Mommy's birthday and Reed had a special surprise for her. He picked out some flowers for her and he wrote in her card.



Then, it was time for Reed to go to Mother's Day Out and for Mommy to begin to her day of pampering.



Enna and Poppy sent Abbey money to get a manicure and pedicure. So, Abbey headed to get that taken care of first thing this morning.



She then headed to Target and just walked around, uninterrupted. It's funny the things you appreciate as you get older, eh?



After I got home from work, Reed, Abbey, and I played for a while until Miss Candace to came over to keep him while we went on a birthday date.



Abbey's present from me was makeup. She has been wearing cheap makeup since she quit working and I think she was ready for real makeup. So, I took her to the clinique counter and let the lady do her work and then we bought makeup!



Then, we went to eat at Red Lobster.



Then, we went to see "Baby Mama" at the new theater. The new theater in H-ville is SO nice and Baby Mama is HILARIOUS! I would say it's a MUST SEE!

We ended the evening by heading for dessert at Carraba's. Now it is WAY, WAY, WAY past our bedtimes and the alarm clock will be going off at 5:05 AM whether I am ready for it or not!

Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

Last night, during Brothers and Sisters, I was playing around with the camera and took a few "self-portraits." Abbey was not into getting her picture made, so she kept covering her eyes. We'll have to make pictures tomorrow, because it is someone's birthday and she will be inching ever closer to the big 3-0! She still has a couple of years though!



I am thinking of listing the above picture of craigslist.

Found: Someone's chin. Located beneath mine. I'm not sure when I found it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there a few years ago. To claim, please contact Jeff Land.


Warning! The next few pictures may dash all of the ideas that you have about the star of our blog. Just fair warning, today was a day of few smiles.



We're pretty sure that his highness is getting some new teeth, because he was not really happy with anything today.



We gave him water, toys, and food and nothing seemed to calm him. He was just not satisfied and he was very clingy.



We went to visitation at the funeral home and Reed was very much into being held. He wanted to be passed from me to Abbey, and from Abbey to me. Every once in a while, he was able to be put down.



I know this is probably mean, but the above pictured made me laugh hysterically. This is the Reed that few of you EVER see. Yes, there are really low points in Reed's mood, however, that's about 1/5000th of the time. Most of the time, he really is the happy kid that you see on the blog all of the time.



I was able to catch a few pictures of the sweet little face that you all know and love.



With teething, seems to come an insatiable thirst!



One of the few smiles of the day.

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Special Feature: Name Glossary

Many people have gotten confused about Who's Who on the blog, so I promised I would post some names and relationship to the Reedster.

"Blood" Relatives:

Poppy and Enna - Paternal Grandparents
Pop Rox and Lola - Maternal Grandparents
Uncle Trae; Uncle Bobby and Aunt Alyson - Paternal Uncles and Aunt
Aunt Ava and Uncle Brookie - Maternal Aunt and Uncle
Papa - Paternal Great-Grandfather
Granny and Mimi - Maternal Great-Grandmothers
There are also a host of great aunts, uncles, and second cousins.

"Non Blood" Relatives

Nana and Putty Sprinkles - Affectionately referred to as our "old friends." They are DEAR, DEAR people who love us very much and have been part of our lives since we moved to Nashville.
Uncle Bubba/Bill - My friend from work, who often comes over to help with yardwork, to hang out, or eat at the Catfish House.
Aunt Bitsy - Another friend from work and fellow church member. She loves her some Reedo.
Kay Kay - Another friend from work, who also loves Reedo!
Bebbie - Another friend from work, who, you guessed it, loves Reedo!
Miss Candace and Miss Jennifer - Two of the BESTEST Babysitters in the world! Miss Candace comes over on evenings when we need a date or when I am out of town she spends the night with the fam. Miss Jennifer is a baby extraordinaire who helps with Reed and she is also going to be Reed's very own "Mother's Day Out" teacher this summer. Abbey is going to take him over and Miss Jennifer and Reed are going to have a blast!
There are COUNTLESS others, but these are the ones that we mention most.



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Okay, I just have to add one more thing. I don't know why I am so interested in Jon and Kate, but I am. Anyway, in this episode, Kate is giving her interview and she stops and say, "I'm sorry, can you quit breathing so loudly?" She is SO critical to Jon. Now, I don't want to give the impression that Jon is a saint, because in the last episode, he was "watching" the kids, but he was really just programming his phone, but Jon does seem like a really great Dad most of the time.

Another Day in the Life of Reed

This morning, we got up and showered and then ready for church. While we were waiting for Mommy to finish getting dressed, we came upstairs to play. It was hard to get a good front picture of Reed, but let me assure you, he was beyond cute this morning. He was wearing a cute blue/white striped polo that I bought at the consignment sale, some khakis, and his red cons!



We realized that he didn't have a belt this morning. We're going to have work on that!



