24 Months

Words cannot express how much I'm in love with this kid. Even on the "tough" days I find it hard not to laugh at his ingenuity, marvel at his intelligence, and be ever so overwhelmed by how much he means to me. To be honest he has become my Buddy; we chat it up for the length of most car rides and have a short hand when it comes to understanding each other. If I'm driving by myself I often will start to call out when I see a tractor, horse, or fire engine. While I do feel silly for a brief moment I can't help but enjoy the appreciation for these things that Reed has taught me all over again.

I know we have so many adventures and milestones ahead of us, I really can't wait to see what the next year brings us. At the same time I wouldn't mind putting a pause on life and soaking in all that this two year old has to offer.

This last month Reed has started to identify some of the letters of the alphabet (a,b,c,h,j,m,o,p,r,s,x,y,z) and loves reading any book or playing any game that involves letters. He's also really fond of "reading" books, which used to just mean flipping through the pages, but now he'll make up stories to go along with the pictures, or if it is a book we read often, he will regurgitate memorized lines. He does the same with songs - if I say "Ray" he'll follow with "drop of golden sun." He's also taken to concepts like short/tall, near/far, in/out, over/under, etc. in the last few weeks.

Monthly Statistics

Weight: 28 lbs

Height: 35 inches

Clothing Size: 18-24 month bottoms still work well, but his short sleeve shirts are all suddenly belly shirts. The few 2T (and even 3T) tops he has fit him great.

Shoe Size: 6.5 or 7 depending on the brand

 

Teeth:  16  -  8 on the bottom, 8 on the top - I think! He's been working on his two year molars for weeks, but getting to see into that mouth is nearly impossible and some may have come in.

 

Reed likes: Playing dress up with hats, shoes, and sunglasses, Soft Sheep and Pup to sleep with, and all his other stuffed animals to play with, balls, reading books, anything related to farming or cowboys, playing outside, Dodger, blocks, going to gym class, bath time, his Grandma and Nonna, sidewalk chalk and doing "artwork," his tunnel,  watching El Perro y Gato with Dad, cooking with Mom, anything that has to do with water, playing with his Star Wars guys, and listening to music with Dad.

 

Reed dislikes: Still pretty dependent on his level of exhaustion - what's fine one day may just be the end of the world the next!

 

Nicknames: Reedster, Reedcito, Buddy, Monkey, Dictator-tot, Kooky Monster, Dingle Berry Jones, Darlin', and Honey Bear. He knows who calls him each of these names and will tell you what the nickname is if prompted.

Food: His favorites remain the same and he still struggles with veggies, but loves "sauces" (purees that have fruit and veggies in them) and eats those for snacks almost daily. We've tried a few new meals this last month, two surprise hits were dairy free enchiladas with lots of veggies and a grilled eggplant and cabbage wrap from Trader Joes.

Communication: Reed's sentences are getting more and more complete. He has started to use "I" correctly but also likes referring t himself in the third person.

How Reed is sleeping:  He goes to bed around 7:30pm and has been making it to between 5:30 and 6:00 am most mornings. We are still using the toddler night light, the pacifier is still around ( I'm still SLOWLY taking small cuts out of), a sound machine going, his two "guys" Soft Sheep and Pup, but no sleep sack. He goes down for his nap between noon and 1:00pm and sleeps 2-3 hours.

***I know this occurred after he officially hit 24 months, but he now has a twin mattress on the floor in his room and has successfully slept through the night once and taken a nap on it once (both times it took him a while to settle into it, but he LOVES the idea so that is awesome).

 

Favorite Moment:

One morning while Reed was eating breakfast I was on a step stool trying to reach into the cabinet above the refrigerator. I heard Reed say something like "strucklin" and I thought he was asking for something to eat. After a few repeats I realized he was trying to say "struggling." He was right, and I couldn't stop laughing at his comment.

 

Milestones:
Reed pees in the potty one time.
He gives up his sleep sack
Reed blows a bubble out of a wand.

