Will is 3!

I seriously cannot believe I have a 3-year-old. That seems so old! We had a race car birthday party for him this year. I said last year that it was the last birthday party we would have for Will at our house, but of course we ended up having it at our house again. When I first mentioned the idea of having the birthday party at Chuck E Cheese or McDonalds to Will, he said, "Nooo...I want the kids to come to my house!" I started to try to convince him to do it somewhere else and he did warm up to the idea, but then I got nervous that he would clam up like he sometimes does when we are out in public and I wanted him to have fun at his party. So we did have it at home...hopefully next year will be the year we have it somewhere else. It's not that having it here is the worst thing ever, but it always seems to stress me out and I can't enjoy the party myself...but this year, I just decided not to do food (just snacks) and that helped a lot. Oh, and Chris let me hire someone to clean the house!






I really wanted a flag banner for the "Pit Stop" but I couldn't find one anywhere (it was too late to order online), so I made this one out of a table cloth and string.




Chris and I made these cars out of boxes and the kids decorated them and then raced them on a little race track we setup in the backyard.


This was the little kid heat.


Chris has been collecting Hot Wheels for Will since I was pregnant with him and we found out he was a boy. Since all the Hot Wheels stuff says it is for ages 3+, I told Chris we would have to wait until his 3rd birthday to give them to him...even though he already has a bunch that he has played with for awhile. But I think this might have at least triple his collection of cars and he only had a really simple race track before...now Chris and Will spend their evenings designing all kinds of cool race tracks. It really is pretty cool...I didn't realize what the race tracks would be like.


I went to Walmart right before the party to pick up a few last minute items and found all these car shirts for cheap (they all just happened to be red)! They didn't have one in Reed's size so I bought him a red onesie and put a car sticker on it.



I will have to write more about my 3-year-old later, Reed is calling! :)

Rainbow

Call us doting parents, but Will drew this rainbow from his heart this morning and Chris and I think it is pretty special. It is the first time that he has drawn something, told us what it is, and it actually looks like what he told us. :)

Reed Laughs

Smartie

I just have to write this here so that I won't forget how smart my boy is at a month shy of 3-years-old (and how much he doesn't like change of any kind). The past two Thursdays we went swimming in the afternoon followed by Firehouse Subs for dinner and Spoonfull for dessert. Yesterday we went swimming in the afternoon and I had started dinner before we went, so we came home to eat but Spoonfull sounded really good, so we decided to head that way after dinner.

As Chris and I were talking about it, Will asked if we were also going to Firehouse Subs. I told him that we weren't going to Firehouse Subs because we already ate dinner. He was disappointed, but eventually gave up asking why we couldn't go there. When we have gone to Firehouse Subs, he doesn't act like he likes it more than any other place that we go...we can barely get him to eat anything just like everywhere else, so I am pretty sure he just wanted to follow the routine we had set in the past. He doesn't like change!

About 30 minutes later, we are in the car headed to Spoonfull and Will announces that he is thirsty. I tell him we have water in the car and he says he wants Sprite (which he usually doesn't request unless we are eating out somewhere). I told him we didn't have any Sprite and they don't have any at Spoonfull either. To which he replies that we need to go to Firehouse Subs to get him a Sprite. I couldn't believe that he had thought of a way to try to get in Firehouse Subs. So funny!

So then we get into Spoonfull and Will gets his usual thing - sprinkles with a side of yogurt, which Will says is "kind of like donuts." Again, I think he has forgotten about Firehouse Subs....wrong. After he finished his treat, he tells me he is hungry again and he needs a sandwich from Firehouse Subs. It still didn't work, but kudos to Will for trying so hard! ha!

Quick update...

Reed will be 2 months old on Saturday! He has changed so much already. For one thing he is BIG...13 pounds last week and in the 90th percentile! Will never passed the 25th percentile. He also started sleeping through the night four nights ago...10:30 to 7:30 and it is awesome!! He is sooo happy when he wakes up in the morning. I love that sweet boy so much.

I am definitely adjusting to having two kids now! I am starting to feel normal again. I don't think I got the baby blues this time, but I just had a panicked feeling for awhile....like I couldn't handle two kids. But I can, and it's not so bad!

I took some pictures today for Father's Day and I couldn't help but ruin the surprise...they were just too cute not to share!







In other news....now that Reed is 8 weeks old, it is time to start shedding the baby weight. I started the Couch to 5k program tonight with some friends and it felt pretty good! I have done it before and liked it, but I never actually ran a 5k. I am planning to do it this time though...I will let you know how it goes. So far the the C25K and Lose It apps on my iphone are really making me feel motivated.

Reed meets Reese!

Funny story...

The week Will was born we got new across the street neighbors, Mark and Elizabeth. We ended up becoming great friends but sadly, we sold our house and moved last year and then shortly after we moved, they sold their house and moved to Amarillo!

They stopped in Lubbock for a quick visit last September and told us they were expecting their first baby. We knew that I was pregnant too, but we didn't say anything at the time because we hadn't told anybody yet.

