But, I have better things planned....

Well, the toddler years are definitely upon us and the tantrums have begun.  So far, the tantrums only occur at diaper and clothes changes and when Little R either wants to go outside and can't or has to come inside after being outside.  My little boy is OBSESSED with the great outdoors.....I mean OBSESSED.  He would stay outside all day long if he could.  He never gets bored outside and does not need toys to entertain him.  I mean, who needs toys, when you have pine straw, bark, and sticks to play with?  Handling these tantrums is interesting at Little R's age.  We obviously want him to learn that tantrums are not appropriate, but I feel that the more important point at this age is for him to learn that throwing a tantrum does not warrant what he wants.  So, instead of "punishing" him in some way for throwing his mini, very short lived fit (which I am sure we will have to start doing in the near future), we just tell him sorry and just leave him in the spot where he is sitting on the floor and ignore it.

Yesterday, Little R and I went to visit Trey while he was working at The Coastal Empire Fair.  Reives loved looking at all of the people, rides, and animals.  I cannot wait to take him next year when he can ride some of the kiddie rides!  When we returned home, Little R apparently had in his mind that he would go straight from his car seat to play in the garage.  Dear ole Mama, however, had plans to take Little R in the backyard for some play time before dinner.  If Little R were old enough to verbalize his favorite place to play, it would most definitely be the backyard, but he does also enjoy pulling out his toys from the garage.  So, as soon as I walked into the house from the garage and set Little R down so I could put his jacket on him, he began to pitch one of his fits and point back at the garage.  I kept telling him that there was no need to cry and get upset because we were going to the backyard to play.  If he only knew what was coming, there would be "no fit to be had!"  When I picked him up and carried him to the backyard, he started laughing and smiling!  If only he had known all along what was coming!

This incident make me chuckle to myself, and I could not help but to think that this is how we oftentimes act with God.  He tells us "no" to something that we want....a job, promotion, material thing, new house, lifestyle, playing in the garage, etc.  We kick and scream and pitch a fit because we know it is what we will LOVE and what would make us happy and fulfill us.  I am sure God just smiles at us and thinks, "If only he/she knew what was coming, there would be "no fit to be had!"  Then, after we are done pitching our tantrum, He takes us by the hand and shows us His plan, which turns out to be far better than what we had wanted.  And then we realize that He had this plan in mind all along.  Thank you, Lord!

As I was thinking about all of this, a verse from Ephesians that I love came to my mind:

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us..."                        
Ephesians 3:20

Maybe next time I am pitching a fit because I did not get what I wanted, I will stop to think about what "immeasurably more" thing that God most definitely has in store!

New Tricks.....

Little R has been working on some new tricks this week!  I am determined to catch them on video, but of course he never does them when you want him to.  We were in the grocery store on Monday, and I said to Little R, "Ok, let's go get some bananas."  He pipes up with "anana" and points right at them!  He doesn't eat bananas all that much (they seem to stop him up if you get my drift), but I always talk about them at the grocery store when we buy them.  So, I guess "banana" is Little R's new word of choice.  He has said it repeatedly this week when we show him a banana or talk about them.  He also kept calling my apple a banana yesterday....we'll have to work on that one :)

His other new tricks involve sign language at meal times.  Throughout the past few months, I have showed Reives the signs for "more" and "all done" when we eat our meals.  All of a sudden this week, everything seemed to click.  He doesn't do the "more" sign as much, but he always does the "all done" sign when he is full or finished eating.  He also does the "all done" sign when I say "last bite."  It is too cute.  He doesn't do it exactly right, but he has come up with his own, cuter version.  If I get it on video, I will post it soon.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

18 Weeks

This past Monday, I hit the 18 week mark.  This pregnancy is going by so much faster than the last one, and I cannot believe I am almost to the halfway mark.  I feel little kicks and such everyday now, and Trey was even able to feel a few kicks the other day.  My belly is finally starting to show just a little, and I have had to start wearing some maternity clothes.  At my 17 week appointment, I had barely gained any weight, so I am working on eating more snacks throughout the day.  The doctor didn't say that I had not gained enough, but he said that I should be eating 15% more than I normally eat.  This proves a bit difficult with a busy one year old running around!  I barely remember to feed us our main meals....forget the snacks!  I still do not crave any one thing in particular, but my appetite is definitely starting to pick up.  I feel that I am a very picky eater when I am pregnant, and instead of everything tasting really good, some things that I normally like have no appeal to me whatsoever.  I go back to the doctor on November 1 for the big ultrasound.  The jury is still out as to whether we will find out the gender....tough decision!  Both ways seem fun!  I kind of think that it might be another boy (although I thought Reives was a girl almost the whole pregnancy), but Trey seems to think it is a girl.  We shall see!

Here is a picture of me at 18 weeks:

And, while I have been busy "growing" another baby, here is what Little R has been up to:

 Sleeping in the car in his big boy carseat

 Working on his first "art project" and attempting to eat crayons

 Pushing his car around the driveway

 Swinging at the park

 Studying other kids on the playground

And looking very cute!

Midnight Alarm and Superhero Daddy

Funny story....

I was sleeping like a rock last night due to this annoying cold I have.  Around 12:30, I heard Trey stirring and woke up to him looking at the monitor.  Then, I heard it....the sound of an alarm clock going off.  Little R has a small digital clock on his "nightstand," and I then remembered that he was trying to pull it off and play with it yesterday.  I guess the little guy somehow turned the alarm on.  The funny part was, he was fast asleep and never even stirred.  Superhero Daddy went in to turn it off, and then we all fell soundly asleep.......

Until.....

