Rough Day Made Bright!

Reed has a cold and he is not really happy about it. His nose has been quite runny and he has been VERY clingy to his mama and dada.



Mama had to work tonight at the Catfish House (Reed has a birthday coming up, so Mama is working extra to get a little more birthday cash!). She called to make a Peds appointment for Reed and I met them at the clinic.



We went in and saw the NP and she was really nice. It was the first time that we had seen this NP. She listened to Reed's lungs which were clear. She looked in his ears (and his really hard earwax problem seems to be getting better!) and she was able to see right on into his ear! She looked in his mouth and saw some drainage in his throat. And then she announced ... "Reed has a cold and there's nothing you can do about it!"



So, there we have it. We're going to be dealing with a cold for the next week or so. Hopefully it will go away sooner than later.

We did have a bright spot today though. Reed got a package all the way from Taiwan. His birth grandparents and birth aunt and uncle sent him a Christmas present.



Reed closely examined the two gigantic baby bottle coin banks stuffed with stuffed animals.



Then he wanted to play with them.



It was so sweet for them to send Reed a gift. It even had a Christmas card written in Chinese. It had been translated and had a short note from his Aunt and Uncle (they are teenaged) and his Grandparents. I think Abbey and I both cried. We were just so touched that they love him so much that they would send him a gift for a holiday that they don't even celebrate. We will send them pictures of him playing with his toys.



There it is, everyone, "The face loved round the world!" And, with such a lovable personality, how could you not love that face?



I love the Taiwanese stuffed animals. They are so cute and different from American stuffed animals.



Reed had fun playing with the toys until he sighted his true love.



"Uh, sorry guys, I have to go see my friend."



"Oh vacuum cleaner! Where have you been? I missed you so much!"



Yes, bloggy friends, Reed absolutely loves the vacuum. He is completely mesmerized by it. He wants to hold it and he gets right in front of it when it is being run.

Daddy's Home and Tagged!

Hey, this is Reed. We got tagged by Mrs. Maria from the Latham's blog. Daddy doesn't do the tagged thing, so, I fought I would answer for him.


4 jobs I’ve had:

1. Being cute.
2. Being cute.
3. Being cute.
4. I stay pwetty busy, jus bein' cute.


4 movies watched over and over:

1. What's a movie?
2. I don't fink my pawent's wet me have one of dose.
3. What does a movie do?
4. I fink I might want one.

4 places I’ve lived:

1. Wuchi Town, Taiwan
2. Taichung, Taiwan
3. My fust house on this stweet.
4. My new house on the same stweet in Tennessee.



4 shows I watch:

1. Does this mean TB?
2. My mama and dada don't wet me watch TB.
3. If I did watch TB, it would pwobabwe be a weality show.
4. But, I pwobabwe wouldn't watch Opwah.

4 places I’ve been:

1. Taiwan
2. San Fwancisco, Cawiforna
3. Norf Carowina
4. Sippimissi

4 people who e-mail me regularly:

1. Enna and Poppy
2. Lola and Pop Rox
3. Aunt Ava
4. Nobody else, ever weally emails me.


4 favorite things to eat:

1. Fwuit puffs
2. Bwead
3. Whatever mama and dada are eating.
4. Nanas

4 places I’d rather be:

1. Lola and Pop Rox's house
2. Enna and Poppy's house
3. Taiwan pickin' up my sister
4. Tahget

4 things I look forward to this year:

1. Pwayin'
2. Eatin'
3. Sweepin'
4. Goin to Tahget

Now, I'm suppose to tag some more people. Don't feel obwigated to answer:

Kobi
Lauren Ling and Aiden
Megan
Island Boy

Well, I gotta go, I fink I see my dada pullin' into the driveway.



I fink we might take a nap.



bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

Sippy Cup and Cheddars

I'm having a few blogging troubles this evening. I think that when someone hacked into our account she might have changed a couple of settings. I am hoping that this picture is the one that I think it is. Reed looks like he had a rough night last night didn't he?

We are trying to get Reed used to using a sippy cup, because his peds says that when he turns a year old that is what he is supposed to be using. For those of you who are counting, you know that 1 year old is soon!!!

