Lucy

Lucy's first tooth broke through last night...bottom left.

We have 4 teeth!!!

Can you believe this kid?

I love him! I love him! I love him!

As of November 17, Reid has 3 teeth...Right top and both on the bottom. Lucy is still holding out on us. Maybe that's what she wants for Christmas :)

Too Big, Too Fast

I have so, so much blogging to catch up on, but I couldn't wait to post this until I actually find the time to "back blog." The babies had their 9 month doctors appointment yesterday. Apparently one of the things they look for at this age is the disappearance of the reflex to always stand on their toes. Our doctor said that once a baby starts to stand flat footed all the time, they are about ready to walk. When he stood Reid up to check the reflex, he looked at me with that I-hate-to-tell-you-this look on his face and said, "He could walk if he wanted to." Not that I am in any way ready for my sweet babies (who I can hardly believe are nearly 10 months old) to walk, but we were still excited at the news. Lucy's reflex is fading fast, but isn't completely gone yet. She is still typically a week or 2 behind in physical development, while Reid is a week or 2 behind Lucy's social development. Lucy is, however holding her own bottle while Reid is not interested in exerting any energy while drinking his bottle. Both of them are thoroughly enjoying finger foods, and often strongly resist being spoon fed. So far they are devouring Cheerios, peas, sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas and carrots...all by themselves :).
At dinner tonight, I told Ben that I thought Reid could walk behind the push toy and Lucy would love to play w/ the gadgets on the front. We pulled it out and this is what happened:

Reid's first tooth finally broke through. Last week, his doctor took a look in his mouth and said, "That's what I call cutting 4 teeth at once." So far we only have the top right one. Top? I know, right. You're supposed to get 2 teeth on the bottom first. You can clearly tell that he is working on the top left tooth and the bottom 2 as well. Lucy is way behind. The doctor told her, "Sweet girl, he really has you beat in the tooth department."

Today!

Overall, today was your average Wednesday. But, some fun firsts happened...

Reid doesn't usually wake up during the night, but if he does, it is always difficult to get him back down. Last night he woke up multiple times and we always found him standing in his crib (of course). We fed him once and rocked him back to sleep 2 more times. The 4th time he woke up we gave up and both got out of bed...we needed to anyway. I got really frustrated. It's funny that when you have young babies and you know you will be getting up several times each night, it's not that big of a deal, but when the interruptions are not expected it's a totally different story. :) This morning Reid had a bump under his right eye. Over the course of the day it has turned into quite a shiner. Not too sure what that's about...

Lucy rarely cries when she wakes up, but this morning after her nap I heard her fussing. I walked in to find her standing in her crib. I'm pretty certain she was fussing b/c she didn't know how/was afraid to get down. She has been pulling up to her knees for a week or so, but until today, hadn't ventured to stand on her feet.






Lately, Hampton has been waking up dry from his naps. Today was no exception. I am so proud of his potty training! He tries really, really hard to wake up in the morning dry and gets so upset if he doesn't. Sweet boy!





Lucy crawled under the exercauser...and was so excited and proud. Even when she was afraid she may never get out, she was still all smiles.

While feeding the babies their dinner tonight, Reid was very, very sleepy. He started taking bites of Butternut Squash Bisque without opening his eyes. Eventually he was sound asleep in his highchair.
When Ben got home from work, we decided we should take the babies to the doctor to make sure they didn't have ear infections which might lead to another wrestless night of sleep. Reid was perfectly healthy, but our content little Lucy has her first ear infection. I would have put money on Reid over Lucy for sure.

Today was just another day in the life I absolutely LOVE.

8 Months Old

I am so embarassed that I am just now posting pictures of the babies at 8 months. While the date on this post will tell you that I wrote it on 9/30, I didn't in fact complete it until 10/28. What a terrible record keeper/mommy/blogger I am :). Due to the fact that Lucy and Reid are over 9 months as I write, I don't remember exactly what they were doing at 8 months. I know Reid was very mobile and pulling up on things and Lucy had just started inch-worming around. I did take pictures on or around their 8-month-day, so I'll just post those. ENJOY my precious little ones!

REID

LUCY

LUCY and REID

Ready for a bike ride!

All Three

Picnic at the park after a long jeep ride

Jeep Fun!!!

Oooops!

Hampton came in this morning from driving his jeep in the backyard and announced, "I don't have a surprise for you, Mom." My immediate response was, "Oh no, Hampton did you have an accident?" He quickly replied, "No!" Then asked with complete surprise and disappointment, "Do I have poop in my pants?" Thankfully when I checked, the coast was clear, so he changed his announcement to, "I don't have a surprise for you outside." Ben and I quickly looked out the kitchen window to see this...

Aparently, the fence was in the middle of Hampton's road. Ben spent a good chunk of our Saturday morning mending the fence. Truthfully, it is much better off now! We're learning what it means to be a safe driver :). Later this afternoon, he had his jeep privileges taken away for being a reckless driver. Like I said, he is learning...

PooPoo Party!

Hampton has been working very hard to poop in the big potty (and not his pants) in order to fill his sticker chart to earn this super cool, rough, tough Arctic Cat Jeep. We have looked online at this jeep many, many times. We have made up stories about the adventures we will take in our jeep. We have talked about what we're going to load in the cargo bed with the shovel on the hood. We look at the picture on the fridge and count how many stickers we have and how many more stickers we need before we can go to "the jeep store" to get our jeep. He is very, very excited and really quite motivated :). Well, yesterday was the big day. He earned his final sticker! We were all so, so excited and we celebrated with a PooPoo Party. After Hampton accomplished his goal, we called Daddy who was super encouraging and proud. I called the local ToysRUs to make sure they had the jeep. Thankfully they had one in stock (that would have been tough to explain why we had to wait for one to be shipped), but it was red. I was a little worried my detail oriented child would be disappointed it wasn't exactly like the one we had picked out, but thankfully his favorite color is red. As soon as Daddy got home from work, we went to Chick-fil-a for family night (free kids meals, kid's crafts and Hampton's favorite, helium balloons). We enjoyed our meal and Hampton made the choice to trade his toy for an ice cream cone. He liked about 4 bites of the ice cream and like usual asked one of us to eat it down to the cone. That's his favorite part. After dinner we drove to "the jeep store." He was giddy! And a apparently a little clumsy:)

We had to "put the jeep together" (a 10 minute job that they wanted to charge us $25 to do) when we got home and then charge the battery for EIGHTEEN HOURS. Thankfully it was dark outside, so we were able to convince H that he needed to wait anyway. After school today he was more than excited to get home and drive his jeep. It is so much fun as a parent to see such excitement in your child...even if it was rediculously expensive (we will be having a small Christmas this year:)). He drove the jeep from the time we got home until we made him come in for dinner and then until it was dark. I am so thankful Ben works so hard and the Lord has provided in such a way that we were able to do this for Hampton.

As a side note, the jeep is major currency in our house. If Hampton has an accident, he has to take a sticker off of his chart. If his chart isn't full, he can't use his jeep...this means until he goes again in the potty, he's out of luck :(. He is doing remarkably well so far!!! We are all so proud.