4:35 when Little R woke up crying :(  This rarely happens, and has only happened when he either has a cold or teething.  Superhero Daddy to the rescue again (I think he felt bad for me sniffing and snorting on the other side of the bed.)  Daddy changed the diaper, put on some socks, suctioned the nose, and gave Tylenol.....AND rocked little guy back to sleep and spent time rubbing his back one he laid him down (Little R is notorious for popping back up and crying all over again after you think he is asleep...we have learned this from his other middle of the night wakings.)  Superhero Daddy is my hero, too!!!

I think Little R is working on his eye teeth....I hear these can be painful!  Poor little guy :(  He sure seems fine, today, though!!

13 Months

Sorry this post is a week late!  On the 11th, Little R turned 13th months...I seriously cannot believe it.  At times I wish time would stand still and he could stay this age forever, but I also love watching him grow, change, and learn!  This is such a fun age because he is discovering so many new things, and we get to see more and more of his personality emerging.  However, we are definitely entering into the "toddler years" which  is definitely an interesting time.

Here are some of the things going on with the little man:

-We have almost completely transitioned from the liquid gold (his expensive formula) to whole milk.  He still gets about 5 oz of formula each day, but hopefully in a few more days, he'll be off of it completely.  He refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup, so he is still getting his bottle.  (We'll work on that later).  The whole milk has caused him to have some eczema on his legs, but it does not seem like anything too severe.

-Little R is on no schedule these days (which drives this mama crazy.)  His naps are hit or miss, and some days he will only nap for 45 minutes or an hour all day :(  (Doesn't give me much of a break.)  I hope this is just a phase as he seems to be in between 2 naps and 1 naps.  Occasionally, he'll take a 2 or 2 1/2 hour nap, but that is very rare these days.  If he takes a nap in the morning, I give him a rest time in the afternoon.  He never falls asleep, but at least he rests!!!

-We are starting to hear more and more words and gibberish from Little R.  He finally said "dada!"  So far, we have heard him say "mama," "dada," "bye bye," "amen," "Hank" (Trey's parent's dog) and some other words that resemble "ball," "tweet tweet," and "balloon."  He also saying alot of things that we have absolutely no clue as to what he is saying.

-He is pointing at everything and does the sign language sign for "all done" when he is finished eating.

-He tries to do the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and claps his hands to "If You're Happy and You Know It."

-He is a really good eater and eats most anything we give him.

-He is such a sweet little guy and is becoming more and more cuddly, which I LOVE!

-He has a shy face that he does now.  He puts his chin to his chest and does this really cute sheepish little smirk.

Here are some pictures of him at 13 months:

I could just eat him up!!!!!

VACATION....(warning-very long post!)

Sorry for the blogging hiatus.  We have been MIA for the past week, taking our first family vacation with the three of us!  Trey and I have tried to take a vacation each year, and I am so thankful that we ventured out and took Reives along with us this year.  Our vacation has changed a little from previous ones (cruise, Maine, DC, etc.), but we still had a BLAST!  Little R did way better than I thought that he would because we were on the road a good bit, and he missed a ton of naps.  He was a real trooper, and he only had one "melt down" on the last night when he had a hard time going to bed that night.  I was so proud of him :)

Here is a recap of the vacation:

We left last Friday afternoon for Athens.  We stayed with one of our good friends from college, Jennifer Whitaker, and then went to the Georgia game on Saturday.  It was a blast tailgating with some family friends, my parents, and my sister and brother in law.  It was a cold morning, but the day warmed up and was absolutely gorgeous.  Little R got a little overwhelmed at the noise and commotion at the beginning of the game because he was so tired, so we did a good bit of walking around the stadium during the first quarter.  After halftime, he was good to go, and he sat with us the whole time and cheered the Dawgs on to a victory!!!  After the game, we tailgeted a little more and then headed back to Jennifer's to put the little guy down and catch up with Jennifer.

On Sunday, we packed up and headed to Blue Ridge, GA to go to Mercier Farms.  They have a huge store with all kids of apple products and cool gifts.  Trey and I both got apple cider slushies...they were yummy!  We took a tractor ride up to the apple orchards and spent some time picking apples.  Little R had a great time, and we came home with a ton of apples.  Reives prefers his baked with some cinnamon.

We left the orchards, stopped by the grocery store to pick up our food for the next 3 days, and headed to my aunt and uncle's cabin near Blairsville, GA.  On Monday, we went for a very cold, early morning walk around a lake and then hiked a 4.25 mile trail at Vogel State Park that afternoon.  Trey carried Little R on his back.  It took us about 2 hours to hike the trail, and it was beautiful back in the woods.
Then, we found a picnic area to have our snack and let Little R stretch his legs after riding on Trey's back for 2 hours!

On Tuesday, we headed to Brasstown Bald and ate a picnic lunch.  We rode the shuttle up to the top of Brasstown Bald and spent some time taking in the view.  It was such a clear day that you could barely make out the skyscrapers of Atlanta in the distance.  We also visited the museum, and Little R loved seeing all of the animals and the big train.  And, he kept pointing at Smokey the Bear, so we had to get a picture with him.

We left there and headed to Helen, Ga.  Every time Trey and I go there, we leave asking ourselves why we event went there and vow that it will be our last time.  For some reason, we keep going back and leave asking the same question.  We did get ice cream, but we have no pics to show for it.

On Wednesday, we cleaned up the cabin and then headed to Atlanta to see Trey's brother, Adam.  We spent the afternoon at Piedmont Park, which is in midtown Atlanta, close to where Adam lives.

On Thursday, we headed to the Atlanta zoo.  It was so fun to watch Reives check out all of the animals.  I am so glad Uncle Adam was able to come with us because Trey started to feel bad and it turns out he got sick and ran a fever for 2 days :(

Friday, we got up and came home to unpack!  We were sad to see the vacation end, but there is no place like home!!!