That's night quite your mouth buddy. Reed seems to be able to get everything into his mouth, except for that sippy cup. I think he is just playing us.



Tonight we had supper with Nana and Putty Sprinkles. They were glad to get to see Reed, since we haven't gotten to see them in several weeks. Before we got Reed, you'll remember that we saw them several times a week! Now, we are lucky if we get to see them once a month! Life certainly is more busy now that the baby is here!



Putty Sprinkles showed Reed the humongous fish tank at Cheddars. Reed loves fish, so he was happy to get to see the big tank!



Reed had an EXCELLENT day! He got to have lunch with his best friend Britton and then he took an incredible nap in the stroller while mommy shopped at Gymboree for his birthday outfit. Daddy was happy that mommy found him an outfit that was on sale! We're always happy to find a sale at Gymboree.



Developmentally, I guess we need to report that Reed talks almost constantly now. He is still mostly saying, "Bye bye" but does have a few other words in his cache. He is also standing up by himself a lot more. He has yet to take a step without assistance, but the way he is standing, I am betting it is any day now!

Aunt Ava's Day with Reed

Since Jeff was having so much trouble uploading my pictures I sent him of the day I kept Reed, I decided to hack in to blogger and post them myself! We had such a fun day together- he is such a good baby!

We went to the park twice and strolled around the neighboorhood! He loved the swings and watching the other kids ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk. I didn't get any pictures of him at the park, but here is the best picture i could get of the two of us...

He LOVED this water bottle and to think I went out the day before to buy him a new toy and all I really had to do was drink a bottle of water and give it to him!

"Aunt Ava, Can you believe my ma-ma and da-da have not called to check on me not once today?" He sure looked stylin' with his new red shoes and my red cell phone! I made sure Abbey dressed him in red so that his shoes I got for him would match.

We had a fun time together and he even took a 2 hour nap for me- his parents say this isn't normal for the little guy!

Countertops!

Our countertops were installed last week, just before we left to go to Mississippi. We are thankful to have this phase of the renovation done. The finishing touches on the bathroom floors will be tomorrow. Then, we won't have anything left major to do for quite some time (we hope!)!



Reed was nice enough to model the new 95% granite countertops. How many of you out there can say you have 95% granite countertops? Sure, I bet most of you can say, "We have 100% granite countertops," but I bet very few can say they have 95% granite. The other 5% is an epoxy mixture. We're really pleased with them.



Now, we have to try to paint the cabinet door handles. Abbey has also decided that she would like our cabinets stained a darker brown. Anyone out there up for refinishing some cabinets?



We also had the hearth covered with granite while the countertop people were here. The old hearth was this really ugly tile that we hated. Reed really likes the new hearth.



Reed was showing off his cute stance tonight. Mommy reported that Reed had a somewhat topsy-turvy day. When I got home though, he was all silly. He laughed and played hard. Tonight after a huge supper (he ate 10 ounces of baby food), he played and laughed so hard with his mommy and daddy. It wore him out quickly. He was so sleepy tonight after his bottle that he kept pushing it out of the way and curling up in my arms. It was so funny.

Finally HOME!

Oh my goodness? Do we have the cutest niece ever or what? We took this picture of Joshi yesterday before we left Enna and Poppy's. Gosh, she is so cute, I could just eat her up! She's coming to visit Uncle Jeff and Aunt Abbey soon for Reed's 1st Birthday!



Just to give you some perspective of the size difference of an 11 month old and a 4 month old! There's a lot! Reed's head is twice the size of Joshi's!



I bet Joshi is going to be jealous of Reed's natural tan one day! Reed had a good time with Joshi as long as we reminded him to be gentle! He loves his cousin!



Reed is thrilled to be home, as are we. He loved being able to play in his playroom. He immediately found Press (aka devil monkey) and his tunnel. We had a lot of fun playing "I'm gonna get you." as I quickly moved from end to end of the tunnel while he tried to get out.