Favorite Photo Shoot Outtake: So I bought this hat last year for Reed's 1st Birthday that is adorable. My plan is/was to use it every year. Even when he gets older. I won't make him wear it at a party or anything, but at least give me a photo op at some point during the day. You can see for yourself what Reed thought of that idea this year:

Reed's Second Birthday

I have Reed's 24 Month post written but am going to wait to put it up on the blog because he has a doctor's appointment at the end of the week and I want to share all of his measurements, etc. afterwards. So instead you are getting picture overload!

Reed's Birthday was Friday and we tried to make it a day all about him. He obviously had had some practice with the idea of a "Birthday" over the last week so when he woke up in the morning and I said "Happy Birthday." He immediately said "presents?" I took him in our room to wake up Dad and we gave him one of his presents, it was a farm/tractor set and he played with it all day long.

 

Reed and I had a pretty normal morning at home eating breakfast, walking Dodger, and playing outside. He played with his new toys a lot and when it was time for me to take a shower he protested being put in the pack 'n play (which he normally loves) and I instead ended up leaving him in his room with the door shut playing with his tractors and farmers while I hurriedly took a shower listening to the baby monitor. He of course was fine and it made me realize just how old he is and what a big boy he has become.

 

We then went to HMC to say hi to everyone and pick Dad up for a picnic lunch. Reed was surprised with a pink tractor from Aunt Paula (she knows how obsessed he is with tractors and how he always asks to see pink ones) and an awesome horse on a stick riding toy from Chris and Allison.

 

Reed LOVED having a picnic with Dad and made it his job to unpack the food, hide our shoes, and then run around like a crazy kid after he finished eating.

 

 

After lunch Reed and I went home. Reed took a great nap and I was able to decorate for his party. Even though there were just 8 adults and Reed, I still insisted on making it a kid themed party.

 

Starting last year, I decided to make an annual tradition of
having a book signed by all in attendance of the Birthday Party

 

By the time Reed woke up Dad was home BBQing and everyone was on their way over. When I told him this he got so excited he was shaking. When I showed him around his "party" he thought everything was so neat and then stood by the front door pacing - waiting for his guests to arrive. Once everyone was there we told him he could open gifts and even though he could access any of them he went over and sat next to them and waited for everyone to congregate in the living room before diving in. I guess Reed's obsession with cowboys and farming is pretty obvious. I never told anyone what "theme" I was having the party in and almost all of the gifts (even the ones from our HMC visit) fit in that genre (and he loved them all).

 

 

Sadly the closest thing to a family pic for the day

Like I mentioned earlier, even though there were only adults in attendance I tried to make the party kid focused. We played pin the tail on the donkey. Reed was in charge of spinning everyone around 2 times and then leading them to the donkey and showing them where to put the tail. This was absolutely hilarious because he would stop the spin facing them in the wrong direction or drop their hand and stay "right there" pointing to the donkey's hind quarters not helping much at all since we were blindfolded!!! We also all wore our animal visors around the dinner table.

 

 

Dinner was all of Reed's favorite things - steak, pasta with sauce, artisan bread with avocado, and fruit. I made some brownie bites for dessert and he devoured three of them. He even came around to the cowboy hat I purchased him and had a great time entertaining us all at dinner. The kid was on a sugar and emotional high by the time everyone left and stayed up well past his bedtime - all signs of a great party if you ask me!!!

 

 

Celebrations!!!

In the last week we've had two friends give birth and celebrated both Jon and Reed's Birthdays - talk about a popular time of year!!! Here is a quick rundown of the celebrations that took place, leading up to the "big event."

On Sunday Gran and Papa joined us for dinner so they could spend time with all of us and give Jon and Reed their Birthday presents. Reed loved reading his card, opening his gifts, and insisted on immediately making Nonna go to work reading one of the books he received.



Papa and Gran watching Nonna and Reed

Wednesday was Jon's Birthday. He wouldn't give me any ideas for Birthday presents and said he just wanted to play soccer for his Birthday. I organized an evening game with some of our friends, followed by watching an Arsenal game at our house with everyone while enjoying some pizza, beer, and cupcakes. Reed thought helping Dad blow out candles was awesome and was also a great sport about playing and sharing with six month old Clara.