We left church after Sunday School this morning because we found out that Nana Sprinkles Mama died. Granny was over 90 years old, but she was very funny and extremely smart! She always knew exactly how much money was in her purse down to the penny! So, please remember Nana and Putty Sprinkles this week, as this will be a hard loss for them.



In case you were wondering about a close-up side profile of Reed would look like, here you go!



In the above picture, Mommy had just told Reed a joke. He didn't get it!



Since we didn't get to eat the roast that Mommy had cooked for lunch, we decided to invite Mr. Danny and Mrs. Megan over for supper. Reed loves Mr. Danny.



Reed decided to show Mrs. Megan how to walk on the couch without falling. He always recommends holding on with one hand, unless of course, you want to just walk right off the couch, then you have to let go. Yes, he has no fear of heights.



Reed wanted Mrs. Megan to read him the camera manual.



This is Reed's "high fashion" pose. As Christian from Project Runway would say, "Fierce!"



Reed decided to just read the manual to himself.



When he was done with the manual, he decided to play with his fan toy that Aunt Ava gave him.

Oh, How We LOVE Saturday! (And Cannon Cameras!)

It's 6:15 on Saturday morning, do you know where your baby is? Not asleep if you are in our house! Reed woke up especially early this morning as a little Saturday morning gift for us. I got up, and brought Reed to the bonus room. He played for a few minutes, then I fed him breakfast in the Bonus Room so that he wouldn't wake up Abbey, and then he had his morning poo. He played a little more and by 7:45, he was yawning, ready for a nap.



I, sacrificially, laid down with him on the guest room bed, and we went to sleep.

Finally, at 9:50, Mommy woke us up. I am no exactly sure why or how she woke us up, but she was standing in the room and it scared me to death!



After we got up, again, Reed and I took a shower and got ready for the day. Then Mommy took her shower and got ready. Then, it was time to head to lunch. We decided to eat lunch at Subway before going to grocery shop.

By the time that we got home from the grocery store, Reed was sleepy. So, once again, I gave of myself and laid down with him. We had a good nap while Abbey put away the groceries, mopped the kitchen and dusted, and prepared supper.

When we woke up, Reed, Abbey, and I went on a walk around the 'hood.



After the walk, it was time to get supper ready. We invited Brandon, Tamara, and Britton over for Hawaiian chicken. While I warmed up the grill, Reed enjoyed swinging! Well, maybe enjoyed is an understatement.



Reed laughed like a hyena while he was swinging.



... And we enjoyed testing out the new settings on the camera! Woo-hoo, there is a "kids and pets" setting for those "need to be fast" shots!



Reed was so excited that his very best friend Britton was coming over for supper.





We hope the above picture of our boys behind bars is not an omen of things to come ...

A New Favorite Place

It was a pretty slow day today at work. I was wanting to spend some time with my family, so I decided to take a half-day off.

After lunch, Reed, Abbey, and I went to the greenway to walk. Reed likes the bridge over the creek.



We went to a nearby town to eat supper and check out a new open-air shopping mall.

We decided to have supper at the new Red Robin. It was pretty good. We liked it because it was loud and should Reed decide to be loud (like he always does) it wouldn't bother anything. Guess what? Reed was very quiet at the restaurant, go figure!



After a quick trip to Gymboree, we walked past the new stores, then we came upon a fountain with a few children playing in it.



After a little arm twisting (NOT!), we were able to convince Reed to play in the fountain.



Reed had a blast. All of the other little ones would kind of walk away when the water would should up. Reed ran towards it and put his hands and his head in it.



It was such a beautiful day, and it was a great evening for Reed to play in the fountain.



Here's a shot, shortly after getting his face wet.



After he was sufficiently soaked, he began shivering a little. I took his shorts and shirt off, while Mommy headed back in to Gymboree to buy a shirt!

As soon as his clothes were off, Reed wanted to head back to the fountain.



I am pretty sure that Reed is going to make this one of his favorite hang-outs this summer.



There were a couple of girls who were taking some pictures at the fountain and pretty soon I realized that they were now taking pictures of Reed playing in the water.



As the sun started to go down, some lights came on. We didn't stay until dark, but I bet it is really pretty at night.



I am glad that Reed a water bug! We'll have a lot of fun at the pool this summer.





"This is the coolest thing ever!"





After the fountain we decided to go to Best Buy. Of course, we had to put some dry clothes on Reed first. It is tax-free weekend on school supplies and clothing, so Best Buy was covered up with people buying computers.

We were not in the market for a computer though. As you can tell from the pictures tonight, and from the incessant hints to grandparents that we NEEDED a new camera, we decided to take matters into our own hands and bought a new Canon Power Shot. I am excited about it! Hopefully, tomorrow you will see some really great pics!



Abbey and some of the other adoptive moms from Taiwan are participating in a secret pal swap. Abbey got her secret pal's gift yesterday. It is a cute bath set for Ava and some neat little washcloths. Her secret pal even included some little bath goodies for the Reedman. Thanks secret pal!