As it turns out, our due dates were exactly two weeks apart. Elizabeth's due date was April 14th and mine was April 28th. We decided to name our boy Reed and they decided on Reese for their baby girl's name. I joked that they should be born on the same day since they had twinsie names and all.

Well, Elizabeth's due date came and went without baby Reese making her appearance so they decided to induce on April 19th. A couple of days later, we scheduled an induction for April 20th because my doctor was going to be out of the office for a week. I thought it was so funny that our babies would only be a day apart!

On the night of April 18th (after 11pm), Elizabeth and I were texting each other. Elizabeth said they would be leaving for the hospital at 4:45am and I thought that seemed sooo close. I was so excited that they would be meeting their sweet baby so soon. Little did I know that I would be headed to the hospital to have Reed even earlier than that!

So that's the story of Reed and Reese ending up with the same birthday!! How funny is that?

And tonight...they got to meet for the first time on Skype! Reese is so adorable and we can't wait to meet her in person!

Reed is here!

Wow...sorry I have not updated the blog since Reed joined us in this world. My life has been a little crazy and I just can't seem to find the time to sit at the computer to get pictures uploaded and write. But I am doing it now!

Reed was born April 19th at 5:21am. He weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces (almost a pound bigger than Will!) and was 19 inches.

I was scheduled to be induced on April 20th, but I was really hoping that he would come on his own like Will did. On Sunday night, I thought I would make one last effort to see if I could encourage him to come on his own...so at about 8:30 that night, we went for a family walk. I wasn't having contractions or anything...but I thought maybe it would help. I'm not sure if that was what did the trick, but at about 11:30 that night I started having contractions, but I didn't think too much of it at first since I had been having contractions for several weeks.

I did catch Chris just before he fell asleep and told him that I was having contractions and we might be making a trip to the hospital that night. I don't think he thought much of it because he said okay and went to sleep. I stayed up and cleaned, got a few things together, and then took a shower. I finally laid down for a few minutes around 2am after I took a shower and the contractions were coming about every 3-4 minutes...so I woke up Chris, called my mom to come stay with Will, and we left for the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 3:15am and Reed was born at 5:21am! It went SUPER fast and I was kind of regretting wishing that he would come on his own. With Will, I labored all night (10pm until 7:23am) and it was easy. By the time it was time to push, I only had push a few times and Will was here. But since I progressed so fast with Reed, I was already dilated to a 9 by the time I got the epidural. Believe me, I was BEGGING for it long before I got it, but apparently it was a busy night and there were 4 people in line ahead of me to get an epidural. So I basically went through the worst part of labor naturally and the epidural did kick in a little by the time I was pushing, but I could still feel a lot. It never fully took effect...so that was kind of a bummer for me! So all that to say, that it was a totally different labor experience than what I had with Will and I was not expecting it to be that way at all! But we all survived!

Throughout my pregnancy I prayed and prayed that Reed would be a good eater because Will was not and that was really stressful for us for the first few weeks after he was born. Well, God answered my prayers and Reed has been a great eater and he is growing fast...again, unlike Will! Reed was already 8 pounds at 11 days old and seems to be getting bigger and bigger!

Reed is a really good baby. He sleeps a lot and really only cries when he is getting his diaper changed or getting a bath. He hates both of these things! He is also not a huge fan of being in the carseat. Once again, all of these things are different than Will. It is so funny how different they are already! Will loved the swing and the bouncer and while Reed will tolerate the bouncer, he isn't a fan of the swing at all. However, he will sleep in his cradle all day long...which is probably better anyway. We haven't moved him to the crib in his room yet because his room is right next to Will's room and I am terrified that Reed would wake Will up in the middle of the night. In my mind, there would be nothing worse than having both of them awake in the middle of the night and so far, it hasn't happened! :)

Most nights, Reed eats at 10 or 11 and goes right to sleep...then wakes up at 3am and goes right back to sleep and then he's up again at 6 or 7. Not too bad! I think Will only woke up once during the night when he was this age, but a lot of times it was hard to get him to go back to sleep. Reed pretty much goes right back to sleep very easily which is nice!

Will is really sweet to Reed and seems to really like being a big brother! However, it has definitely been an adjustment for him. Actually, we are all still adjusting to Will's new behavior. He seems to do a lot of things for attention now that he never did before. I'm sure it is normal...but it has been hard dealing with these new issues. I am just praying that we will all settle in soon and get adjusted to our new normal.

Well I guess I will stop rambling and post some pictures! We haven't decided if he looks like Will or not. At first, I didn't think he looked like Will much at all but then after we looked at Will's baby pictures, I started to think they do look alike. It will be interesting to see how Reed changes as he gets older.


First picture with mom and dad - only a few hours old!


Will meets Reed for the first time! Will was a little intimidated for a few minutes, but nothing a few donuts and pieces of chocolate couldn't fix! :)


So proud to be a big brother!


Hi Reed!


Sweet boy!


Daddy taking a picture of his boy.


Ready to go home.


First car ride.


Napping with dad.


First bath...notice Will plugging his ears.


Daddy with his boys!