He showed some loving to all of his toys. One by one, he pulled EVERYONE of them out! Now, the playroom resembles our house, a mess! Unfortunately while we were gone, no one decided to surprise us by cleaning up our house. However, I do believe that there is a saying, "You should always leave a place better than you found it." If that's the case, we've got some phone calls to make, because the tile layers who did our bathrooms while we were gone, well, they didn't leave the house in better condition. There are floor moldings missing, furniture out of place and doors off cabinets! We're hoping their planning on finishing up the job!



The trip home was hard! Reed cried a lot between here and Memphis. He took a short nap which we were most thankful for.



I am so excited to be going back to work tomorrow. I haven't worked a full week since before Christmas and it is time! I need stability in my life! I believe that Reed and Abbey are also ready for a little stability. I know that our house is ready for us to spend some time in it!



Before bathtime, Reed needed one more jaunt through the tunnel.

A Date!

So many things have not gone the way that we thought they would since we have become parents. For instance, who would think that we would be the laid back parents who don't fret over sterilizing and the such? Also, who would think that my little brother Bobby would be the type of Dad and Uncle that DOES fret over such things? Certainly not us. One thing that really has surprised me though is how much Uncle Trae loves his niece and nephew. Uncle Trae loves to hold, kiss, and talk to Reedo and I am so glad. I love my brothers so much and I am so glad that we can all love on our babies!



Uncle Bobby made sure that he was holding Reed as much as possible. He seems to always make sure that he has a baby in his hands!



Reed thought Uncle Bobby's head made the perfect bongo! By the way, thanks for all of the suggestions with the camera last week. I changed a setting and the pictures are much more clear, however, now it always flashes twice so the pictures are too bright. Anyone know what setting that is? In case anyone out there ever mistakenly believed that I am technical, you are wrong. I have a job to learn how to burn a DVD from our camera before Reed's birthday and I am scared to death! That's only 27 days away! Yikes! I better start learning!

We left Poppy and Enna's a few minutes after 11:00 and were able to stop in my hometown of Durant to take my Papa to lunch. We have been a little lacks on the camera use this weekend (I am sure much to my Uncle Mitch's dismay, who refers to Reed as the most photographed baby in America!), so we don't have any pictures of lunch. We also got to stop briefly to introduce Reed to Mrs. Glenda (my best friend Jay's mom) and his sister Lee Lee. I am so glad that Reedo finally got to meet Mrs. Glenda.

We headed to Memphis from there. We were at Pop Rox and Lola's briefly before telling Reed "bye bye" and going on a date. We went to see P.S. I Love You which was a pretty good movie. It kind of happened the way you want things to happen which to me is the best movie. I hate movies that don't turn out right. Why watch something not turn out right, it's fiction make things end right. Then we went to Pei Wei and ate and talked. Then we went to Macaroni Grill for dessert and we ate and talked some more. It was so nice to get to just spend some time catching up with my lovely wife. We need to be more proactive about that!

Friday's Happenings

Reed stayed with Aunt Ava yesterday while we were at the funeral. I am pretty sure that Aunt Ava had a great time keeping Reed.



The funeral was sad, but it was a celebration of life. I spoke and was glad that I did not get emotional. It really turned out well.



Uncle Bobby, Aunt Aly, and Joshi wanted to come spend some time with Reed so they came and spent the night. Even Uncle Trae spent the night at Enna and Poppy's. It was a house full. We went to eat at Macaroni Grill and had a very lively bunch.



Joshi and Reed had a great time together. Reed took one swing accidentally at her.



Reed even offered to help Enna feed Joshi her bottle. I bet if she would have let him help her, then he would have ended up helping himself to Joshi's bottle.



Reed really enjoyed eating Poppy and Enna's pasta.



Uncle Trae let Reed taste some of his sweet tea. Reed is definitely a southern boy, because he loves sweet tea.



Some man at the table next to us was very interested in the babies at the table. He and his wife had older children, so he enjoyed talking to the babies. He made Reed a "Roll Tide" sign.



Uncle Trae tried teaching Reed had to snap.

More pictures tonight. Aunt Ava has sent some pictures of their time together, but I haven't been able to upload all of them yet.