Reed and Clara playing with their Aunties on the floor

I'm skipping over Reed's party as it will follow in a separate post, but couldn't not mention that on Saturday I went over to the coast for the day to celebrate Auntie "M's" last days as a single woman . . . yes that's right, at almost 8 months pregnant I attended a Bachelorette party. It was a lot of fun and even though it was an exhausting week, I wouldn't have missed it.

Reed are you Ready?

Other than "how are you feeling?" the question I've received most often while pregnant is "how is Reed going to handle having a new baby in the house?" To be honest, I really don't know. It's going to be a huge adjustment for all of us and probably most significant for him. I worry about my ability to pick him up and give him cuddles while I recover and care for a newborn, but luckily he has a Grandma and a Nonna who he adores and who I know will be around to help us out.

We have done a few things for Reed over the last seven months that we hope will help him embrace his new role as a Big Brother. We told Reed early on I was pregnant and that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy. While he was confused for a bit and thought there was a baby in his tummy too, he's been very sweet about giving my belly hugs and kisses and saying hi to the baby. He's felt the baby move a couple of times as well. We also started working on the nursery pretty early. I knew we were going to have a busy summer and wanted to be able to work on things as we had time. This worked out great because Reed has loved showing the "baby's room" off to visitors, likes going in there to play with some of the toys but completely understands he can't take them to his room, and even brought some books from his room he said he wanted the baby to have (melt my heart). We also worked on a special art project for the baby's room that he thought was really neat.

Just need one more foot-print to complete our family

Other than some toys, etc. that Reed has outgrown we plan to move his changing table and crib into the nursery. This involves getting him into a big boy bed and this past weekend he gave me the perfect opportunity to do some furniture rearranging when he requested his crib be under some paper decorations I have hanging from the ceiling. This is exactly where I want to put his bed so I jumped at the chance and Reed and I quickly went to work rearranging furniture in his room. He's still in his crib, but I'm hoping if he gets comfortable with its location for a week or two the transition to the bed might be easier. The rearranging also means the changing table is out of his room. He's not in love with the idea of putting it into the baby's room so it's in the hallway for now, but I hope in a few days he'll get used to the idea and let us finish the move. I'm also hoping he gets excited about the new bed and we can work out a deal that he only gets the bed if he lets us move the crib.

Since Reed is so into books we've done a couple things in that department too. First I bought a small ottoman for the nursery that I plan to use to rest my feet on when nursing, but it also serves as a great seat for Reed when we read stories. He usually likes to be cuddled up next to me, but in the nursery he's more than happy to hang on the ottoman to hear stories. Jon and our family friend, Lisa, both got him books about being a big brother that he LOVES (like to the point that I hide them sometimes because I'm tired of reading them). Yesterday we were reading one of the books and there is a picture of the new family complete with the baby so we were pointing to Mommy, Dad, etc. and Reed looked at me and said "Dodger too?" I'm going to blame the pregnancy hormones, but I couldn't help but get teary eyed over his comment - such a sweet boy!

Reed talks a lot about the things he's going to do with the baby. On the top of his list are taking a bath with and riding next to him/her in the car. There is also an abacus in the nursery that he's dying to play with but I've told him that it's a special toy for him to play with when the baby comes and Mom is nursing. He's also obsessed with the swing and loves helping to buckle in stuffed animals and using his whisper voice because the "guy" is sleeping.

We have two friends due to have a baby before Baby McClarty arrives so I'm hoping Reed will have the opportunity to be around them a bit too. I think seeing a baby in action will lessen the blow a bit when a real life one comes home to stay! I know there will be bumps in the road and that Reed will probably have a few melt downs over the baby's arrival, but hopefully we've prepared him as best we can. We honestly can't wait to meet our Little One, but I think the best part is going to be seeing our two children together and feeling like a complete family.